What a year! 1 new office, 5 new team members, 16 countries, and circa 5,648 cups of coffee later, we have reached our end-of-year reflection blog for 2024. From tackling big questions to making meaningful connections, this year has been a wild ride!
Projects and impact
One of our proudest achievements has been expanding our work across the Pacific. We’ve dived into everything from water catchment governance in Solomon Islands to exploring the exciting potential of voluntary carbon markets across Melanesia, and evaluating several Australia Awards programs being implemented in our region. Our team has embraced the complexity and delivered insights that matter.
This year also saw us get hands-on with some iconic Pacific staples: coconuts, cocoa, and coffee. Agricultural development projects like these are so rewarding because we get to engage with smallholder farmers and communities on the ground, investigating livelihood impacts and sustainability.
We’ve been racking up stamps on our (mostly virtual) passports too. This year we had projects that featured us or our partners in Australia, Bangladesh, Fiji, Indonesia, Kiribati, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. It’s been amazing to adapt, learn, and deliver impactful projects in such diverse contexts.
Our team had a growth spurt!
And what a year for our growing team! We welcomed five brilliant new colleagues who’ve brought fresh perspectives and energy to the mix. To recap, in reverse chronological order, we brought into the fold:
- Dr Veronica Doerr, Principal Consultant
- Dr Tess Newton Cain, Principal Consultant
- Ben Miqueu, Principal Consultant
- Bekah Baynard-Smith, Consultant
- Dr Dani Medina Hidalgo, Senior Consultant
Not a staged photo — just us at our team Debrief Day in early December
You may have caught our team at various events across the year. We’ve had a blast hosting our monthly SIDER Drinks with University House at ANU, and more recently loved attending the Australasian AID conference. We continued our close connection with ANU, with Tom Sloan partaking in mock interviews and lectures to support undergrads and Kate Lanyon shared her experiences in her own ANU talk.
Of course, none of this would have been possible without the amazing relationships we’ve nurtured—with clients, partners, and the communities we’re lucky enough to work alongside. These connections keep us grounded and inspired to do our best work.
Until next year…
The Sustineo office will be closed from COB today, 20 December 2024, reopening on Monday 6 January 2025. We look forward to seeing more of you in-person in 2025 — perhaps at our SIDER drinks… follow us on LinkedIn to know when the first of 2025 will be!
For more information on Sustineo’s work, feel free to reach out via email: enquiries@sustineo.com.au. You can also follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook.