ESG Practitioner Programme
Understand sustainability, discover ESG challenges faced by businesses, develop sustainability strategy, materiality map and learn about sustainability reporting with a focus on BRSR.
Enrollment
Environment, Social & Governance
A structured foundational approach across the core pillars of sustainability:
Impact & Nature
What a business takes from, and gives back to, nature: climate, resources, waste and biodiversity.
People & Value Chain
How a business treats people inside its walls and across its value chain: human rights, workforce safety and community.
Oversight & Ethics
How a business operates responsibly: oversight, ethics, transparency and accountability.
Why ESG is a Career Decision Now
Regulation is raising the bar
BRSR disclosure in India, EPR obligations on packaging and waste, and CBAM putting a carbon price on exports to the EU. Every large business now needs people who can read and act on these requirements.
Stakeholders are reinforcing it
Investors, customers and business partners are valuing ESG performance and making it a part of core business rather than a nice-to-do.
Organisations need people who can execute
Hiring for ESG and sustainability roles is outpacing the supply of people who can execute, not just define, the work. That gap is your opening.
Learning by Doing, with Practitioners
We built this programme around practice, not lecture. Six live sessions led by practitioners who have run sustainability at scale.
WHAT YOU DO
Work through a different real case study each week, then bring it together in a live capstone.
WHAT YOU LEAVE WITH
An ESG Playbook, and a capstone you present live.
HOW IT RUNS
Six live weekly sessions, in a small cohort.
YOUR COMPLETED ESG PLAYBOOK DELIVERABLES:
The Practitioners
You learn from people who have built ESG functions, advised boards, and helped write the rules India now reports against.
Shankar Venkateswaran
Former Chief, Tata Sustainability Group
Shankar led sustainability across the Tata group until 2017, and was earlier a Director at PwC. He served on the two-person committee that drafted India's National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct, and on the committee that developed the BRSR framework itself. He has advised the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on business and human rights. B.Tech, IIT Madras; MBA, IIM Calcutta.
Alka Talwar
Former CSO & Chief CSR, Tata Chemicals
Alka has over 35 years in CSR, corporate sustainability and diversity and inclusion. She has worked across climate change, water, business and human rights, and business and biodiversity with industry bodies and government. In 2019 she received the World Business Council for Sustainable Development's Leading Women Award for her work in sustainability.
Harish H V
Formerly Partner, Grant Thornton India
Harish has over 31 years in corporate finance, private equity and corporate governance, and led Grant Thornton's work in these areas. He was a founder board member of the Centre for Sustainable Development, Bengaluru. Advanced Management Program, Harvard Business School; MBA, IIM Calcutta.
Concept & Impact
Why This Matters Now
ESG has moved from a compliance line item to a business decision, and organisations are hiring for it faster than they can train for it. If you are weighing a move into sustainability, this programme gives you the practice to show for it: multiple case studies, group discussions and hands-on exercises, not just reading.
The Skills Gap It Closes
Hiring for ESG and sustainability roles is outpacing the supply of people who can execute, not just define, the work. That gap is your opening.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the programme, you will be able to:
Explain ESG as a business and risk framework, and speak to it with confidence in an interview, a client conversation, or a board discussion.
Assess environmental, social and governance risk for a business, and connect those findings to real operating and investment decisions.
Judge what genuinely matters to a business through a structured materiality assessment, and defend that judgement.
Build a Risk-Opportunities Map for a business, and use it to test which challenges genuinely bite.
Navigate the main sustainability reporting frameworks, and judge which ones apply to a given business.
Work an unfamiliar company from raw information to a defensible materiality assessment, and present it to a business audience.
What You Walk Away With
You build an actionable ESG Playbook and capstone case across the six weeks:
ESG Landscape Map + Risk-Opportunities Map
List the E&S issues relevant to a business, then articulate and map the risks and opportunities each one creates.
Environmental Impact Sheet
Assess how each environmental challenge (climate, pollution, biodiversity loss, resource scarcity) stacks up against risks and opportunities.
Social & Human Rights Impact Sheet
Evaluate workplace human rights, value chains, communities, ethics, transparency and codes of conduct against your risk map.
Sustainability Topics List + Materiality Map
Identify and score relevant sustainability topics against your Risk-Opportunities Map using a 6-step sustainability strategy process.
Capstone ESG Assessment & Presentation
Consolidate your Risk-Opportunities Map, Sustainability Topics List, and Materiality Map on a new company case and present live to faculty and cohort.
The Course Modules
Interactive modules covered in this workshop.
Introduction to Corporate Sustainability
Objective: Understand the sustainability challenges faced by companies, why it matters, and your role in addressing them.
Key Topics Covered
- •Big sustainability issues and what drives businesses to take them seriously
- •The Risks and Opportunities framework
- •The business case, and how businesses are responding
Group Activity
List the E&S issues relevant to a business, then articulate the risks and opportunities each one creates.
Environment challenges facing business
Objective: Building on the earlier session, unpack the environmental challenges that businesses face and their impacts.
Key Topics Covered
- •Climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss and resource scarcity
- •How environmental issues pose risks and opportunities to business
- •Environment related policies adopted by companies
Group Activity
Assess how each environmental challenge stacks up against the risks and opportunities in your Risk-Opportunities Map.
Social and Governance challenges facing business
Objective: Elaborate on the social challenges businesses face, and understand good governance practices in the context of sustainability.
Key Topics Covered
- •Inequality and human rights in the workplace, value chains and communities
- •Ethics, transparency, accountability and codes of conduct
- •Social and human rights related policies adopted by companies
Group Activity
Assess how each social and human rights challenge stacks up against the risks and opportunities in your Risk-Opportunities Map.
Business Response and Sustainability Strategy
Objective: Explore how businesses have responded to sustainability challenges, and understand how a sustainability strategy is built, with emphasis on materiality.
Key Topics Covered
- •Examples of business response including governance changes, target setting, process improvements and new products/business models
- •The six steps of developing a sustainability strategy
- •Materiality mapping and scoring tools
Group Activity
List the sustainability topics relevant to your business, then score each against your Risk-Opportunities Map.
Sustainability Reporting
Objective: Get an exposure to the various sustainability reporting frameworks, with a focus on BRSR.
Key Topics Covered
- •The main voluntary frameworks (GRI, CDP, CoP, IR, TCFD, TNFD)
- •Mandatory frameworks (BRSR, ESRS) and when to use which
- •The future of sustainability reporting
Group Activity
Take the capstone brief in groups of three to five: allocated a fictional company, prepare its Risk-Opportunities Map, identify 20 to 30 relevant sustainability topics, and rank them on financial materiality.
Capstone
Objective: Present your group's work, and test it against comment from your peers and the faculty.
Key Topics Covered
- •Group presentations in plenary
- •Inputs and constructive feedback from peer participants and faculty
- •Translating analysis into executive presentation
Group Activity
Present your company's Risk-Opportunities Map, Sustainability Topics List and Materiality Map to the cohort.
What Cohort Leaders Say
Rajani Kumari Ch
Managing Director, EIA & ESG Consultant
SSMNT Group
"The interactive sessions, quizzes, and breakout sessions provided me with valuable real-time experience in applying the topics covered."
"Dear Earth Inherited Team, thank you very much for the exceptional course. The program provided great insights and illustrations from the experts, and I truly appreciated the high quality of the instruction. In particular, the interactive sessions, quizzes, and breakout sessions were highly effective. These components provided me with valuable real-time experience in applying the topics covered throughout the curriculum."
Subrat Debata
Manager, Wildlife Conservation
Tata Steel Foundation
"Learning through relatable real-world cases, what worked, and what didn't work made the concepts practical and directly relevant to my work."
"One of my key takeaways from Earth Inherited was how to think systematically. What I found particularly valuable were the relatable case studies, including examples of what did not work, and the corrective actions businesses took. Learning through these real-world cases and discussions made the concepts practical and relevant to my work."
Ravichandran
Founder
Verdiqor Pvt Ltd
"The team has hands-on experience, they are subject matter experts. The use cases articulation and guide questions put understanding into muscle memory."
"I am completely depending on Earth Inherited for direction, content. The team has hands-on experience, they are subject matter experts. The use cases articulation and guide questions puts the understanding in the muscle memory. I am convinced of the value I received learning and the network/connect."
Who is this for?
- Professionals looking to transition into ESG and Sustainability roles
What You Need
No prior ESG background. Just the curiosity to learn a new domain, commitment to sustainability and the willingness to practise it.
Certificate of Participation
Earn an industry-recognized credential awarded jointly by Earth Inherited, The Indian Express, and Ecube upon successful programme completion.
Have Queries?
Have questions about the curriculum, custom/group corporate training, schedule, or fit for your career? We are here to help.
Have Questions Before Applying?
Join LIVE session on ESG careers and Course Q&A
Thinking about a career in ESG, or wondering how ESG skills fit into your current role? Join this live session with a sustainability practitioner to understand what it takes to build relevance in ESG and sustainability.
We will also walk you through the ESG Foundational Course for Professionals and answer your questions on the curriculum, learning outcomes, faculty, schedule and fee.
Understand emerging roles, transition pathways, and how sustainability reshapes hiring.
Discover practical frameworks, reporting tools, and skills needed in your current role.
Walk through live modules, capstone projects, faculty details, schedule, and fees.
LIVE ESG Careers and Q&A Session: ESG Practitioner Programme
Interactive 60-minute walkthrough followed by dedicated open Q&A with our ESG Practitioners
Limited seats per session · Link will be emailed after saving your spot