Dr. Michael Vardon is a world-leading scholar researching and teaching natural capital and ecosystem services accounting and applying it to decision-making in the public and private sectors. His knowledge of environmental accounting spans the collection of basic data, account compilation, analysis and indicators and key policy areas like biodiversity conservation and water management. His initial career focused on animal population dynamics and wildlife management. This shifted to accounting in 2000 when he moved to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). At the ABS he worked on many environmental topics, becoming the Director of the Centre of Environment and Energy Statistics in 2005, a position he left in 2014, with secondments to the National Water Commission (2006), United Nations (2007-2009) and the Bureau of Meteorology (2012-13). He was a member of the Editorial Board of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting ('SEEA') of the United Nations and the Policy and Technical Expert Committee of the World Bank’s Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (‘WAVES’) Global Partnership.

Dr. Vardon is currently serving on the Australian Government’s Technical Advisory Panel on Environmental-Economic Accounting, assisting the World Bank’s Global Sustainability Program, actively participating in the London Group on Environmental Accounting, a Reviewer of the IPBES Business and Biodiversity Initiative, and a member of the expert group updating the SEEA Central Framework.