As corporate sustainability challenges grow more complex, chief sustainability officers (CSOs) are being hired at record rates. They come from diverse professional backgrounds, underscoring the multidisciplinary nature of the role, and often find themselves navigating uncharted waters, tasked with steering an entire enterprise toward ambitious goals. This mandate demands more than just technical knowledge, it demands leadership, vision, and the ability to inspire change at all levels.
While technical guidance on sustainability is widely available through consultants, vendors, and the scientific community, there remains a significant gap in the transfer of practical wisdom. The Green Seat Guide bridges that gap with insights, strategies, and lessons learned from experienced sustainability executives. The aim of the guide is to accelerate the impact of sustainability leaders, new and experienced, by offering practical guidance and learned wisdom from those who have pioneered the role.
Each chapter focuses on an essential component of the sustainability journey and includes a selection of ready-to-use tools to support the adoption of key ideas and tactics.
Chapter 2 – Organizing your team
With a strategy in hand, creating and deploying a well-rounded sustainability team is the sustainability executive’s next most important task. Whether you’ve inherited a staff or need to build a team from scratch, you should be mindful of balancing your technical needs with your strategic needs. Your team will need to be rigorous, detail-oriented, and versatile, and you will need to build key cross-functional relationships beyond your direct reports.
Chapter 2 of The Green Seat Guide provides guidance on building a successful sustainability team, drawing on the rich insights of those who have done so before.
It is comprised of four sections:
- Working with consultants
- Designing your core team
- Sourcing and screening the right talent
- Leveraging existing internal capabilities
For insights on developing a sustainability strategy, don’t miss Chapter 1.
