Why the sudden scramble to add a sustainability officer to the C-Suite?

Twenty years in the past the thought of getting a senior govt with full-time duty for sustainability wasn’t on most corporations’ radar. A little bit over a decade later, nevertheless, this had begun to alter. By 2014, 90 of the S&P 500 had a chief sustainability officer sitting on the prime desk and the tempo at which organisations are actually recruiting for the position is accelerating based on The Rise of the Chief Sustainability Officer, a brand new Korn Ferry report based mostly on interviews with 50 CEOs and sustainability officers worldwide.

So, why the sudden scramble so as to add the chief sustainability officer to the C-Suite? “Sustainability management is coming into a brand new section and 2020 and the pandemic can be seen because the tipping level for when sustainability grew to become a enterprise crucial,” the report’s writer, Andrew Lowe, a accomplice within the international company affairs apply at Korn Ferry in London, advised The Irish Instances.

“The stress for change or the chance for development, relying on the way you take a look at it, is multi-dimensional. There may be investor stress, shareholder stress and an enormous quantity of reporting and disclosure not simply round local weather however different metrics, notably human capital, with an actual requirement for D&I [diversity and inclusion] disclosure in a substantive approach.”

Prior to now, the place organisations thought-about sustainability in its personal proper in any respect, it was normally folded into one other different duty comparable to company social duty, danger and management, ethics, authorized or procurement. What’s modified is that sustainability is now seen as a contributor to, if not a determinant of enterprise success, and this has rocketed the position up the pecking order.

“As soon as an organisation crosses the Rubicon because it have been, it out of the blue turns into a enterprise crucial and also you want a person on the coronary heart of your company technique able to making sense of what’s taking place within the outdoors world and in a position to translate what can typically be complicated scientific and technical points and relate them to the enterprise.

“However, maybe most crucially of all, the particular person must be business and assist the enterprise establish worth, which might be something from status and model to product innovation and market differentiation. From a buyer standpoint the rise in curiosity round sustainability can also be large and it’s driving B2B [business-to-business] and B2C [business-to-consumer] choices, each on the excessive and worth ends of the spectrum,” Lowe says.

“Sustainability is systemic and we see it sitting between technique and the CEO’s workplace,” he provides. “Chief sustainability officers are subsequently depending on constructing relationships to ship inside and exterior change by working throughout a number of enterprise areas comparable to danger, finance and R&D.”

Because the position continues to be comparatively new, evaluation across the skillset required for the job is ongoing. However an excellent candidate profile is rising and it’s prone to be somebody who’s already a senior govt with a broad enterprise background and a robust community of exterior contacts. This makes these with a consultancy background an excellent match for the job.

It’s a difficult position as chief sustainability officers are sometimes “misunderstood” inside their organisations. They must be self-contained sufficient to face up to the truth that the tradition is prone to be towards them and courageous sufficient to place up a struggle if there are sacred cows that must be challenged. (If the job piques your curiosity however your CV would want particular sustainability strengthening, there are programs accessible from our bodies such because the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Management.)

“The job requires a mixture of danger taking, tolerance, resilience and the flexibility to get traction on the highest ranges. It additionally requires a willingness to fail quick and infrequently,” Lowe says. “What’s not required is over-confidence, rigidity, considering small or inauthenticity, as a chief sustainability officer will need to have the flexibility to affect at each degree.”

At the least, Lowe says a chief sustainability officer/sustainability workforce requires experience in: non-financial reporting; knowledge; insights and developments evaluation; advocacy; setting (local weather); and social objective. Relying on the organisation, there could also be different necessities comparable to an excellent understanding of provide chain dynamics.

Syngenta is a Swiss-based international supplier of agricultural science and know-how and its chief sustainability officer Alexandra Brand is quoted within the Korn Ferry report. “I don’t make the excellence between the operate and the enterprise,” Model says. “Sustainability is a part of our core objective, and so our sustainability groups are the enablers and catalyst.”

Bob Casey runs the Irish arm of Korn Ferry and he says curiosity within the chief sustainability officer position is rising right here. “Over the past six months, we’re having much more conversations round any such position and have a few dwell mandates,” he says.

“What can also be fascinating is the place organisations see this position sitting inside their construction and to whom a chief sustainability officer experiences. That tells quite a bit.”

Historically, sustainability and revenue weren’t joyful bedfellows however Lowe says now we have reached some extent the place there isn’t any longer stress between the 2 as a result of “ESG [environment, sustainability, governance] targets are actually core to enterprise technique and linked to an organisation’s objective and values”.

“What was clear from the interviews we performed was that the tipping level I discussed earlier was not about altruism or something purely environmentally targeted, it was round a elementary transformation required by companies.

“At this level the stress is to do with the timeframe as a result of it requires funding at present to construct for the long run, however for organisations that ‘do’ the sustainability piece nicely, the returns are appreciable and far-reaching.”