About Us

Who we are

The Landscape Institute (LI) is the Royal Chartered body for the landscape profession and an educational charity promoting the art and science of landscape practice. It is a membership organisation of over 5,700 with a turnover of around £2.3 million.

The LI’s aim, through the work of our members, is to protect, conserve, and enhance the natural and built environment for the public benefit. The LI provides a professional home for all landscape practitioners, including landscape scientists, landscape planners, landscape architects, landscape managers, and urban designers.

The landscape profession is as diverse and dynamic as the landscapes we create and transform. This means we understand the whole lifecycle of planning, creating, and managing a wide range of landscapes and habitats. We also understand the crucial role that landscape and nature must play at this moment in human history: in addressing climate change and nature loss; in creating a new, more sustainable economy; and in delivering health, wellbeing, and culture for people from all walks of life.

Our values and current priorities

All members are expected to work in accordance according to our values of being:

1. Caring and nurturing
2. Creative and passionate
3. Socially and environmentally aware.

Supporting our members and promoting the profession

The LI provides direct support to our members through advocacy programmes, events, and numerous networking activities where they can meet members of other professions and exchange ideas and knowledge. Every member has the opportunity to join a local branch; there are nine regional branches in England and three for each of the devolved nations of Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

In 2020, we launched LI Campus, the first ever online learning service for the landscape profession. Continuing with our digital transformation, we will soon be rolling out LI Connect, a brand-new digital platform that will make it much easier for members to set up informal networks and discussion groups.

Professional accreditation and standards

Through our Pathway to Chartership, the LI provides professional accreditation to our members. The internationally recognised post-nominal CMLI (Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute) is a mark of excellence that tells prospective clients and employers that a landscape practitioner meets the highest standards of education, practice, and professional integrity.

Policy development and Influence

The LI works with governments and policymakers in legislative areas where landscape can make the biggest difference: planning and infrastructure, health and wellbeing, inclusive and sustainable environments, quality of life, and more. Through our policy and influencing activity, we empower our membership to collectively speak up on the issues that are most important to them.

Celebrating success

The LI champions the great work of our members through the press, broadcast and digital media, along with our events and exhibitions. One of the biggest events in the landscape industry is our annual Landscape Institute Awards, which celebrate the value of landscape interventions of all types and scales in connecting people, place and nature. Our ever-expanding case study library is a collection of contemporary landscape projects, ranging from small neighbourhood-level schemes to world-renowned sites such as the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Collaborating with our volunteers

Our CEO will lead a small but passionate staff team. But the LI is first and foremost an organisation of members, and it’s the work of our members that enable us to do what we do. From the examiners, mentors, and supervisors on our Pathway to Chartership, through our local branch committees, to the participants in our standing committees, technical working groups, and many more, our hundreds of skilled, dedicated volunteers are instrumental to our on going success.