“Green Jobs” The Scramble for Sustainability Professionals
Let’s explore the sudden rise in demand for sustainability expertise, and how companies are addressing it.
Across a broad spectrum of industries and company sizes, from fashion to finance, from consulting to corporates, there’s one common trend: Hiring a ‘Head of Sustainability. As the trend for sustainability rises, so does the demand for sustainability expertise to help revolutionize the way we work and produce. Even the most stubborn companies, that infamously lacking climate consciousness, are now hiring sustainability professionals at C-suite levels. An example is ExxonMobil, an American multinational oil & gas corporation, which appointed a head of sustainability 4 years ago. Great news! Right? Well…
Let’s take a step back. What does it mean to be a sustainability expert? As sustainability encompasses many aspects of a company (environmental, social, and governance performance and impact), it is incredibly difficult to have one person embody expertise across all such topics. On one hand, we could find an experienced engineer specializing in building recycling models for waste and water management, on the other we could have a head of HR with decades of experience in building corporate employee benefits policies. Who is a sustainability expert here? Both hold unparalleled knowledge in their niche but don’t necessarily have a broad overview of how their topics connect to all other sustainability practices within a company and hence cannot set a strategy on broad policies and initiatives.
Although the terms sustainability and climate change have entered the mainstream political discourse in the 80s-90s, finding a so-called expert in sustainability with 20 or even 10+ years of experience is ‘challenging’ at best. The market, government regulations, and society as a whole simply did not see sustainability knowledge or ‘skills’ to be a very valuable asset…until now.
ESG Job postings increased by 68% from March 2021 to March 2022 according to GlobalData’s Job Analytics Database.
A “Natural Scientist cannot be an expert in Human Rights Law”
So, what are companies doing to address this sudden demand for such broad expertise that virtually no one holds? Most are simply upgrading their current head of HR, head of marketing, head of logistics, head of product, head of investments, etc. to CSO/head of sustainability titles (SNEU). Coming back to the ExxonMobil example, like many other energy companies, their current VP in charge of sustainability has been with the company for a total of 17 years during which he spent most of his time in management and planning. There’s no doubt he knows the industry inside out, but his expertise in ESG is questionable. Although at least the company now has someone responsible to tackle a multitude of ESG issues, signaling to the market that ‘they care’, it may just not be enough to enable change. Just like many companies have been accused of greenwashing their products and services, most are also arguably greenwashing their ‘head of sustainability.
Is there a better way around this supply-demand shortage? Or what some call: The war for ESG talent?
Dr. Kim Schumacher, Lecturer in Sustainable Finance and ESG at the Tokyo Institute of Technology has outspokenly raised this issue, especially in the context of the financial industry. Although the same absence of ESG expertise can be found across corporate boards according to research by the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, which examined the biographies of almost 1,200 board members at Fortune 100 companies. Dr. Schumacher calls it ‘competence greenwashing’. He also proposed a few practical solutions:
Conduct an internal assessment of your company’s current ESG capacities
Research a sound ESG training program for your company’s staff
Do not exchange years of scientific research or on-ground experience across any niche ESG topic with a short-online course or leadership program in sustainability
Not all companies will have the capacity to build or train internal expertise in ESG, in such cases, rely on academics and professional research institutes to supplement internal capacity with scientific know-how
Standardize what expertise in ESG means and how one should educate themselves through a form of objective standards to guarantee a minimum of foundational knowledge
The goal is to create a sustainability team that is diverse in experience and academic background - a “Natural Scientist cannot also be an expert in Human Rights law”. Ultimately, Dr. Schumacher argues that there is no one-size-fits-all ESG employee and that to comply with upcoming regulations and expectations to meet ESG standards, a very diverse team with a range of particular skill sets will be required.
Diversity is the Only Way Forward
It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact industry or set of companies that are particularly championing the fight to consolidate an internal ESG expertise. On one side we see the major consulting firms conducting mass hiring to expand their sustainability teams, which means that they’re preparing to counter the lack of ESG knowledge within their financial and corporate clients. On the other hand, we see large companies across sectors hiring experienced sustainability professionals with a credible track record.
An example is Google’s current Sustainability Officer, Kate Brandt. She does not have a specific background in technology, nor does she come from marketing. Instead, Kate served as the first US Federal Chief Sustainability Officer, holding previous positions within the White House such as Senior Advisor at the Department of Energy and Environment. Does she hold a degree in Environmental Science? No; Does she have decades of experience working in tech? No; But does she have a deep understanding of the politics and policies surrounding Environmental issues? Yes! Google’s sustainability team also includes individuals with backgrounds in urban design and green buildings, environmental management, sustainability consulting, expertise in supply chains and reporting, etc.
Diversity is key to tackling the variety of sustainability issues each company in each industry faces. The truth is that there is no such thing as a single sustainability expert, it is arguably impossible to hold all the knowledge and skill sets needed to understand all sustainability topics at such depth as to be called an expert. What the market is experiencing right now is rather a flood of sustainability enthusiasts, some more genuine than others. But these leaders will require a curated team of subject-matter experts to truly guide a company’s sustainability strategy in a holistic approach.
Needless to say, what we can do better is to be more open to hiring individuals across a variety of fields and areas of expertise to be part of our company’s sustainability team that may have never worked in our industry, rather than bumping up to CSO someone who has worked in our industry for X+ years but has never done anything remotely related to climate or social topics.
We need more recruiting versatility. We need more openness to diversity. We need to stop mistaking enthusiasm for expertise if we are truly committed to making change rather than a marketing or political push.
Key Takeaways
As the trend for sustainability rises so does the demand for sustainability expertise to help revolutionize the way we work and produce across all industries
Sustainability encompasses various aspects of a company’s externalities across environmental, social, and governance issues. Hence, it is incredibly difficult to have one person embody expertise across all such topics.
The goal is to create a sustainability team that is diverse in experience and academic background
What the market is experiencing right now is rather a flood of sustainability enthusiasts, some more genuine than others. But these leaders will require a curated team of subject-matter experts to truly guide a company’s sustainability strategy in a holistic approach.
