Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute (LEEP)

About us

Who we are

Founded in 2016, LEEP is a thriving interdisciplanary research group, with core economic skills combined with expertise in natural, physical and social science, located within the University of Exeter Business School.

What we do

Deliver policy-focused academic research, outputs and tools that drive real world change, helping to solve local and global environmental challenges.

Crucially, LEEP integrates expertise from natural and physical science research within environmental economic analyses. This integrated approach means it is ideally positioned to advise on complex challenges such as sustainable food production, urban well-being, pollution and climate change. 

LEEP produces cutting-edge research across a variety of fields. Its work has been published in the likes of Nature Food, Nature Climate Change and the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. LEEP academics also speak regularly at high profile conferences.

It has also produced over 40 tools, models or products to empower land managers and policymakers to better understand the environmental consequences of their decisions.

Our impact

LEEP works closely with research users in government and business. It has made a notable impact on a number of projects, including:

  • Supported profound shifts in UK environmental and agricultural policy
  • LEEP tools have valued £100Ms of environmental benefit flows
  • Accelerated the adoption and application of the Natural Capital Approach
  • Embedded environmental value requirements into HMT spending guidelines determining £Billions of public investment annually
  • Designed ‘Payments for Ecosystem Services’ delivering over £500M of savings
  • More information on the SWEEP Impact Programme here