Betty Seto

With over 20 years’ experience implementing decarbonization solutions with local governments, utilities, regional, state and federal agencies, Betty Seto currently works as NRDC's institutional lead for Strategy, Planning & Operations. Prevously, Seto supported the Resilient Communities team to focus on advancing holistic climate policies that center the needs of historically underserved communities, BIPOC communities, and environmental justice communities. The Resilient Communities team sought to make lasting and far-reaching progress on climate change by forming inclusive partnerships and coalitions to drive wide-ranging and effective change, explicitly designed to benefit people in the places they work and live. Seto led the alignment of the Resilient Communities team with institutional priorities, including planning and prioritization of workstreams, reviewing existing projects and staffing, assessing capacities and needs, and identifying new opportunities/new project development. She supported the matrixed team in defining and developing internal collaboration structures, overseeing the overall divisional budget, and implementing equity accountability structures.

In addition to most recently supporting the Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge, her past work experience includes more than a decade in consulting with DNV GL, as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA Region 9) and World Resources Institute, where she focused on developing the business case for energy efficiency and renewable energy as a cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions reduction strategy. She holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Rice University and a master’s in environmental science and management from the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Bren School. She is based in NRDC’s San Francisco office.