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How to be a Chief Sustainability Officer: Leading the Transition to a Sustainable Organisation
The Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) has become a crucial member of leadership teams, deeply involved in shaping company strategy and enhancing operations across all areas. However, despite the abundance of sustainability frameworks, practical insights on implementing effective corporate sustainability strategies remain elusive and organisations struggle to transition in a meaningful and practical way.
This book is an essential guide for new or prospective CSOs, providing foundational insights how to anchor sustainability within the core strategy of an organisation. It helps to focus on impactful changes and avoid distraction and “greenwash". Using a proven framework, this book de-constructs the CSO role. It links sustainability to the core areas of culture and strategy. It guides the reader through seven technical areas that make up the full sustainability role. It covers execution, building your team and leveraging technology. Finally, it looks to the future of this rapidly evolving area.
This book distils over two decades of sustainability theory and 30 years of combined management experience into a hands-on, comprehensive guide for CSOs. It also serves as an important reference for Boards, Committees, and leaders who are ready to embrace the sustainability transition and position their organisations for long-term, ethically-driven success.
CHECK OUT JENNIFER'S NEW PODCAST - THE C-SUITE FRAMEWORK - AVAILABLE HERE
OR WHEREVER YOU GET YOUR PODCASTS.
This book is an essential guide for new or prospective CSOs, providing foundational insights how to anchor sustainability within the core strategy of an organisation. It helps to focus on impactful changes and avoid distraction and “greenwash". Using a proven framework, this book de-constructs the CSO role. It links sustainability to the core areas of culture and strategy. It guides the reader through seven technical areas that make up the full sustainability role. It covers execution, building your team and leveraging technology. Finally, it looks to the future of this rapidly evolving area.
This book distils over two decades of sustainability theory and 30 years of combined management experience into a hands-on, comprehensive guide for CSOs. It also serves as an important reference for Boards, Committees, and leaders who are ready to embrace the sustainability transition and position their organisations for long-term, ethically-driven success.
CHECK OUT JENNIFER'S NEW PODCAST - THE C-SUITE FRAMEWORK - AVAILABLE HERE
OR WHEREVER YOU GET YOUR PODCASTS.
329 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 8, 2024
48 people are currently reading
115 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 21, 2024
An Essential Starting Point for Aspiring Sustainability Executives
"How to be Chief Sustainability Officer" is an indispensable guide for sustainability managers and executives. This book serves as a crucial starting point, illustrating both the importance of the role and the challenges in building Sustainability as a profession.
One of the key strengths of this book is its comprehensive approach. It covers a vast array of topics, from the day-to-day responsibilities of a CSO to more technical areas like materiality assessments and impact measurement. The balance between practical advice and conceptual frameworks is commendable, although it sometimes swings from extremely practical tips like organizing a "movie night" to highly strategic guidance on aligning company strategy with sustainability goals.
However, this book also highlights how far we still have to go in establishing Sustainability as a recognized profession. A clear example is the inclusion of a chapter on Sustainability Vocabulary. If you were writing a book for upcoming CFOs, you would never need a chapter on Finance Glossary: how to define EBITDA. This points to the ongoing need for foundational education in the field.
For the next edition, I would suggest reducing the explanatory content on basic sustainability concepts (akin to explaining EBITDA for finance professionals) and expanding the sections on managing key C-suite relationships. This subject is briefly touched upon in the first chapter but warrants a much deeper exploration. Understanding how to effectively manage these relationships could fill an entire book and is crucial for the success of any CSO.
Additionally, restructuring the second section along the lines of an Operating Framework, as for example recently described in "Scaling People" by Claire Hughes Johnson (executive and leader at both Google and Stripe), would provide a more robust foundation for building Sustainability as a Function. This would elevate the profession to the same level of importance as HR, IT, Finance, and Legal functions, which are often considered and titled "Business Partners" (e.g. HR BP) in corporate environments.
Despite these points of critique, the book is an excellent resource that covers a lot of ground and balances practical and conceptual advice most of the time quite successfully. It's a must-read for anyone looking to make a significant impact in the field of sustainability and for organizations aiming to integrate sustainability into their core operations effectively.
"How to be Chief Sustainability Officer" is an indispensable guide for sustainability managers and executives. This book serves as a crucial starting point, illustrating both the importance of the role and the challenges in building Sustainability as a profession.
One of the key strengths of this book is its comprehensive approach. It covers a vast array of topics, from the day-to-day responsibilities of a CSO to more technical areas like materiality assessments and impact measurement. The balance between practical advice and conceptual frameworks is commendable, although it sometimes swings from extremely practical tips like organizing a "movie night" to highly strategic guidance on aligning company strategy with sustainability goals.
However, this book also highlights how far we still have to go in establishing Sustainability as a recognized profession. A clear example is the inclusion of a chapter on Sustainability Vocabulary. If you were writing a book for upcoming CFOs, you would never need a chapter on Finance Glossary: how to define EBITDA. This points to the ongoing need for foundational education in the field.
For the next edition, I would suggest reducing the explanatory content on basic sustainability concepts (akin to explaining EBITDA for finance professionals) and expanding the sections on managing key C-suite relationships. This subject is briefly touched upon in the first chapter but warrants a much deeper exploration. Understanding how to effectively manage these relationships could fill an entire book and is crucial for the success of any CSO.
Additionally, restructuring the second section along the lines of an Operating Framework, as for example recently described in "Scaling People" by Claire Hughes Johnson (executive and leader at both Google and Stripe), would provide a more robust foundation for building Sustainability as a Function. This would elevate the profession to the same level of importance as HR, IT, Finance, and Legal functions, which are often considered and titled "Business Partners" (e.g. HR BP) in corporate environments.
Despite these points of critique, the book is an excellent resource that covers a lot of ground and balances practical and conceptual advice most of the time quite successfully. It's a must-read for anyone looking to make a significant impact in the field of sustainability and for organizations aiming to integrate sustainability into their core operations effectively.
November 4, 2024
This book is much needed as the CSO role continues to grow and evolve in complexity and number.
Having just completed a Master of Sustainability I am enjoying the strategy-to-implementation focus of this book.
A great guide for anyone in the industry or executives establishing this function.
Having just completed a Master of Sustainability I am enjoying the strategy-to-implementation focus of this book.
A great guide for anyone in the industry or executives establishing this function.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews