Investing in Nature: A Domestic and Global Lens on Natural Capital

For investors and finance professionals looking to go deeper, this conversation offers a candid, experienced perspective on where natural capital finance stands, and where it's headed.

Presented in partnership with Blue Forest and the Natural Capital Alliance.

At this SF Climate Week fireside conversation, Zach Knight, Co-Founder and CEO of Blue Forest, and Lisa Mandle, Co-Executive Director of the Natural Capital Alliance at Stanford, come together for fireside chat on the state of natural capital investment. Zach brings a domestic lens, drawing on Blue Forest's decade of pioneering conservation finance across the American West. Lisa brings a global perspective, working with governments, multilateral development banks, and NGOs across Latin America and Asia to integrate nature's value into policy and finance.

WHAT WE'LL COVER

Natural capital 101 A grounding in what natural capital is, how it's being defined across domestic and international contexts, and what separates an effective investment model from an ineffective one.

Two decades of wins, failures, and hard lessons An honest look at where natural capital finance has succeeded, and where it hasn't. What does 10 or 20 years of hindsight reveal about the structures, partnerships, and assumptions that hold up?

Case studies from the field Zach will draw on Blue Forest's Forest Resilience Bond model and its work financing watershed restoration and wildfire risk reduction across the Western U.S. Lisa will bring examples from international contexts, from Latin America to Asia, where natural capital accounting has shaped development finance and policy decisions.

The future of sustainable finance Where is natural capital investment heading? The conversation will examine the evolving role of blended finance, nature-related disclosure frameworks, and what it will take to scale capital in this space with integrity and impact.

The session includes an open Q&A, followed by an informal reception where the conversation can continue over coffee and tea.

Reserve your spot Seating is limited. This event is part of SF Climate Week 2026.

SPEAKERS

Lisa Mandle (she/her) Lisa is Co-Executive Director of the Natural Capital Alliance, based at Stanford University. She co-creates and implements NatCap’s vision, strategy, goals, and fundraising in collaboration with the NatCap Faculty Director and her fellow Co-Executive Director, while directing NatCap’s ecosystem services data and software platform and Stanford-based operations and partnerships. Her research sheds light on how land management and infrastructure development affect ecosystem services, social equity, and human health. Lisa works with leaders from governments, multilateral development banks, and businesses to incorporate understanding of nature's values into policy and finance. She is also lead editor of the book Green Growth That Works, which provides a practical guide to policy and finance mechanisms from around the world for securing benefits from nature, and a Coordinating Lead Author of the IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment. She holds a PhD in Botany from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and bachelor's degrees in Biology and Anthropology from Brown University.

Zach Knight (he/him)

Zach Knight is the co-founder and CEO of the conservation finance nonprofit Blue Forest. He began his career at Merrill Lynch working in securitization before trading high-yield and distressed bonds. Zach was earning his MBA at UC Berkeley, when a classmate asked him a formative question: Why can’t we finance natural infrastructure the way we finance built infrastructure? That moment propelled Zach, along with classmates and early collaborators, to found Blue Forest in 2015. Since then, the organization has developed a growing suite of innovative financial tools to support forest and watershed restoration, reduce wildfire risk, and strengthen the restoration economy. Their flagship product, the Forest Resilience Bond (FRB), is a first-of-its-kind model that enables investors to support public land management while earning a return. Today, Blue Forest has launched projects across California, Washington, and Oregon, with more in development throughout the Western U.S. and beyond. Under Zach’s leadership, Blue Forest advances large-scale restoration through collaboration with scientists, land managers, utilities, Indigenous partners, and investors. Zach holds a BA in Economics from Cornell University and an MBA with honors from UC Berkeley.