Natural Catalysts 2026: Driving Racial Equity in Environmental Leadership

The environmental sector faces a persistent challenge: a lack of racial diversity in leadership roles. Despite growing awareness of diversity and inclusion, leadership teams often do not reflect the wider society they serve. This gap is not just about representation; it points to deeper issues in how leadership is defined, accessed, and practiced. To address this, the Natural Catalysts 2026 program has opened applications, aiming to foster racial equity and transform leadership within environmental organizations.

Understanding the Natural Catalysts Programme

Natural Catalysts is a 12-month leadership development initiative designed to create lasting systemic change in the environmental sector. It focuses on racial equity, leadership transformation, organizational change, and systems thinking. The program is a collaboration between Common Purpose and Makani Cambridge, with support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Unlike programs that focus solely on individual career growth, Natural Catalysts takes an ecosystem approach. This means it aims to influence individuals, organizations, leadership structures, sector-wide systems, organizational culture, and access to power and decision-making. The program’s design involved extensive research and co-creation with Global Majority Leaders, Senior Leaders, environmental organizations, equity practitioners, and community stakeholders.

The Importance of Addressing Racial Inequity in Environmental Leadership

The environmental sector has a history of underrepresentation of racial minorities in leadership. Organizers point out that this issue goes beyond talent shortages or recruitment problems. It is tied to how leadership is defined, how opportunities are shared, existing power structures within organizations, informal networks, visibility, and sponsorship. Systemic inequities play a significant role.

Natural Catalysts aims to challenge and change these ingrained structures. It recognizes that meaningful and lasting change requires organizational commitment, shared responsibility, collaboration across different levels, open discussions about race and power, and structural changes that go beyond symbolic gestures.

Programme Vision and Goals

The core vision of Natural Catalysts is to increase equitable leadership opportunities and support Global Majority Leaders. It seeks to encourage institutional accountability and shift the leadership culture within the environmental sector to build long-term systemic change. The program aims to move organizations from simply having representation to ensuring access and influence for diverse leaders. It also aims to transition from basic mentoring to providing sponsorship and increasing visibility, and from focusing on individual career progression to fostering collective transformation.

Who Can Participate in Natural Catalysts?

The Natural Catalysts program is open to organizations within the environmental sector. Each organization is invited to nominate a “duo” of participants to complete the program together.

Required Participant Structure

The program requires a specific participant structure to ensure organizational impact:

1. Global Majority Leader: This individual must be in a paid role, have lived experience of racialization in the UK, and identify within communities racialized as Black, Asian, Brown, or Arab. They should be operating at a mid-management level or above and actively navigating leadership pathways in the environmental sector.
2. Senior Leader: This individual must hold a paid senior role with significant decision-making power and influence over organizational direction. They should be part of the senior management or executive leadership team. Examples include CEOs, Directors, or Senior Management Team members. The program emphasizes that influence and strategic authority are more important than specific job titles.

An important rule is that a Global Majority Leader cannot participate without senior leadership involvement. However, if an organization does not currently employ a Global Majority Leader, a Senior Leader can participate independently. This structure is intentional to drive organizational change, not just individual development.

Additional Opportunity for HR and DEI Professionals

Organizations can also nominate professionals from Human Resources (HR), Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), or Learning and Development (L&D). These participants will join a dedicated Community of Practice, helping their organizations embed program learnings into policies, systems, and workplace culture.

What Participants Will Learn

The program delves into critical themes including leadership, race, power, equity, organizational systems, and community-centered change. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of power structures, explore leadership beyond traditional hierarchies, and learn from diverse lived experiences and roles. They will build supportive professional communities, strengthen their organizational influence, reflect on accountability and responsibility, and develop sustainable leadership practices.

Programme Structure and Components

Natural Catalysts is a 12-month program involving a total of 40 participants: 20 Global Majority Leaders and 20 Senior Leaders. The program combines in-person residential learning, online sessions, peer communities, collaborative reflection, leadership development, and systems-change approaches.

Programme Components

• Online Onboarding Session: The program begins with a two-hour online session to build initial connections, clarify expectations, and explore themes of leadership and systemic change.
• Global Majority Leaders Track: This specialized track includes a three-day in-person residential gathering for community building and leadership reflection, followed by a Community of Practice with ten one-hour sessions for peer support and collaborative learning.
• Senior Leaders Track: Senior leaders will engage in sessions focused on organizational leadership reflection, discussions on power and accountability, learning about influence and systems change, and cross-sector collaboration.
• Joint Learning Track: Participants from different leadership levels will learn together through shared discussions, collaborative exercises, and explorations of organizational change and leadership practice.
• HR, DEI, and Leadership Professionals Track: This specialized track supports professionals responsible for workplace culture, equity systems, inclusion practices, and leadership development frameworks.
• Final In-Person Gathering: The program concludes with a 24-hour residential gathering for participants to reflect on learning, share organizational insights, discuss change implementation, and celebrate their completion.

Time Commitment

The program requires a significant commitment to ensure meaningful participation and organizational engagement.

• Global Majority Leaders: Will commit to 4 in-person days and 18 hours of online sessions.
• Senior Leaders: Will commit to 20 hours of online sessions, 1 in-person day, and shadowing and visibility commitments.
• HR/DEI Participants: Will commit to 4 hours of online sessions.

Organizers emphasize that the program is designed to directly influence participants’ work, not to be an activity separate from their daily responsibilities.

Benefits of Participating

Natural Catalysts offers substantial benefits on personal, professional, and organizational levels.

Leadership Development

Participants will strengthen their strategic leadership skills, systems thinking, cross-boundary leadership abilities, and overall organizational influence.

Networking and Community

The program provides access to supportive peer networks, fosters cross-sector relationships, and builds collaborative learning communities.

Organizational Impact

Organizations can expect more inclusive leadership practices, stronger equity frameworks, improved representation pathways, and enhanced organizational reflection.

Exposure and Visibility

Participants gain increased visibility, opportunities for sponsorship, and access to influential spaces and networks.

Sector-Wide Transformation

Ultimately, the program contributes to more equitable environmental leadership, sustainable systems change, and greater racial representation in leadership roles across the sector.

Cost and Financial Support

The program fee is £500 for organizations that are able to pay. However, bursaries are available, and the organizers stress that financial limitations should not prevent organizations from applying.

Information Webinar

An information webinar will be held on June 23, 2026, from 12:00 to 13:00 BST via Zoom. This session will offer program insights, application guidance, and an opportunity for questions and discussion.

About the Organising Partners

Common Purpose is an international leadership development organization founded in 1989. It operates in over 100 cities globally, with more than 130,000 alumni. The organization focuses on developing cross-boundary leadership and supporting collaborative problem-solving across different sectors.

Makani Cambridge CIC is a community-rooted organization dedicated to racial equity, leadership, collective care, and community-led systems change. Since 2024, Makani has delivered over 70 programs and events, reaching more than 1,000 participants across the UK. Their work centers lived experience, community-rooted learning, and equity-focused systems change.

Deadline for Applications

The deadline for applications is midnight UK Time on Sunday, July 12, 2026. Interested organizations can find more information and apply through the official Common Purpose platform.

Frequently Asked Questions