The Job Description for Director of Corporate Sustainability in 2023

The political pushback on ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) appears to have put little dent in the creation of corporate sustainability management positions. The requirement of thousands of US companies and nearly 60,000 around the world to create standardized stakeholder management disclosures under a new European Union law not only will require organizations to hire advisors or individuals to manage their sustainability and reporting efforts but will encounter the fact that there are very few people with much of the training necessary to address the full human and environmental scope of the position today.

By Bruce Bolger

Job Description
Job Qualifications
Assembling and Training the Team
The New Job Description
The New Job Title: Director of Corporate Sustainability

The job description for a corporate sustainability director is changing rapidly from the traditional focus on the environment and corporate social responsibility to a focus on fulfilling the organization’s purpose, goals, purpose, and values across the enterprise. The term responsibility needs to go because it evokes the misleading notion that sustainability is a tax on shareholders, when, in fact, it is a source of value creation by addressing the needs of the stakeholders upon whose engagement success rests. At many large companies, especially those with an impact on the climate, the corporate sustainability or responsibility function is managed by separate environmental and corporate social responsibility, communications, or legal departments, and viewed as a sunk cost, when in fact it can be a business development and risk management strategy.

Today, the increasing focus on human capital management across the enterprise to include customers, supply chain and distribution partners, and communities, and the emergence of the new European Union Corporate Sustainability Directive that will require independently audited reports, have made this position above all one that requires senior business leadership, process and data management knowledge, and communication skills. For this reason, the best candidate is not necessarily someone from the outside or from a traditional corporate responsibility department but rather a highly experienced senior business manager accustomed to working and communicating with management across stakeholders.

Job Description

The biggest change is the job description for corporate sustainability, previously known as responsibility, in that this is no longer about the science of environmental compliance or the public relations involved with philanthropy and corporate social responsibility: it’s about managing and reporting on the purpose, goals, and objectives of the organization; how they are managed across all stakeholders—customers, employees, supply chain and distribution managers, and communities; the metrics used to measure progress and processes applied to improve outcomes, and the oversight of the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive report or one that is based on its framework so that it does not look like greenwashing when compared with companies that follow the law.

The job position is in effect the oversight of total quality management for people. This is another why it makes sense to use the term “sustainability” instead of “responsibility.” Unless an organization’s purpose states otherwise, it has no other “social responsibilities” but to its stakeholders. The term Corporate Social Responsibility best serves as a description of the office responsible for philanthropic activities, not the management issue of sustainability and related reporting.

When searching for someone with qualifications for the corporate sustainability management position, generally the last place to start is in the legal department. Lawyers, of course, are critical to the process, but in the end corporate sustainability and reporting is a business issue about aligning the interests of all stakeholders toward a common purpose, goals, and objectives in a sustainable manner. In this case, sustainable means addressing not just the environment but the interests of all stakeholders and the concept of double-materiality—how the organization affects and creates risks for its stakeholders and the environment and how in turn opportunities and risks to it are created by stakeholders and the environment.

Job Qualifications

To grasp the environmental, stakeholder, and governance issues to be managed are well within the abilities of someone in their 20s and beyond. However, to help facilitate, oversee, measure and monitor, and continuously improve the process requires someone with years of hands-on experience to:

Understand and empathize with the interests and needs of stakeholders across the enterprise.
Be able to align them around organizational purpose, goals, and objectives.
Ensure ongoing management of the business operating system, metrics, and outcomes across departments, with the ability to compellingly communicate the ongoing outcomes in a way that ensures alignment and continuous improvement.
Oversee the creation and dissemination of annual reporting in multiple media.

That is a tough assignment even for a senior executive.

Although it might seem logical to select someone who already works in corporate social responsibility or corporate communications, these individuals may in fact need to unlearn some of what they learned and the traditional mindset around “responsibility” versus sustainability. They will certainly need to add new skills and knowledge related to the new EU CSRD law and the concept of audited reports. As explained above, the new position requires a business orientation to minimize the risks of continuing or implementing practices increasingly associated with greenwashing.

The ideal executive could include:

A senior executive who has worked in various departments or in a high-level department who has a five- to 10-year horizon to retiring, since, once begun, overall management of the process is potentially part-time at even large organizations.
Someone with general management or cross-functional experience from your industry or one that is related.
A senior executive in his or her 50s and 60s waylaid by age discrimination or an energetic retiree.

(Given that the new European Union Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive framework provides a very clear framework for managing and reporting on stakeholder engagement processes in an auditable manner, the new ESG director has a clear roadmap. The Enterprise Engagement Alliance has an education program that can train anyone for the job, but having the knowledge is the easy part. Because sustainability has moved from the environment to include addressing the interests of all stakeholders, the ESG executive above all must have a business and process orientation.)

Assembling and Training the Team

Assuming your organization views the disclosures as an opportunity to develop and implement a strategic and systematic approach to value creation through people, the process starts by identifying a cross-functional team lead by an executive with experience working cross-functionally across an enterprise, or at least with different departments. If your organization already has a business operating system (if you don’t know what the means, it suggests your company doesn’t have one), the implementation process can easily be baked into an already existing management, decision-making and implementation framework. If not, now is a good time to consider implementing a business operating process, which can be led by a qualified sustainability executive if knowledgeable in stakeholder management, business operating systems, and reporting. In any case, all your department heads will require basic training in the principles of stakeholder management, metrics, and reporting, and on the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive if that framework is being used.

The New Job Description

The elevation of sustainability from an environmental and social responsibility perspective to an overall business management process requires a slight shift in the positioning of the position. This is demonstrated by the job description for a current opportunity at the Promotional Products Association International, a leading Texas-based association. It is clearly an exciting position, but it’s description reflects a traditional approach focusing on social responsibility to one that focuses on sustainability as it relates to all stakeholders and the environment.

PPAI Job Title. Corporate Social Responsibility Manager (Creative and Compassionate Superstar).

PPAI job description: We are looking for someone who believes in the power of corporate social responsibility to transform communities and make a positive impact on the world. We are committed to leading the way members businesses approach social responsibility and environmental sustainability. We're seeking a Corporate Social Responsibility Guru to join our team and lead our efforts through innovative and purposeful initiatives.” Click here for the complete job description.

Here is how the job will be framed under the influence of the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.

The New Job Title: Director of Corporate Sustainability

New, business-oriented job description: We seek a Director of Corporate Sustainability to develop, oversee, and report on the environmental, stakeholder, and governance policies, performance, and reporting of our company. The Director of Corporate Sustainability will work to advance the company’s purpose; sustainability strategy, goals, objectives and reporting across the enterprise to ensure compliance with relevant standards and to manage our continuous improvement processes.

Qualifications. The ideal candidate will have practical knowledge of all organizational operations, purpose, goals, and objectives; expertise in cross-functional management, including sales and marketing, human resources, operations and finance, and IT, etc., knowledge of the major sustainability reporting frameworks, business operating systems; the ability to manage data collection, analysis, and distribution in a systematic manner, and provide insights for future action. Retired senior management welcome to apply.

For More Information
Bruce Bolger, Founder
Enterprise Engagement Alliance at TheEEA.org
914-591-7600, ext. 230
Bolger@TheEEA.org

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