Firstly, what is a Sustainability Manager?
Responsible for the development, management and implementation of an organisation’s sustainability strategy and agenda, a sustainability manager’s role is pivotal in understanding how an organisation has an impact on the world around them through business practice. This can be in terms of an organisation’s impact on the environment, resource consumption, supply chain practices, community engagement, employee engagement and the impact of their business practices or products and services in general.
The Sustainability Manager is also involved in technical support, education and business development, ensuring sustainability is integrated seamlessly into all elements. They play a crucial role in driving consistency and transparency, ensuring the organisation’s core sustainability commitments are maintained and ultimately exceeded.
At Talent Nation our experience and understanding of the sustainability sector enables us to bring together a range of knowledge from roles we have previously recruited as well as additional research and information from position descriptions we have sourced externally. Therefore we have created a general guide of how to get there:
Every role is slightly different however most have a common set of skills and attributes required:
the qualifications
- A university degree or equivalent is essential with post graduate studies desirable.
the industry experience
- 7-10+ years of experience in a professional sustainability environment.
- Previous experience and active participation in various sustainability programs.
- Experience managing projects in challenging and sometimes national or global scale environments
- Management & leadership experience.
the skills and knowledge
- A strong and up to date theoretical understanding of sustainability.
- Strong data management, budgeting and sustainability reporting skills
- Ability to build personal and organisational credibility and build beneficial internal and external relationships.
- Ability to manage external contractors to meet deadlines and goals
- Ambitious with a high level of energy and commitment
- Decision maker and solutions oriented
- Able to adapt quickly to changes
- Excellent written, verbal communication and influencing skills
- Sustainability reporting bodies and indexes
