I am heading up a new biodiversity center called SEED that is being created in the Crowther Lab at ETH Zurich (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology).

We’re developing the world’s first globally standardized measure of biological complexity for any location on the planet. Called the SEED Index, it will enable governments, financial institutions and corporations to accurately quantify and value biodiversity, at scale. This is one of the most effective ways to incentivise the protection and regeneration of nature – by crystallizing its value in our economic system.

SEED will be the first to account for all scales of life’s complexity at a genetic, species and ecosystem level. Currently many metrics are highly simplistic and have perverse incentive structures, which distort restoration efforts and lead to worsened ecological outcomes. The widespread adoption of SEED’s index can help unlock significant finances for the regeneration of biodiversity, and will similarly act as the basis for sanctions on nature’s destruction.

The Crowther Lab is interdisciplinary team of scientists studying ecosystems at a global scale to understand the relationships between biodiversity and climate change. Our work is helping create the scientific foundation for ecosystem restoration, informing and empowering people to protect and restore Earth’s biodiversity to fight climate change and improve human well-being.