Rise of the chief sustainability officer

The perspective that meaningful and credible sustainability reporting is an essential requirement for any responsible business is increasingly becoming accepted by many companies around the world. Yet reporting cannot take place in isolation. Sustainability is a critical aspect of business strategy and operational decision making, which needs to be embedded in the corporate DNA through a transformative process. That process takes time and requires strong leadership at the C-suite level, which has led to the emergence of the chief sustainability officer (CSO). The mandate of the CSO can be expected to continue to evolve, while a comprehensive understanding of sustainability performance is likely to be a growing requirement for many other senior roles by the chief financial officer, chief risk officer, and all the way up to CEO. Indeed, the ideal situation will see a CSO as unnecessary, with sustainability effectively integrated throughout the company’s operations, practices, products and services.