State of the sustainability profession

Only 6% of sustainability professionals say their organisation links remuneration to performance on green targets, according to a new report by The Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals (ISEP) – formerly known as IEMA.

This comes despite green jobs growing at four times the pace of overall UK employment, and the net zero economy growing three times faster than the overall UK economy – contributing over £80bn last year.

ISEP CEO Sarah Mukherjee said businesses often link pay to sales targets, customer experience and operational metrics – and if we are going achieve our net zero targets and other crucial environmental outcomes, financial incentives need to be playing a role.

The latest State of the Profession report, based on a survey of ISEP members and interviews with industry leaders, explores the growing role, remit, responsibilities and impact that sustainability and environmental professionals are playing in organisations across all sectors of the economy.

Value & risk

According to the survey, the sustainability function within organisations is increasingly creating as well as protecting value, with 30% of professionals now contributing to Product and Service Innovation while 66% influence Strategy and Research.

However, most focus remains on disciplines that support value protection, such as Reporting and Disclosure (79%), Compliance (76%) and Risk Management (68%).

Only 6% of sustainability and environmental professionals say they work in organisations where remuneration – for relevant roles – is directly linked to performance on sustainability and environmental targets.

‘Green jobs are growing at three to four times the rate of the rest of the economy and for sustainability professionals, their responsibilities and influence are growing. More than 40% of survey respondents have experienced a change in remit in the past year.

‘This dynamism is driven by a combination of factors, from the acceleration of the net zero economy to the increasing pressure of regulatory reporting and compliance across emissions, waste, pollution and other environmental performance measures.

‘Hitting those green targets is vital to the reputation of businesses. However, there is also a growing recognition that the role of sustainability and environmental professionals is about more than just protecting value and mitigating risk.

‘They possess the knowledge, skillset and technical discipline to add value to business in all kinds of ways – from improving efficiency and future proofing supply chains through to influencing business strategy and supporting product and service innovation.’

LAILA TAKEH
State of the Profession author and ISEP Fellow