20-05-2025
Suzan Craig Dunand and Marco Dunand
When Suzan Craig Dunand and Marco Dunand signed the Giving Pledge last year, the couple announced their intention to leverage the majority of their wealth to address biodiversity loss and climate change.
'If the planet becomes uninhabitable for humans, then there's no other more important issue,' says Marco, the co-founder and CEO of energy trading firm Mercuria Energy Group.
In 2022, the Dunands co-founded the nonprofit Villars Institute, which works with entrepreneurs, educators, researchers, and students to help drive the transition to a net-zero, nature-positive economy and come up with innovative solutions to counter climate change. 'Our focus on intergenerational education is vital because young people have been handed so many concerns, but not necessarily the tools to help address them,' says Suzan, founder and CEO of eco lab Tahi. 'The Institute is also very much about interdisciplinary collaboration, so taking people who normally don't work together and getting them to collaborate.'
The couple, who split their time between New Zealand and Switzerland, are also spearheading Silvania, an investment platform to help restore native forests and improve biodiversity worldwide. So far, the initiative has conserved 29 million hectares in more than 20 countries, but its goal for 2025 is saving Brazilian rainforests. In its first-ever major campaign, Silvania will match every metric ton purchased by a Brazilian state forest protection program with $1 of funding, up to $100 million.
