Dear SEI Community,

As we move further into 2025, SEI continues to foster critical conversations and collaborations on environmental justice, biodiversity, and climate action.

Partnerships are an important part of our impact, and our role in engaging communities and building public trust. One such partnership, our work with AECOM, a global infrastructure consulting firm, will be featured at the University’s Partnership for Good event on 9 April. Alice Simpson-Young, a past SEI Honors Fellow and now Principal Consultant on Sustainability and Resilience at AECOM, will be discussing SEI's work on resilience, social infrastructure, and nature-based solutions with other University partners and VP External Engagement Kirsten Andrews.

Also starting this month, SEI’s 2025 Public Panel series on Environmental and Climate Justice will explore the urgent intersections of climate action, equity, and systemic change. As climate, housing, and social justice crises escalate, the challenge is not whether we act, but how we do so in ways that are just, inclusive, and transformative. These discussions will examine how to balance urgency with trust-building, rethink governance to include more-than-human voices, critically assess what ‘nature positive’ means for conservation, and explore alternatives to growth-driven economies. Read more about our first panel, Climate justice in the midst of climate turbulence on Monday 28 April and register below.

Finally, many of you will have heard that University budget cuts have impacted SEI, including the loss of our Communications Officer position. This will be the final newsletter that Catarina Agostino produces before she leaves us this month. I just want to give my heartfelt thanks to Cat for being such an incredible, productive, efficient, and effective voice for the Institute. We will all miss her as part of the team. SEI newsletters will transition to quarterly editions from May 2025, while we aim to ensure we bring you meaningful updates in a sustainable way.