Nature Risk and Enterprise Strategy

Nature affects supply chains, operations, investment decisions and long-term business performance. This course gives leaders a practical way to identify where their organizations depend on and affect nature, assess the risks and opportunities those relationships create and bring that information into business decisions.

Executive education
October 14 to December 2, 2026

Seven weeks
Online cohort
Six live sessions
Self-directed in between
About 15 hours
Built for working leaders
35 learners
Capped cohort

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Overview

Every organization depends on nature, priced or not

Water, land, healthy ecosystems and other natural resources affect what a business produces, where it operates, what it sources and how reliably it can deliver. Those relationships rarely appear on a balance sheet, which is what makes them easy to miss and costly to ignore.
This course helps leaders find those connections and bring them into the way their organizations think about risk, strategy and performance. It is an enterprise strategy course rather than a sustainability course, and it is built for people who already work in the language of materiality, exposure and continuity of supply.

You apply the work to your organization as you go. By  the end you have completed a first-pass nature assessment  using the TNFD LEAP approach, ready to build on.

The October cohort application is open

Applications are reviewed by the instructional team. Seats are limited to 35 for the session starting October 14. Request info Apply now

What you will learn

Four things you will be able to do afterward

Find where nature matters to your organization
Map dependencies and impacts within a scoped part of your organization and connect them to business performance.
Assess risks and opportunities
Determine which nature-related issues are material to your sector and what they mean for strategy and decisions.
Translate nature into business language
Connect dependencies and impacts to organizational risk, financial considerations and the priorities of senior decision makers.
Move from assessment to action
Recommend strategic responses and produce a first-pass TNFD LEAP assessment your organization can build on.

What the course covers

Five modules, in sequence

New perspectives on nature

Nature, natural capital and ecosystem services through the lens of organizational strategy.

Building relationships with place and people

The social and ecological systems in which organizations actually operate.

Mapping dependencies and impacts

Where your organization depends on nature, and where its activities affect it.

Assessing risks and opportunities

Which dependencies and impacts matter most for your organization and sector.

Responding and reporting

Strategic responses, reporting expectations and communicating nature-related information to different audiences.

Who it is for

Built for leaders who can put this knowledge to work

Mid-to-senior and executive leaders who influence decisions involving strategy, risk, finance, reporting, operations, procurement, investment or sustainability. It is most relevant to organizations whose success depends on land, water, biodiversity, agriculture, natural resources, infrastructure, sourcing or nature-exposed financing.

Strategy

Finance

Sustainability

Operations

Enterprise risk

Supply chain

Consulting

Course design and instruction

Faculty who bridge business and nature

Faculty guidance and peer discussion run through the course. The cohort itself spans strategy, finance, risk, sustainability, procurement and operations, so the discussion carries as much sector range as the material.

Chris Barton Course faculty

Chris is the Assistant Director of the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes and Assistant Research Professor within the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. His geographic areas of focus include northern South America (especially Guyana), and Polynesia.

Bruno Sarda Course designer and faculty

Bruno is a sustainability and ESG executive with 20+ years experience operating at the forefront of social and business transformation. He helped establish and scale sector-leading sustainability and ESG programs at two Fortune 500 companies and a global environmental non-profit.

Kevin O'Donnell Course designer and instructor

Kevin has led enterprise sustainability, sustainable sourcing, decarbonization, circularity, regenerative agriculture, responsible supply chains, and resource efficiency work across major companies including Walmart, Nike, General Mills, Dairy Farmers of America, and Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits.

Course details

Dates, format and how to apply

October 14 to December 2, 2026
Online, with six scheduled live sessions and self-directed learning in between
About 15 hours across seven weeks
$950 tuition
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Up to 35 learners

Request Info Apply now

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