In-House Sustainability

As sustainability becomes more mainstream, companies are increasingly hiring sustainability professionals to join their in-house teams. To clarify, the phrase “in-house sustainability” is also referred to as “corporate sustainability.” A career in this field is demanding, requiring knowledge of various business functions, effective communication and the ability to see through both the commercial lens and sustainability lens for the business.

Despite these challenges, it is an immensely rewarding career, offering the chance to leverage both sustainability and industry-specific expertise to drive meaningful change. The work days are varied, involving meetings and engagements with internal teams and external stakeholders such as investors and customers, as well as reviewing the company’s sustainability strategy and disclosing year-over-year performance.

In-house sustainability practitioners are crucial for ensuring companies have clear and defined sustainability ambitions. They drive changes to culture, internal processes, technologies, and infrastructure through a method known as ‘change management’. Effective organisational change relies on engaging with people to bring everyone along in the process. Therefore, it was no surprise that change management skills were highly valued by respondents.

Based on the survey, what are the key skill sets most important for succeeding in this role?

Communication and negotiation: Being able to articulate sustainability issues and topics to a diverse range of stakeholders.
Problem-solving: Being able to resolve various issues that arise in the implementation of sustainability initiatives or during the wider strategic transformation of the business.
Stakeholder engagement: Working collaboratively with diverse internal and external stakeholders to achieve collective sustainability goals.
Leadership: Leading various initiatives across teams within the company.

One Sustainability Strategy Manager in Manufacturing said, “this job is very interdisciplinary, and in a field where there is much change management to do, and much frustration along the way, you have to steel yourself for that, as your resilience can be the difference needed to make an impact.”

Career Case Study

This section has two case studies.

Case Study 1: Sustainability officer at a global risk management company

What does a day in your life look like?

There is a strategic aspect and an administrative aspect. I am expected to engage with colleagues in other divisions of the business, such as human resources, finance, legal, supply chain to focus on understanding what these stakeholders are currently doing and potentially can do to support the company’s sustainability strategy. On the administrative side, some of my work ranges from answering questionnaires from external stakeholders who are asking about the sustainability report, number crunching in Excel, or vendor management.

There is also a lot of reading required including understanding upcoming sustainability regulations and their implications for different parts of the business. I also develop presentations to communicate these implications to others in the business.

Working in-house means I am often seen as the ‘expert’ for sustainability from colleagues in other parts of the business, so I need to be familiar with the different sustainability initiatives, projects, or targets in specific areas of the company.

What kind of skills are most important in your line of work, and what are your top tips for how to develop them?

Data analysis: This doesn’t mean being an expert data analyst, but at least being able to understand what different types of data mean and what this means for the business.

Reading comprehension and synthesis: The role brings different parts of the business together to tackle sustainability topics. Being able to understand complex topics and apply them to the business is useful.

Resilience and problem-solving in the face of challenges: Driving change internally is hard and there is sometimes frustration because teams work differently and there are expectations from the executive team as well as the challenge of implementing different projects at the same time. Being resourceful in the face of setbacks and not losing hope is important.

Advice for young people looking to enter this field:

It is useful to have background knowledge about economics and financial systems because a big part of the job is trying to reconcile commercial interests with sustainability. For example, relating non-financial metrics to financial metrics.

A lot of the role is about having good upward communication; I need to be talking to the executive team of the business and deliver messages in a succinct and persuasive way. Learn to do this well by understanding the objective of each message and delivering the message appropriately.

Throughout your career (not just at the start), I would also encourage you to really reflect on whether there is a specific aspect of sustainability you would like to focus on more. While many sustainability roles in-house are focused on decarbonisationn, for example, there are also other roles that are more focused on the social aspect of sustainability, such as sustainable procurement. There are opportunities to be a generalist or a technical specialist, and both are equally valuable.

Networking is a must. Try to attend sustainability-related webinars and conferences, and when you are there, try to learn about the challenges that company representatives share. Particularly if you are interested in working at the company, this is a great way to understand the business ahead of interviews.

Case Study 2: Head of sustainability at a large food retailer

What does a day in your life look like?

My work is incredibly varied. That’s the most interesting part — there is not one day that is the same. I do more strategic work as the business’s Head of Sustainability as opposed to a hands-on ‘do-er’ role in an operation or in a market, but there is plenty of opportunity in this sector for this. My day involves a lot of meetings with a lot of different people across the business such as the risk team, finance team, central procurement or marketing teams. A lot of those conversations could be focused on a very specific topic like procurement or the EU Deforestation Regulation. Some meetings may be issue-specific such as strategy and target development, understanding what issues are coming up with stakeholders, and what are the key challenges different teams are facing with existing focus areas and targets. I will then think about how we can develop these sustainability targets going forward. I also do a lot of reading, getting to grips with new standards and regulations. I draw on that information to formulate plans and strategies for the business.

What kind of skills are most important in your line of work, and what are your top tips for how to develop them?

Negotiation and communication: You are constantly trying to sell things, be it ideas or implementation approaches to the business. You have to make sure you can articulate very technical complex information to non-sustainability experts. A lot of what we do is negotiating and trying to phase things into the business in a pragmatic way.

Attention to detail: It can be a very ‘implementation’ focused role at times, you need to understand and articulate key concepts and practices effectively with relevant technical knowledge of the processes.

What can one do to start developing good communication and negotiation skills?

Try it out in your everyday life! Many people don’t know what sustainability means; have a think about whether you can try to explain why you do certain things (doesn’t have to be sustainability related) and focus on whether you can explain it in a way that anyone can understand. So, practice communicating to others and get in front of audiences as soon as possible.

Advice for young people looking to enter this field:

This job is for you if you’re curious, have a genuine passion for sustainability, and are not afraid of really throwing yourself into it and getting into the details. There are two things that have got me far in my own career: being curious and also being persistent.

Have a realistic sense of impact. You won’t change the world all at once, but even a little helps.

A lot of job descriptions for sustainability try to cover a list of requirements and skills, but there is also flexibility for you to shape and develop roles once you are in it. Don’t worry if the job description doesn’t check every box that you are initially expecting.

Finally, really take the time to understand the fundamentals of the business you are working in. This is crucial to doing the job well.

Want another case study? Check-in SustainaPod’s interview with an in-house sustainability practitioner here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/66Bh46ABOrqP1NFjq4SEf6?si=660c5c738a174dab