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Natural Catalysts
Reimagining Leadership in the Environment Sector
Natural Catalysts brings together Global Majority Leaders and Senior Leaders to explore and shift how leadership is accessed, practised, and sustained. A 12-month programme by Common Purpose and Makani Cambridge, it is for environment organisations that are committed to taking meaningful steps towards lasting change.
The environmental sector continues to fall short on racial representation in senior leadership. Natural Catalysts was created to change that. It builds on a sector-wide research and co-design process led by Makani Cambridge and Common Purpose, in partnership with Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
Natural Catalysts responds to a persistent gap in the environmental sector. Racial representation in senior leadership remains significantly lower than in the wider workforce and society.
This is more than a question of talent or pipeline. It is shaped by how leadership is defined, how opportunities are distributed, and how power operates within organisations and across the sector.
The programme builds on insights from a year-long research and co-design process with Global Majority Leaders and Senior Leaders. It brings together people working at different levels of the system to engage with these realities directly, and to begin shifting them. Rather than focusing on individuals alone, Natural Catalysts takes an ecosystem approach, working across leaders, organisations, and the wider sector to create more equitable, visible, and sustainable pathways into leadership.
To find out more about the co-design of Natural Catalysts, and why an ecosystem approach is essential for shifting leadership in the sector view the report and webinar here
"The Natural Catalysts Programme brings a refreshing approach to addressing the lack of leadership diversity in the environmental sector. By focusing on organisational commitment, with senior leaders and Global Majority leaders engaging together, it creates the conditions for more meaningful and sustained change. It’s an important opportunity to shift how leadership is understood and practised across the sector."
Who is it for?
Natural Catalysts is for organisations across the environmental sector that are committed to taking meaningful steps towards lasting change.
We are inviting organisations to apply, nominating a ‘duo’ of participants to take part in the programme together:
A Global Majority Leader, in a paid role, with lived experience of racialisation in the UK, referring to individuals who are racialised as Black, Asian, Brown or Arab in the UK context, operating at mid-management level or above and navigating leadership pathways within the sector.
A Senior Leader, in a paid role with significant decision-making power and influence within the organisation. For example, CEOs or members of a Senior Management Team. We recognise that leadership titles and structures vary across organisations. What matters is the level of influence, decision-making power, and ability to shape organisational direction.
This duo is central to the programme because it creates the conditions for learning to move beyond the individual and into organisational practice.
An organisation may send a Senior Leader on their own if they do not currently have a Global Majority Leader in their team. However, a Global Majority Leader cannot participate without senior leadership involvement.
This programme is designed for active participation. We are looking for organisations and participants who are:
- Willing to engage honestly with questions of power, race, and leadership
- Open to learning across difference, lived experience, and role
- Committed to reflecting on their own practice and influencing change within their organisation.
Organisations must be ready to actively support participation, including creating space for attendance, reflection, experimentation, and change over the course of the programme.
Why take part?
Natural Catalysts is not designed to develop individuals in isolation. Instead, it is designed to shift how leadership operates across the sector.
Participants will:
- Deepen their understanding of how power operates within organisations and across the sector, and how it shapes access to leadership
- Build relationships and supportive communities across roles, organisations, and lived experiences, reducing isolation and strengthening collective support
- Develop their capacity to lead beyond formal authority and hierarchies, working across boundaries of role, organisation, and sector
- Gain leadership insights through access to spaces, networks, and decision-making processes that are often informal or closed
- Strengthen their ability to influence organisational culture, practices, and pathways into leadership
- Engage in honest reflection on leadership, responsibility, and accountability, within a supported and challenging environment
- Contribute to shaping and inspiring more equitable and sustainable leadership pathways for others across the sector
Natural Catalysts supports a shift from:
representation
access and influence
mentoring
sponsorship and visibility
individual progression
collective and systemic change
"The Natural Catalysts Programme stands out because it has been shaped through listening, co-design and lived experience. It recognises that Global Majority professionals are not a single group with one shared experience, and that meaningful change requires more than good intentions. This programme is crucial because it moves beyond conversation and creates the conditions for more inclusive, accountable and representative leadership across the profession."
How will it work?
Natural Catalysts is a 12-month programme bringing together a cohort of 40 participants:
20 Global Majority Leaders
20 Senior Leaders
Alongside this, organisations can nominate a professional from Human Resources (HR), Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) or Learning and Development (L&D) teams to participate in a dedicated Community of Practice for professionals working in this field.
The programme is designed as an ecosystem, with multiple interconnected tracks that work together to shift leadership at the individual, organisational, and sector levels.
Onboarding
The programme begins with a 2-hour online onboarding session bringing all participants together to:
- Build initial connections
- Set expectations and commitments
- Introduce the core themes of power, leadership, and systemic change.
This track centres leadership development grounded in lived experience, community, and collective learning.
It includes:
In-person residential:
- A 3-day residential gathering focused on connection, building personal and collective leadership and reflection
Community of Practice:
- Ten sessions (1 hour each)
- A peer-led space for ongoing support, learning, and sense-making.
Senior leaders will engage in a structured learning journey focused on how power operates and how it can be used differently.
This includes:
Three online modules (2 hours each):
- Power, Privilege and Accountability
- Re-thinking Power Dynamics
- Sponsorship and Ownership
Community of Practice:
- Six sessions (1 hour each)
- A peer-led space to reflect, challenge, and translate learning into organisational practice.
Practical commitments:
In addition to participation in the programme sessions Senior Leaders commit to:
- Provide at least one substantive shadowing opportunity, offering meaningful exposure to senior leadership spaces, such as strategy discussions, decision-making forums, or governance settings. Where possible, this should be offered to a Global Majority participant beyond their organisational duo, to support wider access and cross-cohort learning.
- Provide one meaningful visibility opportunity, for example access to senior networks, forums, or platforms where influence and relationships are built. This should be offered to a Global Majority participant beyond their organisational duo to support wider access across the cohort.
Participants from both tracks come together through a series of shared modules.
There are five modules (2 hours each), and participants are required to attend a minimum of three.
Modules include:
- Leading Beyond Authority (Part 1 and 2)
- Cultural Intelligence (Part 1 and 2)
- Systems Change and Influence.
These sessions create space for cross-role dialogue, shared learning, and deeper engagement with leadership beyond authority and hierarchies.
Organisations can nominate a professional in this field, or the Senior Leader from that organisation can join this track.
This track includes:
- Four Community of Practice sessions (1 hour each)
It focuses on:
- aligning organisational practice
- sharing approaches across organisations
- embedding learning into systems and structures.
Final Gathering
The programme concludes with a 24 hour in-person gathering bringing all participants together to:
- reflect on learning, change, and actions
- share insights across the cohort
- mark the completion of the programme
Time Commitment
- Global Majority leaders: 4 days in person, 18 hours online
- Senior leaders: 20 hours online, 1 day in person, plus shadowing and visibility commitments
- HR/DEI participants: 4 hours online
This is not designed to fit around the edges of your work. It is designed to influence it.
"We are delighted to support the Natural Catalysts Programme and are excited by its potential. Greater diversity in leadership is essential if the environmental sector is to better reflect and serve our communities. This programme has the potential to catalyse the kind of structural shifts needed to turn that ambition into reality."
We would like to thank Esmée Fairbairn Foundation for their generous support for Natural Catalysts.
Next Steps
Applications now open
Deadline for applications: The deadline for applications is midnight UK time on Sunday 12 July 2026.
Information Webinar: We will be holding an information webinar where you can find out more about the Programme and discuss with us how it works. This will be held on 23 June at 12:00 BST. If you would like to attend, please register using the links below:
23 June 2026, 12:00 – 13:00 on Zoom
Programme Schedules: Details of the Programme schedules are available here for Global Majority Leaders, Senior Leaders and HR, DEI and Leadership Professionals.
Cost: There is a fee of £500 for organisations who can pay. Bursaries are available and ability to pay should not prevent any organisations from applying.
Contact us
If you would like to discuss the programme with one of team, please get in touch with us. Do let us know if you are planning to apply. Natural Catalysts is a pilot this will help us to gauge interest in the programme.
About the Partners
Common Purpose
Common Purpose is a leadership development organization that specializes in cross-boundary leadership. A not-for-profit, we run programmes in over 100 cities worldwide. Founded in 1989, we have over 130,000 alumni globally. Our leadership development programmes inspire and equip people to work across boundaries. This enables them to solve complex problems in organizations and in society.
Makani Cambridge
Makani Cambridge CIC is a community-rooted organisation advancing racial equity through leadership, collective care, and community-led change.
Makani works across grassroots and systems levels, translating community-rooted insight into strategic learning that institutions and funders can act on. Our approach is co-designed, power-aware, and grounded in lived experience, particularly with Global Majority communities and people navigating migration and marginalisation. Since 2024, Makani has delivered over 70 programmes and events across the UK, reaching more than 1,000 participants.
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