We recently talked to tutor Rhian Sherrington about a new immersive course planned at CAT that aims to empower women working in sustainability to lead on creating change. 

This July, CAT will host Leading with Nature: Regenerative Leadership for Women, a new three‑day immersive course created in partnership with leadership trainer and executive coach Rhian Sherrington, founder of the Women in Sustainability Network. 

At a time when the world urgently needs leaders who can navigate complexity with empathy, clarity and courage, many women working in sustainability and impact-focused roles are feeling the strain. Their work is deeply meaningful, but the systems around them often make that work far harder than it should be. 

Q: How did this course come about? 

For over twelve years, I’ve worked closely with women who are dedicating their careers to sustainability, climate action, environmental protection and social impact. Across that time, I’ve witnessed something striking, women are profoundly driven to create change, yet the systems they work within often make that change far harder than it needs to be. 

Leadership, despite progress, is still a gendered experience. Women encounter barriers that are both visible and invisible, from balancing workload and caring demands to navigating unconscious bias and a persistent authority gap. What I see, again and again, is that women working to advance sustainability frequently do so with low budgets, limited resources and high expectations. Much of their influence comes not from positional power but from persuasion,  relationship building and emotional labour. 

At the same time, these women carry a deep awareness of the climate and biodiversity crises unfolding around us. They understand the urgency. They feel the weight of it. This combination of responsibility, urgency and limited resourcing creates a unique toll, one that often goes unrecognised. 

Q: How can we change our understanding of what leadership looks like? 

Much of the struggles faced by women in leadership stem from the leadership models we’ve inherited. Many of our dominant approaches to leadership have been shaped by extractive thinking, with an emphasis on competition, hierarchy, speed and control. These approaches are increasingly misaligned with the challenges we now face. 

Research shows what many of us intuitively understand, that the leadership qualities needed for a thriving, resilient future includes empathy, compassion, agility, deep listening and systems thinking. These are human skills, not gendered ones, but many women have developed them through lived experience and socialisation. 

Too often, these strengths have been dismissed as ‘soft skills’ or seen as less valuable than more traditional command-and-control styles. Yet they are precisely the skills required to navigate uncertainty, build trust, and lead transformative change. 

When women are able to lead as themselves, not squeezing into a mould that was never designed for them, and when leadership teams are genuinely diverse, organisations listen better, collaborate better and avoid the pitfalls of groupthink. 

This is not about pitching women against men. It is about recognising that our current structures were designed under a narrow worldview, and that we now need leadership that reflects the complexity of the systems we’re working to transform.

Q: Why Regenerative Leadership? 

To move forward, we need to shift from extractive to regenerative leadership – leadership that renews rather than depletes, that supports long-term impact rather than short-term wins. 

Regenerative leadership asks us to recognise ourselves as part of living systems. It invites us to pay attention to patterns, relationships and interdependence. It encourages us to lead in ways that are sustainable not just for our organisations but for ourselves. 

One of the most damaging leadership myths we still carry is the idea that nature is ultimately competitive. But when we look closely at ecological systems, we find that competition is only one small part of the story, and mostly visible in early stages of succession. Healthy ecosystems are defined by collaboration, diversity and connectivity. 

A forest does not thrive because one tree dominates; it thrives because each tree finds its niche within a wider web of relationships. 

This is the inspiration behind Leading with Nature. It is an invitation to reimagine leadership by learning from nature’s own regenerative intelligence. 

Q: Why is this course only aimed at women? 

Systemic change will not be driven by women alone. Meaningful transformation requires leadership from all genders. But women-only spaces remain essential because they create psychological safety. They allow women to explore lived experiences, examine internalised patterns, build confidence and develop new language for their leadership, free from scrutiny or judgement. 

Over the past twelve years, I have seen how transformative this can be. When women come together in supportive, purposeful environments, they leave with a stronger sense of clarity, courage and direction. They return to their workplaces better equipped to influence culture, find allies and create change from within. 

What to Expect from the Course 

Leading with Nature: Regenerative Leadership for Women, developed with CAT, is designed for mid-senior and senior women working in sustainability, climate, environment and social impact. 

Over three days, we will: 

• immerse ourselves in nature to reconnect with our own inner resources 
• explore in practical ways what regenerative leadership looks like 
• unpack challenges relating to authority, urgency, invisible labour and over-responsibility 
• use systems-thinking tools such as TetraMap to understand patterns in ourselves and our teams 
• work with real situations brought by participants 
• build community with peers who share similar pressures and purpose 

The intention is for each woman to leave with renewed energy, greater clarity, and practical tools to influence their organisational cultures more effectively,  while resourcing themselves more sustainably. 

This course brings together more than a decade of insights from the Women in Sustainability Network, alongside regenerative business approaches from my contributing tutor, Janine Barron. Together, we will explore what it means to create leadership that is future-fit, rooted in nature, and aligned with who we truly are. 

This is an inclusive course, open to anyone who identifies as a woman.  

Join Us 

If you are a woman working in sustainability, climate, environment or social impact, and you feel the strain of leading within systems that aren’t designed for the future we need, this course is for you. 

The course runs from 3 to the 5 July and a monthly payment plan option is available. 

Click here for more details