Recorded on 21/08/2026
Michael Howroyd has spent more than 30 years working across a diverse range of disciplines, from landscape gardening and green-keeping through to sustainability leadership and environmental management.
During his 21-year career at the University of Leeds, he has helped establish and lead several of the University's flagship sustainability initiatives, including its Environmental Management System, Blueprint programme, reuse@leeds and most recently, its biodiversity programme.
Now serving as Biodiversity Programme Lead, Michael is focused on rethinking how organisations approach nature recovery. Rather than seeing biodiversity as something delivered solely through habitat management, he champions a people-centred approach that encourages communities to become active participants in creating positive change for nature. His ambition is to demonstrate that lasting environmental impact comes not only from improving places for wildlife, but from inspiring people to value, understand, and champion their natural world.
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Michael’s trying to get organisations across Leeds to record the wildlife they encounter over a particular weekend in April 2027 for The City Nature Challenge. Leeds is one of the few UK cities not participating and Michael wants to put us firmly on the map!
Michael provided me with an MS Form that you can complete to get involved Leeds City Nature Challenge 2027 – Fill in form
Share it around, if that’s okay.
You can find out more about Michael’s work at:
Uni of Leeds Sustainability Service on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/university-of-leeds-sustainability-service/posts/?feedView=all
Uni of Leeds Sustainability Service on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uol_sus
You can contact Michael at:
Sustainability Service email: [email protected]
Biodiversity email address: [email protected]
Sign the petition and join the campaign against the Leeds Hyperscale Datacentres: https://noleedsdatacentre.wordpress.com/
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