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Ask anybody who’s been a CEO, CFO or some other number of C-suite government they usually’ll inform you the roles right this moment are very totally different from what they have been 20 years in the past. Completely different challenges demand totally different abilities, experiences and aptitudes, and the position of chief sustainability officer isn’t any exception. For one, in most firms the position didn’t exist 20 years in the past, and up to now twenty years it’s tumbled, twisted and catapulted to a seat on the desk.
What began as a nice-to-have, feel-good position for a lot of firms has now, in some instances, turn into a strategic pillar of their core enterprise endeavors. And the place continues to evolve, formed by mounting environmental pressures, shifting stakeholder expectations and an more and more advanced political and regulatory panorama.
Performing like chameleons
CSOs, at their core, are masters of resilience. In right this moment’s geopolitical panorama outlined by growing volatility and uncertainty, they adapt to regardless of the second calls for like chameleons. When the highlight calls, they turn into compelling storytellers, championing their firm’s imaginative and prescient. When discretion is required, they work behind the scenes, quietly constructing coalitions and forging consensus.
Dave Stangis, a veteran CSO, supplied a very insightful perspective in Weinreb Group’s 2025 CSO Report: “CSO management is like Aikido: It takes the right combination of artwork and science. Ten years in the past, the CSO wanted a 50/50 break up to determine the place. Lately, the calls for of the position have shifted to extra like 75 p.c artwork and 25 p.c science.”
John Davies, president of the Trellis Community, usually speaks of the CSO position as chief translation officer, given totally different capabilities converse totally different “languages”: monetary executives most frequently converse by way of threat mitigation and return on funding, whereas operations leaders concentrate on effectivity positive aspects and course of enhancements and human sources professionals think about expertise attraction and retention.
The clever CSO learns to talk all these languages, crafting arguments that resonate with every viewers whereas sustaining consistency within the underlying message. This requires not simply analytical abilities however emotional intelligence, cultural sensitivity and a deep understanding of organizational dynamics.
The best CSOs turn into organizational anthropologists, learning the formal and casual energy buildings inside their firms to establish the simplest pathways for driving change. However there are straightforward tips to get began on this path. For instance, Microsoft’s Jim Hanna asks leaders two questions: “What retains you up at night time and what are you incentivized on?”
In line with Weinreb Group’s 2025 CSO Report, CSO’s prime key attributes are: company chameleon aligning with a various set of inner and exterior stakeholders; working at each the big-picture and basic ranges; and programs pondering.
Sustaining core id
The chameleon analogy is especially highly effective as a result of it highlights an important distinction: Whereas a chameleon could change its colour to go well with the setting, it doesn’t change its elementary nature. Equally, the simplest CSOs and their groups preserve a constant core id and set of values whereas adapting their strategy to totally different contexts and challenges. This steadiness between adaptability and authenticity is among the most troublesome facets of sustainability management to grasp.
One vital step on this effort is to know thyself and which of the six company sustainability archetypes your organization matches: Field checker; Danger discount pushed; Instant returns pushed; Model and repute pushed; Goal and impression pushed or innovation pushed.
Many CSOs went into their roles to drive societal impression and subsequently skew in direction of function and impression as their default mode. This labored properly when these applications have been philanthropic and additive, however as they’ve turn into core to including enterprise worth, this orientation can derail some. The CSO right this moment has to have the ability to maintain conflicting concepts of their head on the identical time. A kind of psychological origami that’s troublesome to good.
Take into account a narrative we as soon as heard: Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia was challenged by his gross sales crew on how they have been to fulfill their formidable gross sales targets when the corporate was selling the boundaries of progress and anti-consumerism in its campaigns. He informed them that holding that stress and discovering methods to handle it was the job and walked away — leaving the crew to discover a approach to obtain each. They did. Some model of this problem is the one many CSOs face as ESG efforts turn into extra business-integrated and aligned.
CSOs who perceive the complexity of the second, various factors of view, experiences and incentives, and mould themselves to their actuality whereas staying true to their elementary function will likely be greatest suited to ship on the conviction that enterprise can and have to be a pressure for optimistic change on this planet and do properly within the course of.
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