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

Twenty years in the past the thought of getting a senior govt with full-time accountability for sustainability wasn’t on most corporations’ radar. A bit over a decade later, nevertheless, this had begun to vary. By 2014, 90 of the S&P 500 had a chief sustainability officer sitting on the high desk and the tempo at which organisations at the moment are recruiting for the function is accelerating in accordance with The Rise of the Chief Sustainability Officer, a brand new Korn Ferry report primarily based 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 companion within the international company affairs follow at Korn Ferry in London, instructed The Irish Instances.

“The strain for change or the chance for progress, relying on the way you have a look at it, is multi-dimensional. There may be investor strain, shareholder strain 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 manner.”

Up to now, the place organisations thought of sustainability in its personal proper in any respect, it was normally folded into one other different accountability similar to company social accountability, threat 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 function up the pecking order.

“As soon as an organisation crosses the Rubicon because it had been, it all of the sudden 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 exterior 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 individual must be industrial and assist the enterprise determine worth, which may be something from repute and model to product innovation and market differentiation. From a buyer standpoint the rise in curiosity round sustainability can be large and it’s driving B2B [business-to-business] and B2C [business-to-consumer] selections, 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 inner and exterior change by working throughout a number of enterprise areas similar to threat, finance and R&D.”

Because the function remains to be comparatively new, evaluation across the skillset required for the job is ongoing. However a great candidate profile is rising and it’s more likely to be somebody who’s already a senior govt with a broad enterprise background and a powerful community of exterior contacts. This makes these with a consultancy background match for the job.

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

“The job requires a mixture of threat taking, tolerance, resilience and the power 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 should have the power to affect at each degree.”

At least, Lowe says a chief sustainability officer/sustainability group requires experience in: non-financial reporting; information; insights and tendencies evaluation; advocacy; atmosphere (local weather); and social goal. Relying on the organisation, there could also be different necessities similar to understanding of provide chain dynamics.

Syngenta is a Swiss-based international supplier of agricultural science and expertise 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 goal, 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 function is rising right here. “During the last six months, we’re having much more conversations round this kind of function and have a few reside mandates,” he says.

“What can be attention-grabbing is the place organisations see this function sitting inside their construction and to whom a chief sustainability officer studies. That tells rather a lot.”

Historically, sustainability and revenue weren’t glad bedfellows however Lowe says we have now reached a degree the place there is no such thing as a longer stress between the 2 as a result of “ESG [environment, sustainability, governance] targets at the moment are core to enterprise technique and linked to an organisation’s goal and values”.

“What was clear from the interviews we carried out 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 strain is to do with the timeframe as a result of it requires funding as we speak to construct for the long run, however for organisations that ‘do’ the sustainability piece effectively, the returns are appreciable and far-reaching.”