Embedding Conservation in Business Strategy
Apply for the Executive Education program today
Turn the principles of conservation into a strategic advantage — and drive measurable impact.
Arizona State University recently launched Embedding Conservation in Business Strategy, an 8-week executive education program for founders, entrepreneurs and business executives who want to turn the principles of conservation into a strategic advantage that drives innovation, resilience, and long-term business value.
This course will equip business leaders to:
- Examine organizational relationship to nature and analyze actions and impact.
- Access conservation data to work with affected communities.
- Identify and strategize to overcome structural barriers to conservation.
- Leverage evidence-based models and case studies to engage in possibilities thinking.
- Identify and reflect on personal values and how they align to conservation principles.
- Develop a strategic plan for integrating conservation into organizational decision-making.
For executives navigating ESG pressures, resource constraints, and stakeholder expectations, this course offers a roadmap to move beyond greenwashing into authentic, measurable impact.
Course Details
- Cost: $1,500
- Duration: 8 weeks
- Start Date: August 25, 2025
- Weekly time commitment: 3-4 hours including scheduled sessions and course materials
- Live Zoom Session Schedule:
Please plan to join the weekly live Zoom sessions, held Thursdays from Noon to 1:00 PM (Arizona MST).
Only 50 spots available. Applications are being reviewed on a rolling basis and space is limited. If accepted, participants must commit to attending weekly sessions for the full duration of the course.
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Who is this program designed for?
Executives in sectors with ecological footprint (land, water, energy, biodiversity).
Senior business leaders across finance, energy, agriculture, infrastructure, real estate, and other sectors that are considered “conservation adjacent”
Managers with "ESG" or conservation-related responsibilities and who lack conservation training.
Business leaders seeking to align business strategy with conservation goals to create strategic advantage.
Corporate social responsibility and sustainability officers.
Instructors
Leah Gerber
Professor, School of Life Sciences and Founding Director, Center for Biodiversity Outcomes
Arizona State University
Leah Gerber
Professor, School of Life Sciences and Founding Director, Center for Biodiversity Outcomes
Arizona State University
Biography
Leah Gerber is a Professor of Conservation Science Founding Director of the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes at Arizona State University. Gerber’s research, teaching, and leadership advance the integration of science in decision processes to achieve sustainable biodiversity outcomes. Gerber leads a vibrant empirically-based research program that connects science to policies for sustaining global biodiversity. She has published more than 150 publications in leading scientific journals and a preeminent voice in international discourse about biodiversity policy and sustainable development. Gerber enjoys collaborating with non-academic sectors and has worked with the corporate sector in developing innovative methods of biodiversity conservation, such as conservation finance and corporate biodiversity accountability. She is fascinated by understanding pathways to coproduce impactful science and has a prolific and diverse record of editorials, commentary and position pieces. Topics range from economic approaches to investment in endangered species recovery to the marriage of business and ecology. Gerber recently served as a lead author of the UN Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Global Assessment, is a fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, the Ecological Society of America, and the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, and received the Spirit of Defenders Award for Science in 2022.
Christopher Barton
Assistant Director, Program Lead for Knowledge Innovation, Center for Biodiversity Outcomes
Arizona State University
Christopher Barton
Assistant Director, Program Lead for Knowledge Innovation, Center for Biodiversity Outcomes
Arizona State University
Biography
Chris J. Barton 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 research maps the politics of knowledge in global development and conservation, with the goal of enabling respectful and productive collaboration across cultures and knowledge systems. His geographic areas of focus include northern South America (especially Guyana), and Polynesia. He has written on how knowledge is used and produced in the discipline and profession of conservation, on how ideas which offer panaceas for difficult problems come to influence development policy, and about the role of Indigenous and local knowledge systems in addressing complex global challenges. Dr Barton also works in executive administration at ASU, helping manage ASU’s work in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. In this role, he works with community partners to advance navigation-based education and marine conservation initiatives.