by Shane Henson — October 3, 2011—As more companies focus on being good stewards of the environment, many are taking the initiative to hire someone specifically responsible for helping the company meet this goal. The position has evolved in recent years from largely a director-level position, to vice president, and it has now entered the c-suite as chief sustainability officer (CSO). However, until the recent publication of CSO Back Story: How Chief Sustainability Officers Reached the C-Suite, little was available to define or question the CSO role’s scope, or to give best practices. The report, released through the Weinreb Group, an executive search and consulting firm, promises to fill this gap by offering cutting-edge research on CSOs and their role to support the bottom-line.
Conducted over three months, the report offers a first-ever look at these executives’ functional responsibilities, key performance indicators and organizational structures, besides offering in-depth career profiles of five sustainability chiefs: Kathrin Winkler, EMC; Peter Graf, SAP; Charlene Lake, AT&T; Scott Wicker, UPS; and Linda Fisher, DuPont.
“This data demonstrates the value for executive leaders to bring acute understanding of external factors such as climate change into business strategy. Having a sustainability chief on the executive team supports developing new business opportunities and avoiding costly risks,” observes Ellen Weinreb, CEO of the Weinreb Group. “Business dynamics are changing and so must those who manage. These CSOs are charting new territory that will increasingly define which organizations are successful in the long run.”
