She helps bring "the people" into the conservation discussion and investigates social and political aspects of conservation decision making. Her group brings together experts in social science, ecology, physics, psychology and many other disciplines. Bekessy is a project leader in the Threatened Species Recovery Hub (Theme 6), and a theme leader in the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub of the Commonwealth Environment Science Program. She also acted as a theme leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (2012–2018;), and is a chief investigator with the Horizon2020 Urban GreenUP and the UN Habitat: Enhancing urban resilience to climate change impacts and natural disasters. Bekessy is also a member of the Environmental Decision Group and a member of the Green Building Council Expert Advisory Committee for Biodiversity and Ecology. Bekessy's work contributes to the development of collaborative solutions for conservation. Bekessy has published work on nature-based solutions for cities, such as urban pop-up parks for insect biodiversity and wildlife gardening, conservation of natural features, biodiversity and threatened species in cities. She has also published on technical and policy issues surrounding biodiversity conservation, including the integration of conservation and land-use planning in urban landscape design, the use of market-based instruments for biodiversity conservation, such as biodiversity banking or nature off-setting, population modelling, and climate change adaptation. Bekessy's work has included commentary on institutional change for sustainability and sustainability education, as well as science and conservation communication, including the impact of messaging to influence human behaviour, targeting high impact behaviour. Bekessy's work has contributed to the efforts toward “re-enchanting people with nature” and has been instrumental in the development of programs to reconnect children to everyday nature, biodiversity and cultural heritage. She is an advocate for increased transparency and evidence in biodiversity conservation strategy development, and for increasing and improving collaborative and interdisciplinary solutions for the environment. Bekessy's team has been involved in research to help shape future policy designed to improve landholder participation in, and collaboration on, private land conservation schemes. Some examples that Bekessy's team have helped influence include Greenfleet bio-carbon plantings, and reverse auctions in Western Australia. During her career Bekessy has published over 100 articles and conference proceedings, over a dozen book chapters, and has co-authored three books, including the children's book "The Little Things that Run the City: 30 amazing insects that live in Melbourne!" which was produced as part of the development of the City of Melbourne Urban forest and Nature in the City Strategies and has been used by children in Melbourne during Nature Play Week and in schools around Melbourne.