Elree Winnett Seelig

Elree Winnett Seelig is a Managing Director and Global Head of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) for Citi’s Markets business. Elree’s role at Citi gives little clue to her huge passion for the natural environment, and her desire to use her experience and position in the financial sector to foster positive change for biodiversity. CCI is absolutely delighted that, as a CCI Turner Fellow, Elree shared her knowledge, networks and ambition to drive change together with the CCI community.

During her year-long Fellowship, Elree met with members of the CCI community in a mutual sharing of expertise and experience, as well as hosting a series of events to explore various aspects of the financial sector and how this sector can, and does, interface with biodiversity. While these discussions were undoubtedly be wide-ranging, Elree’s broad focus during her Fellowship also included:

• Sustainable debt, with a particular consideration of matters relating to forest protection and habitat restoration
• Exploration of the role of corporate institutions and financial markets in landscape-scale conservation and restoration initiatives
• Identifying best practices for financial market engagement with the carbon market, advocacy (regulation), sustainability targets, etc.
• Biodiversity data and biodiversity-aware portfolio construction
• How to integrate ecosystem degradation considerations in investment decisions, starting with data and mapping to corporate activities
• The implications for biodiversity of the increasing number of high-level agreements and guidelines regarding sustainable investing by financial markets, such as the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation’s Adverse Impact Principles, the EU Taxonomy Minimum Safeguards, the Task Force for Nature-based Financial Disclosure, and the UN’s biodiversity plan and financial integration.

To ensure long-term impact and collaboration, each Turner Fellow will remain engaged in CCI’s work within their respective organisations, with the opportunity to continue to explore mutually beneficial ideas and projects.