Lucy Treasure

Dr Lucy Treasure

Lancaster University

Lucy is an interdisciplinary Environmental Scientist based at Lancaster Environment Centre and the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business. Her research explores how businesses engage with ecosystem restoration and how these initiatives can deliver meaningful benefits for nature and society. Lucy joined LEC Reefs in 2026 after completing her PhD at Lancaster University, where she investigated the ecosystem impacts of ground-mounted photovoltaic solar farms. Her work focuses on close collaboration with industry and stakeholders, and she has co-developed practical guidance to support more effective monitoring and reporting of nature-related impacts and investments at solar farms.

Research Interests

Lucy’s PhD research examined the interactions between renewable energy systems and the hosting ecosystem, including how solar farms influence ecosystem services, soil health, and vegetation quality, including implications for grazing livestock.

During postdoctoral research at University of York, she expanded into corporate sustainability, co-developing ecological indicators to help solar farm stakeholders monitor and report on nature-positive investments. At the Pentland Centre, her work has further explored the application of Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) indicators in corporate nature reporting.

Lucy’s current research focuses on how to robustly quantify the impacts of business-led ecosystem restoration initiatives, with the aim of ensuring that corporate action delivers measurable, lasting benefits for both nature and people.

Selected Publications

Treasure L, Sharp SP, Smart SS, Parker G, Armstrong A (2025) Global assessment of solar park impacts on ecosystem services. Progress in Energy 7: 032002.
Treasure ., Harrison LJ, Hudson P, You JJ, Hawkins D, Grier R, Lee HK, Armstrong A, White PCL (2024) Nature Positive solar investment: industry guidance. London, UK: NextEnergy Capital and the University of York. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license CC BY 4.0.
Carvalho F, Treasure L, Robinson SJB, Blaydes H, Exley G, Hayes R, Howell B, Keith A, Montag H, Parker G, Sharp SP, Witten C, Armstrong A (2023) Towards a standardized protocol to assess natural capital and ecosystem services in solar parks. Ecological Solutions and Evidence 4: e12210.
Carvalho F, Lee H K, Blaydes H, Treasure L, Harrison LJ, Montag H, Vucic K, Scurlock J, White PCL, Sharp SP, Clarkson T, Armstrong A (2024) Integrated policymaking is needed to deliver climate and ecological benefits from solar farms. Journal of Applied Ecology 00: 1–8.