Michael Vardon is Associate Professor of Environmental Accounting at the Australian National University's Fenner School of Environment and Society. His knowledge spans data collection and analysis, account compilation, and its application to public policy.

His initial career focused on animal population dynamics and wildlife management. This shifted to environmental accounting in 2000 when he moved to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), ultimately becoming the Director of the Centre of Environmental Statistics, a position he left in 2014, with secondments to the United Nations (2007-2009) and to the Bureau of Meteorology (2012-13) as an advisor on environmental accounting.

Dr Vardon has worked across the globe, assisting more than 30 countries with the production, application and evaluation of environmental accounts. Much of this work has been funded by the United Nations and World Bank's Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services ('WAVES') Global Partnership.