Mott MacDonald has appointed Julia Baker as head of nature services in the company’s environment and social business.

She will act as the lead for this dedicated range of services, helping clients integrate, protect and enhance the natural world on their developments. 

Baker will work with specialists from across the business to provide a consolidated service line to meet client needs, from strategic advisory to practical implementation of solutions. 

She will also collaborate with a wide range of organisations to bring nature into the mainstream within policy and practice, focusing on the fast-emerging approach of ‘nature positive’.

With more than 20 years’ experience working in the environment sector, Baker has a wealth of expertise in biodiversity net gain, ecosystem services and ecological mitigation, in both design and construction and has led a wide variety of biodiversity net gain projects across transport, energy and residential sectors.

A leading voice in the sector, she was recently named in the ENDS Power List 2022 of the top 100 UK environmental professionals who have made the greatest impact in the past two years. 

She is the lead author of the UK’s Good Practice Principles for Biodiversity Net Gain and runs a range of professional training courses for the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management.

She is also a visiting researcher at Oxford University, chair of the British Standards Group on Biodiversity and a director of the UK Business & Biodiversity Forum.

Baker said: “There has never been a more exciting time to be working in this field and I’m thrilled to have been appointed as head of nature services at Mott MacDonald. 

“The culture of the company is one that I’ve long admired and it’s fantastic to be a part of it. Their purpose resonates strongly with me in that the focus on environment and nature as a whole can no longer be an afterthought.

“If we want to affect real change, restoring and enhancing nature needs to be embedded into the decisions we make and the projects we deliver. It’s clear that this philosophy is central to Mott MacDonald.”

Lucy Morton, global practice leader for environment, added: “Nature services and nature-based solutions clearly align with our Mott MacDonald values. We have a unique offering, based on deep domain knowledge and the experience of integrating technical offerings into clients’ businesses in all sectors.

“All parts of our economies and societies are impacted by the increasingly vital role natural systems play in the response to climate change. Julia’s industry-leading knowledge and experience will give our clients access to best-in-class expertise and help them to adopt a nature positive approach to their activities.”