By Contributor,Jeanne M. Stafford
Copyright forbes
TABLE OF CONTENTS
What Is A Chief Sustainability Officer?
What Does A Chief Sustainability Officer Do?
Chief Sustainability Officer Vs. Head Of Sustainability
What Are The Necessary Skills and Qualifications Of A Chief Sustainability Officer?
What Is The Average Salary Of A Chief Sustainability Officer?
Why Is It Important To Have A Chief Of Sustainability?
How Can You Become A Chief Sustainability Officer?
What Is The Future of Chief Sustainability Officer Roles?
Bottom Line
Not every organization has a chief sustainability officer, but the role is growing more common — and important — as companies pursue sustainable business practices.
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The role of chief sustainability officer may be the most influential and misunderstood position in the C-suite. The CSO must be diplomatic, show leadership and be a skilled collaborator.
This leader brings deep business fluency, reporting to and working with the top executives in an organization to consistently succeed over time. As a chief sustainability officer, one must translate purpose into performance and guide enterprise-wide sustainability with clarity and credibility.
The role of a CSO is to meet the current needs of a company and to ensure that critical resources are available for many years to come.
What Is A Chief Sustainability Officer?
A chief sustainability officer, according to the US Green Building Association, “facilitates the development of organization or community-wide sustainability goals and oversees the execution of plans, policies, programs, and practices aimed at achieving them.”
The CSO is a C-suite role with internal and external responsibilities, collaborating with the board of directors, chief executive, chief financial officer and chief operating officer.
While not every organization has or needs a CSO, the role is growing increasingly more common — and important. Whether your company needs a CSO depends on the organization’s size, desired environmental impact, and investor and regulatory pressure.
Industries that have CSO’s include banking, pharmaceuticals, automotive, and consumer products, among others.
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What Does A Chief Sustainability Officer Do?
The basic job of a chief sustainability officer is to promote and lead sustainability best practices, aiming to incorporate environmentally responsible habits throughout the organization. The exact job description depends on the specific industry and company.
Key responsibilities include ensuring compliance with regulations by evaluating risks and opportunities; monitoring company and employee performance; and reporting on environmental, social and governance metrics while building relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
The best way to understand the role is to search for the names of CSOs at companies you’re most aligned with. You’ll see they are involved in a wide range of initiatives.
CSO may be the fastest-changing job in the C-suite, offering many opportunities for growth for the right person.
On a daily basis, the CSO must skillfully prioritize actions for their teams and train them to handle responsibilities confidently, with curiosity and transparency.
Longer term, the CSO must adopt an expansive mindset and engage in open conversations, enlisting people who may have a limited understanding of the scope of the mission, and show them what’s possible.
A chief sustainability officer’s team includes a diversity of thought and experience; contributors must embrace the complexity and breadth of modern sustainability agendas. Sustainability teams can include a head of global sustainability, a sustainability director, head of circular economy compliance, and a director of sustainable design.
The overarching quality of a CSO is a willingness to lead open, honest conversations with stakeholders, and the ability to learn from and leverage unexpected opportunities.
Chief sustainability officers are responsible for building relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
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Chief Sustainability Officer Vs. Head Of Sustainability
The chief sustainability officer is a transformative executive role. The head of sustainability typically handles implementation.
The two titles are sometimes used interchangeably because there are many transferable skills. According to the Green Careers Hub website, “Both sustainability managers and heads of sustainability work collaboratively with different groups of people. They ensure leadership teams are fully aware of risks and opportunities associated with current and future sustainability challenges, as well as working with internal and external stakeholders to support organizations’ sustainability objectives.”
The head of sustainability primarily focuses on developing and implementing strategies to reduce economic impact. For example, this position would focus on energy efficiency, waste reduction, emissions tracking and regulatory compliance.
The CSO is more senior when both positions exist in an organization. They work together when it’s time to introduce new initiatives, develop systems for implementation and measure the success of initiatives.
What Are The Necessary Skills and Qualifications Of A Chief Sustainability Officer?
A chief sustainability officer, like all good leaders, should have strong emotional intelligence and a deep understanding of the rapidly evolving sustainability landscape.
“This job is half diplomat, half warrior,” said Todd Fein, CEO of Green Diamond, LLC, a firm providing a range of sustainability services, including advisory work, education, organization, and risk management. “This is a strategic role. Many companies are still trying to figure out what a CSO looks like for their mission.”
The qualifications that are necessary for a CSO include an agile mind, a willingness to lead through turbulence and the ability to convey your vision clearly.
“This isn’t people behaving like saints. This is smart business,” William Barnett, the director of the Stanford -Initiative on -Business and Environmental Sustainability, said on the Graduate School of Business website. “Billions of dollars are going to go into the creation of a sustainable economy. People who aren’t thinking that way are 20th-century, and it’s the 21st century now. So their organizations will be left behind.”
Today’s CSO must be a leader with a proven record of trust, influence and success across the enterprise. This role requires someone who has navigated growth from strategic, operational, financial, and cultural perspectives, bringing credibility and a broad understanding of how sustainability integrates with every function of leadership.
What Is The Average Salary Of A Chief Sustainability Officer?
The average salary for a CSO can range from $90,000 to $400,000, depending on experience, location and industry. The highest salary for this role is in cybersecurity, according to digitaldefynd, a firm specializing in professional programs.
Below are the numbers broken down by industry:
Finance: $180,000 to $230,000
Healthcare: $150,000 to $320
Technology: $200,000 to $250,000
Manufacturing: $150,000 to $200,000
Why Is It Important To Have A Chief Of Sustainability?
A chief sustainability officer’s team includes diversity of thought and experience. Contributors must embrace the complexity and breadth of modern sustainability efforts.
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It’s critical to have a chief sustainability officer because they can serve as the guardian of an organization’s mission, identify critical, long-range issues, and address them urgently, before customers and clients bring them up in a moment of conflict.
If this position doesn’t exist in your firm, carefully examine whether another member of the C-suite is managing these responsibilities. Consult a specialist to determine if it makes sense to restructure that role or establish a dedicated sustainability officer.
Being caught off guard will cost you more than taking this thoughtful, strategic step.
How Can You Become A Chief Sustainability Officer?
The career paths for chief sustainability officers vary. Many have been executive directors of energy strategy functions, vice presidents of corporate affairs and directors of legislative affairs.
You will need the necessary education, industry experience, relevant certifications, leadership skills and a professional network, which you can develop by attending events and talking to people in similar roles.
Chief sustainability officers often have a strong foundation in environmental science, or a business background with a focus on ESG. Degrees in environmental science, business administration, public policy or engineering are common. Many CSO candidates pursue a master’s in sustainability or environmental management, or an MBA with a sustainability track.
The most common postgraduate degrees among CSOs are masters’ in financial management, sustainability leadership or business administration. While these degrees are beneficial, they’re not mandatory.
What Is The Future of Chief Sustainability Officer Roles?
Chief sustainability roles will develop faster than any other leadership position. The words used to describe it are also likely to change in the near future.
“The swell of emerging regulation is the newest trend, and it’s a double-edged sword,” said Fein, the Green Diamond CEO. “On the one hand, it is holding more companies to account for becoming sustainable or at least being transparent about how sustainable they may or may not be, not just paying lip service.
“On the other hand, the level of effort involved to manage across regulators, raters, investors, customers, etc. has become stifling for many CSOs, depleting resources that would otherwise allow them to pursue actual improvements and innovation,” he added.
There are different schools of thought on how the position will evolve.
“What I can say is that within the multinational community, the role of CSO is generally well understood. It might be true that from ‘outside’ there is a misconception, but I can’t really confirm this. For example, nobody ever asked me: What is a CSO? However, the role is relatively new, as five years ago, there were hardly any CSOs.” said Willem Mutsaerts, head of global procurement and sustainability at Givaudan.
“In the near future, I doubt much will change from the current trend,” according to Fein. But looking ahead, he said, “CSOs who focus their time on showing how to increase the brand equity of their company and products, create marketing lift, and reduce costs and risks can become pivotal players in defining what ‘sustainable’ performance looks like.”
The primary role of a chief sustainability officer is to promote and lead sustainability best practices, aiming to integrate environmentally responsible practices.
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Bottom Line
The chief sustainability officer is a steward of compliance and a manager of environmental goals; they are the strategist that redefines growth. Today’s CSO must blend diplomacy with business fluency, purpose with performance, and urgency with long-term vision. They lead through clarity, credibility, and collaboration, while navigating growth from strategic, operational, financial and cultural perspectives.
In a world where sustainability is no longer optional, the CSO stands at the center of the most pivotal conversations shaping business and society.
To succeed, these leaders must find ways to turn uncertainty into opportunity. The demanding role is evolving faster than any other in the C-suite. That’s one reason it offers extraordinary potential to transform organizations and the definition of sustainable leadership in the 21st century.
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