In the last two years, my LinkedIn feed has been flooded with job posts for “Circular Economy Program Manager”, “Director of ESG”, “Renewable Energy Procurement Specialist” and the many other roles that were unimaginable five or 10 years ago. The growth of sustainability career options has been undeniable and I have noticed how far the company’s sustainability field has come.
Corporate responsibility and sustainability have shifted from conservation to a broader environmental movement, to compliance and risk reduction, and finally to today, where it is built into business strategy and innovation.
Like the area of society’s sustainability, the career path is also changing rapidly. During the early stages of corporate sustainability, businesses often started sustainability programs in response to controversy or perceived risks. Businesses would tap into internal talent that was readily available and move them laterally into these new roles. As a result, the company’s sustainability careers of the past consisted of learning on the job and working across internal departments.
As the company developed sustainability, academic degrees for sustainability became more common, along with certifications and professional training. This has helped the company to professionalize sustainability. This next generation of sustainability professionals will also have sustainability backgrounds at the entry level, something unheard of decades ago. They will also find significantly more roles in the entry and the opportunity to enter the field directly as companies continue on their sustainability journey.
Companies are transforming sustainability generalist roles from tactical responsibility.
But that does not mean that their career journeys will be more direct.
Sustainability is integrated into the business strategy. Thus, companies are transforming sustainability generalist roles from tactical responsibility such as monitoring natural resource consumption to strategic, such as developing long-term sustainability strategies and integrating it into a broader business context. And this next generation of sustainability workers must join.
As sustainability generalist roles evolve, existing responsibilities and specialized roles are cut out. For example, companies have begun to delegate ESG reporting and engaging roles. In the past, ESG reporting has often fallen on the company’s sustainability staff. And as companies realize the range of needs and skill sets needed to truly integrate sustainability across the organization, they also create sustainability roles in traditional departments.
For young professionals, this evolution means that there is recognized value for company sustainability generalists and the unique skills needed to look at everything with a sustainability objective and put it into business strategy, innovation and leading cultural change. The creation of ESG roles also offers additional opportunities for those seeking to enter the industry through a specialized track with more general sustainability backgrounds. While the creation of sustainability roles within traditional departments offers opportunities for those interested in career change.
While the sustainability job market is finally growing to meet the academic pipeline that expresses sustainability talent, what happens after you enter an organization? At present, talent management and internal career paths for sustainability professions are still largely undefined and inconsistent. As an increasingly specialized talent pool, a company’s sustainability professors will hop on to the next without a trace of linear progress upwards. This will be the next frontier in the professionalization of business sustainability.
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