Paul Suff finds out exactly what senior sustainability professionals do, and hears how one IEMA member became head of sustainability at a billion-pound UK business
Job titles with sustainability in them are increasingly common, particularly at a senior level. The title “chief sustainability officer” (CSO) is now appearing alongside chief finance officer, chief operating officer and chief technology officer in the list of senior personnel in a number of large corporations.
BT, Coca-Cola, DuPont, Google, Ikea and Siemens are just some of the companies with CSOs. Others have people in similar roles, but the job title differs, such as head of sustainability or sustainable business; or vice-president, sustainability.
The majority in senior sustainability positions have an environmental background. Few are on the board although most report directly to senior executives, but they play a central role in developing business strategy and are standard bearers for the profession as it seeks to be at the forefront of business change.
A senior sustainability role is not simply a rebadged senior environment one, however. There is much more to it, and it requires skills that not all environment professionals are equipped with, as IEMA chief executive Jan Chmiel told the environmentalist in March.
Chmiel explained that he has encountered environment professionals who have switched from compliance to a sustainability role who feel uncomfortable in their new position because they lack some of the necessary skills.
“They often do not have the social and economic knowledge or the communication and influencing skills to be able to talk to their peers and superiors in a way that demonstrates business acumen,” he said.
An emerging market
CSOs and their ilk are relatively new positions. Recruitment company Acre Resources reported earlier this year that the CSO title started to appear around 2006 in the US before spreading worldwide. But they are still relatively few in number.
A 2008 study of the CSO role in major global companies by US consulting and executive recruitment business Hudson Gain found that only 191 of the 1,241 firms examined had executives listed with responsibility for sustainability (and/or the environment) explicitly indicated in their job title, although several more performed a sustainability role, bringing the total to 214 or 17%.
There is evidence that more businesses are now appointing CSOs. A report from global executive recruitment company Heidrick & Struggles, also published in 2008, stated that there had been a substantial rise in demand for CSOs over the previous 12 months. Another US study, from Footprint Talent and WAP Sustainability Consulting, reinforces the view that the CSO role is more prevalent.
The 2010 report states that the sustainability function as a whole has experienced remarkable recent growth, and forecasts continuing expansion for at least the next five years. Lately the ranks of CSOs have swelled with the appointment of Beatriz Perez at Coca-Cola, Steve Howard at Ikea and Scott Wicker at UPS.
Dealing effectively with environmental challenges, such as carbon emissions and resource efficiency, is increasingly vital to business success, and is fuelling demand for senior sustainability personnel. Environment professionals are often seen as ideal people to take on CSO-type roles, and moving from an environmental to a sustainability role is fairly common.
Network consultancy Six Degrees People reported in 2009 that many CSOs in the world’s largest companies had a safety, health and environment or an environment generalist background.
BT is one of the few UK companies to have had a CSO for several years, a role performed until recently by Chris Tuppen who, in 1991, had been the telecoms company’s first environment manager. Henrietta Anstey, corporate responsibility, sustainability lead at BAE Systems, and Jonathan Garrett (see below), group head of sustainability at infrastructure company Balfour Beatty, also have an extensive environment background and have stepped up to a sustainability position.
Strategic view
For some senior sustainability professionals, the environment is the main focus of their role, as Henrietta Anstey explains: “My role, which was a new position, has evolved over the last three years as momentum has gathered. It has always been 100% spent on environmental issues.”
Similarly, Ian Hill, CSO at Openreach, spends most of his time on environment-related matters. “My role is mainly about the environment, but I do support activities in the social arena – such as charity giving. The 80:20 rule would easily apply.”
The roles of others have a broader remit. In line with the “profit, people, planet” definition of sustainability, Garrett’s role covers all elements of the “triple bottom line”.
“Sustainability at Balfour Beatty has three strands, going under the headings ‘profitable markets’, ‘healthy communities’ and ‘environmental limits’. And my job covers all three areas. For me that is really exciting as I’m getting away from purely working on the environment to working on all aspects of the triple bottom line.”
Irrespective of whether the role is purely an environmental one or is broader, leadership and strategy development are common features. “My job is developing group policy/strategy around sustainability, and its delivery. We’ve developed a 2020 sustainability vision for the company, setting out our ambitions, and a roadmap of how to get there,” explains Garrett.
“I lead our UK Sustainability Services Practice, providing direction to our UK consultancy team and championing new innovations in the sustainability field. This includes leading on business development and proposition development, including new business services for our clients,” says Tony Rooke, head of environment and sustainability at Logica.
Hill’s role also involves strategy development. “I provide thought leadership across Openreach, which feeds into BT Group and externally on the sustainability agenda,” he says. “I also create and deliver innovative solutions that support Openreach’s business goals.”
Strategy delivery is key to Anstey’s work: “My principal focus is to support the businesses and implement the executive-level objectives for environmental sustainability that we created last year.”
Job adverts for senior sustainability roles confirm the focus on strategy development and delivery. Anglian Water, for example, is currently seeking a new head of sustainable development, and responsibilities include developing and coordinating the delivery of the company’s sustainable business strategy.
Stakeholder dialogue is another important feature of CSO-type roles. “I do the group sustainability report,” says Garrett. “And I introduced a stakeholder panel, which now numbers 11 and is a mix of customers, investors, green building council and suppliers.
“They provide feedback on our report and strategy. There’s also a profile-raising piece, to increase awareness of what Balfour Beatty is doing around sustainability. IEMA has helped here, introducing us to the Guardian Sustainable Business network. External communications are increasingly important.
“About a quarter of my time is spent on reporting and other communication activities. The rest is around the 2020 vision and the roadmap.”
Anstey confirms that reporting is a key aspect of her job. “The role includes responding to external requests for data, such as the DJSI [Dow Jones Sustainability Index] or the CDP [Carbon Disclosure Project] and other ad hoc surveys. I am also responsible for improving our global environmental data, which is a big challenge given the number of sites we have. Each year we produce our global carbon footprint, which we publish on our website,” she explains.
In addition, both Anstey and Rooke work with stakeholders, principally customers. “I also work closely with the Ministry of Defence, one of our main UK customers, to implement the principles of sustainability. We have worked together on a number of projects to understand carbon labelling of defence products, apportioning GHG emissions through the supply chain and material scarcity,” reports Anstey.
“My work with clients often entails moving the perception of sustainability as a compliance issue to one where it generates real business value: cost saving, risk mitigation and measurement, and increasingly as providing revenue opportunities,” says Rooke.
Key skills
Senior sustainability roles require a mix of good technical environmental understanding but also management skills that many environmentalists do not possess. The new IEMA skills map, which was launched in the environmentalist in June, defines some of the skills and knowledge required by senior sustainability personnel.
The 14 competencies necessary at leadership level include the ability to “understand business and commercial tools and the influence they have on organisational strategy and effectiveness”, and be able to “influence, persuade and challenge others to lead and promote sustainability”. Another is to “identify and manage strategic opportunities and risks to improve business resilience”.
“There are a lot of skills that you need to bring that are not specific to the environmental area. Many of these are key management skills,” says Rooke, listing these as: consulting, people management, business development, management of profit and loss, innovation, team building, presentation and delivery, networking and strategic/operational planning.
Hill agrees. “I do need an understanding of environmental issues because part of my role is about ensuring risk management and compliance both to legislation and in support of our ISO 14001 ambitions. However, it is much broader than that,” he explains.
“The key skill is in being able to interpret and articulate the big picture (and the detail) of the environmental agenda in the context of the priorities of the business and in terms to which people can relate in their daily roles. In that sense, communication, influencing and change management skills are key. I do not have a large team, so what I achieve has to be done through influence. Listening to colleagues on the ‘frontline’ is also essential and provides some of the best ideas and most fulfilling experiences in terms of implementing them. So it’s a balance of technical skills and softer skills, and the latter are particularly critical.
“So-called ‘softer’ skills, such as influencing, effective stakeholder management and the like, are every bit as important as knowing the detail of the latest piece of legislation. The more senior you become, the more important these skills become.”
Anstey agrees that these skills are vital. “Although my role is an environmental one, I spend a lot of time seeking to build effective relationships and influencing others, so good communications skills are a must. You need to have a genuine interest and a passion for the subject; there are people out there who don’t get it or don’t want to get it,” she says. “If you want people to change, you need to have enthusiasm – otherwise why should they bother?”
Rolling out Balfour Beatty’s 2020 sustainability vision to its 30 operating companies and 50,000 employees around the world required good communication and presentation skills, Garrett acknowledges.
Together with Mike Peasland, CEO of construction services in the UK, who is the senior sponsor for sustainability in the company, Garrett did a roadshow selling the vision to the management teams worldwide. “We did more than 20 half-day meetings,” he says.
Garrett explains that he had completed a course called “making an impact” in a previous role that helped him communicate the vision. “It was all about making presentations, speaking to groups and voice coaching. It was videoed and you’d go through it afterwards,” he says.
The Anglian Water job advert underlines the skills required by CSOs and heads of sustainability. In addition to sustainability knowledge, it asks for management experience in behavioural change, social marketing and managing complex projects, as well as an ability to engage at board level and throughout the organisation, and commercial acumen – specifically, understanding the financial drivers behind sustainability.
In role
The right skill set is vital to successfully applying for such positions. “My advice is to work on skills, knowledge and behaviours, which are the stuff which underpins capability. Increased capability in turn supports stronger influence, and influence is what determines your effectiveness and success,” says Hill.
Anstey also believes that environmentalists should never stop improving themselves. “Getting my Masters (my first environmental degree was in 1990 and a lot had changed), gaining my Chartered Environmentalist status and recently becoming an IEMA Fellow has really helped my development in BAE Systems,” she says. “I would encourage every IEMA member to go for chartered status as it shows you are committed.”
Business knowledge is important, especially as “environmentalists” are often seen as not understanding fully how businesses work.
“If you are working in a corporate environment, get some business acumen as this will help you to be seen more as part of the organisation rather than the specialist ‘outsider’,” says Anstey.
Rooke concurs. “Just having a passion for the environment … is not going to get you very far if you cannot convert that into what businesses and the government need to get through the current economic times,” he says. “The most successful people in sustainability and environment are those who understand how sustainability drivers can deliver real business value.”
Another important tip is to thoroughly understand the organisation you work for, including identifying the key personnel. “My advice would be if you want to bring about change where you work first understand the ‘rules of engagement’ – how does the organisation get things done; what language do they use; how should you present your case and who can help you along the way?” remarks Anstey.
Developing a network is also considered crucial for senior roles. “My career advice is to develop a network, and keep massaging it throughout your career,” says Garrett. “Always look outside your organisation,” advises Hill, “and across and into it as much as upwards. By that, I mean you can always learn from other organisations, so a strong network is critical in helping you bring new ideas into the organisation for which you work.”
My route to head of sustainability at Balfour Beatty
Balfour Beatty employs 50,000 people worldwide and has an annual revenue of £10.5 billion. Jonathan Garrett became group head of sustainability at the infrastructure company in July 2010, having joined as group head of environment in September 2008.
Career path
Garrett graduated from the University of Southampton in 1988 with a BSc in environmental science. The EU Directive on environmental impact assessment (EIA) had recently come into force, and Garrett saw the EIA as an opportunity to put his degree to use. “I thought I’d like to be an environment consultant, but I didn’t know where to start,” he recalls.
In the event, his first job was with a health and safety consultancy. “I did things like asbestos surveys, air monitoring and COSHH [Control of Substances Hazardous to Health] assessments,” he says. “I did that for four years, but I was still looking for that environmental opening,” he explains. “I thought environmental auditing skills would be more in demand, so started looking at how to get into that area.”
To help him get the coveted environmental position, Garrett did a Masters degree at Lancaster University. “It was a new course, an MSc in European environmental policy and regulation,” he explains. “What appealed to me about the course was that half of it was traditionally taught, so six months in a classroom, and the other half (six months) was spent researching and writing a dissertation. I thought that if I plan the dissertation right, I can do it in an organisation and get great work experience.”
He approached British Airways (BA) with the offer of working for free for six months. At the same time, he worked part time for his previous firm collecting samples for testing. “It worked out really well. I’d get up really early, go to Swindon, pick up the samples, get some water samples in Cowley, drop them all off in Wimbledon and be at Heathrow for 10am.” His time at BA coincided with the introduction of BS 7750, so he did his dissertation on how one could apply BS 7750 in the company.
As soon as Garrett completed the MSc, he got a job as an environment scientist with Babtie Environmental, now Jacobs. “That was 1993, so just pre-ISO 14001,” he recalls.
Later, following a chance encounter at an environmental breakfast meeting in Farnham with Alan Fletcher from March Consulting, Garrett got a job as a senior consultant.
“That was my big break. It was a fantastic job. I was there for three years. My CV was turned on its head. I gained heaps of experience in environmental training and auditing. I did work in the Ukraine, Greece and the Czech Republic as well as the UK. March’s client base was industrial with a bit of public sector, so it was ideal,” he says.
In October 1997, he followed Fletcher to the LGC (Laboratory of the Government Chemist), where Garrett established a whole new business stream around environmental management systems.
His next career move came in 1999. “I’d done 10 years in consultancy and had a desire to work on the other side of the fence, to go into industry. I saw a full-page advert for an environmental manager at Smiths Industries (now Smiths Group). That was just what I was looking for,” he explains.
“When I started, all Smiths had was an environmental policy statement. So, I had a clean sheet to develop an environmental strategy. We achieved 14001 at every site around the world (17 countries) over three years. We rolled it out with ERM – a global EMS training programme. I did my first corporate environmental report at Smiths.”
After six years at Smiths, Garrett was headhunted to the role of safety and environment director at RHM (Rank, Hovis McDougall). “The appeal of this job was that it was a different business model: UK-based and centralised. The other key draw was that at Smiths I just had one administrator, with the other key personnel out in the business. At RHM I had a 28-strong team.”
The takeover of RHM by Premier Foods saw Garrett move on, becoming head of corporate social responsibility at Brett, a largely southeast-based building materials company. After a year with Brett, he was headhunted to his current position at Balfour Beatty.
What tips does Garrett have for others wanting to further their careers in a similar way?
“Don’t think you necessarily have to start with an environmental job. You can always move sideways,” he says. He also advises people to look for opportunities.
“I just happened to see a draft copy of BS 7750 and could tell it was going to be a growth area. And, once you are in, it’s about promoting yourself. If your organisation has a leadership talent pool, find out how you get into it and what you need to do to make the leap into a leadership role. Also, develop your network.”
