Biodiversity at LSE
LSE is a highly urban, central London campus. This limits the scale of biodiversity we can deliver, but it also creates an important opportunity. In dense cities, small, well-designed interventions can have a meaningful impact on wellbeing, climate resilience and awareness of nature.
Our focus is therefore on visible, practical initiatives that demonstrate why urban biodiversity matters and how it connects to global challenges such as climate change, public health and environmental justice. This approach reflects the international nature of our community, many of whom will go on to shape policy and practice in cities around the world.
Alongside our main campus, LSE also has stewardship of a larger site at our sports ground outside central London, which allows for a longer-term, land-based approach to biodiversity.
Our aim
We aim to enhance, conserve and monitor biodiversity across the School estate, including our main campus, halls of residence and our sports ground.
Our approach focuses on actions that can be delivered responsibly, maintained over time, and used to support learning, engagement and awareness of biodiversity in an urban setting.
Greening buildings and public space
Across the campus we use green infrastructure, including planting, green roofs and biodiverse roof spaces, to create habitat, support rainwater management and soften the built environment.
Supporting our urban pollinators; LSE Bees
LSE hosts urban beehives on campus, supported through staff and student involvement. The hives provide a highly visible way to engage the community in conversations about pollinators, food systems and biodiversity in cities.
The hives are managed with support from expert beekeepers at BeeUrban, working alongside the LSESU Beekeeping Society.
Find out more.
Growing food in the city
LSE supports small-scale food growing across parts of the estate, including roof terraces and selected halls of residence. These spaces allow staff and students to engage directly with food production in an urban environment, building awareness of sustainable food systems, biodiversity and seasonal growing.
Food growing initiatives are developed in partnership with student groups and societies, helping to ensure they remain inclusive and community-led. New growing projects are also popular within LSE’s Green Impact programme.
Where sport meets nature
Berrylands Sportsground offers a very different environment from the main campus and provides a real-world example of the challenges cities face in balancing people, sport and nature.
Set within open grassland, the site includes mature trees, some protected by Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs), and sits alongside the Hogsmill River, one of the UK’s rare and increasingly threatened chalk streams. Although many students will not visit the sports ground regularly, how this land is managed reflects wider global challenges around protecting water, biodiversity and soil health while meeting human needs.
LSE manages the sports ground to support high-quality sporting facilities while minimising environmental impact. This includes reducing water use where possible, protecting soil health and avoiding unnecessary chemical inputs, while maintaining the safety and performance standards required for sport.
Because the site sits within a connected river landscape, it is influenced by wider ecological pressures beyond LSE’s control. Like many sites along the Hogsmill, this includes the presence of invasive species such as Himalayan balsam and oak processionary moth. LSE works with partners to support appropriate monitoring, management and awareness over the long term.
The sports ground plays a complementary role to LSE’s central London campus, enabling longer-term land stewardship alongside the more visible, engagement-led biodiversity initiatives on campus.
Did you know?
Chalk streams like the Hogsmill are among the UK’s rarest river habitats and are particularly sensitive to pressures such as pollution, water abstraction and invasive species. Through partnerships with the South East Rivers Trust and neighbouring institutions, including Kingston University and King’s College London, there are opportunities to contribute to river and land stewardship activity linked to the sports ground.
What can I do?
Institutional design and land management shape most biodiversity outcomes at LSE. Individual actions matter most when they support and strengthen these systems.
You can contribute by:
- engaging with visible biodiversity initiatives on campus, such as planting, growing and seasonal projects
- using outdoor and green spaces respectfully so habitats can thrive alongside people
- taking part in student societies or events linked to nature, food growing and environmental resilience
- learning about urban biodiversity and how it connects to global environmental challenges
Research and teaching at LSE
LSE is internationally recognised for research and teaching that explores the social, economic and political dimensions of environmental challenges, including biodiversity loss.
Our campus activity is complemented by academic work on biodiversity from global, urban and policy perspectives, including:
- Protecting and enhancing nature and biodiversity
- Biodiversity, ecosystems and nature-related risk
- Urban green space, inequality, health and resilience