Davos, Switzerland | January 2026
As part of Smart Cities Council's delegation to WEF Davos 2026, SCC continues its Women Leading the Way series by spotlighting women who are not only advancing innovation, but ensuring it delivers measurable impact for cities and communities.
This feature highlights Abby Seneor, Founder of Treelyon, whose work sits at the intersection of climate intelligence, digital infrastructure, and decision-making, where sustainability ambitions are either realised or remain unrealised.
With a background in technology - having served as CTO in AI scale-ups and recognised among the leading women in AI, Abby has built her career bridging worlds. Now, she is applying that expertise to one of the most complex challenges of our time: making the natural world computable.
Across cities globally, climate targets, net-zero commitments, and resilience strategies are now widespread. What remains far more challenging is translating these commitments into actionable, data-driven decisions that can be implemented at scale.
Abby's leadership focuses squarely on this gap: transforming complex environmental data into practical intelligence that enables governments, developers, and investors to act with confidence.
Speaking at the Climate Hub in Davos on building smart technology for resilient food systems, Abby drew on David Foster Wallace's famous parable "This Is Water" - the story of two young fish who swim past an older fish who asks, "How's the water?" They swim on, then one turns to the other: "What the hell is water?"
"The planet is our water," Abby reflected. "We're so immersed in it that we've stopped seeing it. Trees are everywhere; in our cities, surrounding our farms, lining our infrastructure, yet we treat them as background rather than foundation."
Through Treelyon, Abby is building the intelligence layer that makes nature visible, verifiable, and valued. The platform transforms how cities and organisations understand their environmental assets - moving from fragmented data to dynamic insight, from static inventories to living infrastructure that can be managed, protected, and invested in.
Her approach reflects a broader shift in how transformation is delivered. Rather than treating sustainability as a standalone agenda, she integrates it into planning, investment, and governance frameworks - ensuring environmental performance becomes a core operational metric.
In an era shaped by AI, digital twins, and real-time analytics, her work shows how technology can empower smarter climate decisions - when it is grounded in accuracy, usability, and public trust.
At WEF Davos 2026, her contribution reinforced a central theme across SCC's programme: sustainability is no longer about aspiration. It is about execution, transparency, and accountability.
As part of the Smart Cities Council delegation in Davos, Abby represents a new generation of leaders shaping the future of climate-ready cities - where innovation serves communities, ecosystems, and long-term prosperity.
Her leadership reinforces a defining message of SCC's presence at WEF Davos 2026: the cities that thrive in the decades ahead will be those that combine digital capability with environmental intelligence, and ambition with execution.
SCC celebrates the women who are not only breaking barriers but building the systems that make transformation real.
Media interested in attending or scheduling interviews should contact:
Karen Norden karen.norden@smartcitiescouncil.com
About Smart Cities Council
Smart Cities Council is a global network of cities, governments, technology leaders, investors, and solution providers dedicated to enabling city and community transformation through governance, finance, technology, and partnerships that deliver measurable outcomes.
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