Example Career: Chief Sustainability Officers

Career Description

Communicate and coordinate with management, shareholders, customers, and employees to address sustainability issues. Enact or oversee a corporate sustainability strategy.

What Job Titles Chief Sustainability Officers Might Have

• Corporate Sustainability Process Manager
• Director of Sustainability
• Director of Sustainable Design
• Sustainability Director

What Chief Sustainability Officers Do

• Develop or execute strategies to address issues such as energy use, resource conservation, recycling, pollution reduction, waste elimination, transportation, education, and building design.
• Supervise employees or volunteers working on sustainability projects.
• Research environmental sustainability issues, concerns, or stakeholder interests.
• Develop methodologies to assess the viability or success of sustainability initiatives.
• Monitor and evaluate effectiveness of sustainability programs.
• Evaluate and approve proposals for sustainability projects, considering factors such as cost effectiveness, technical feasibility, and integration with other initiatives.
• Develop, or oversee the development of, marketing or outreach media for sustainability projects or events.
• Develop, or oversee the development of, sustainability evaluation or monitoring systems.
• Create and maintain sustainability program documents, such as schedules and budgets.
• Direct sustainability program operations to ensure compliance with environmental or governmental regulations.
• Identify educational, training, or other development opportunities for sustainability employees or volunteers.
• Develop sustainability reports, presentations, or proposals for supplier, employee, academia, media, government, public interest, or other groups.
• Review sustainability program objectives, progress, or status to ensure compliance with policies, standards, regulations, or laws.
• Formulate or implement sustainability campaign or marketing strategies.
• Identify and evaluate pilot projects or programs to enhance the sustainability research agenda.
• Conduct sustainability- or environment-related risk assessments.
• Write project proposals, grant applications, or other documents to pursue funding for environmental initiatives.
• Write and distribute financial or environmental impact reports.

What Chief Sustainability Officers Should Be Good At

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
• Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
• Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).

What Chief Sustainability Officers Should Be Interested In

• Enterprising - Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.
• Investigative - Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.
• Conventional - Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.

What Chief Sustainability Officers Need to Learn

• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Design - Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
• Building and Construction - Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
• Engineering and Technology - Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.