Where to now for careers in sustainability? Five minutes with Turning Green’s Lisa Tarry…

Turning Green is a recruitment and executive searchfirm specialising in the corporate responsibility, energy efficiency, carbon and environmental markets. Managing Director, Lisa Tarry, is a member of the Advisory Board for the Australian Sustainability Conference & Exhibition. Here Lisa addresses a few questions we put to her about careers in sustainability and how the industry is evolving.

How long has Turning Green been around and how have you seen market demand change in that time?

Turning Greenwas set up in 2008 and in the first years we saw a demand for consultants of all disciplines – environmental, sustainability, climate change strategists.  These roles focused on auditing and reporting requirements. The GFC saw organisations look more at efficiency projects around water, energy and waste and this opened up opportunities for technical professionals and we also saw an increased uptake of post-graduate courses in Environmental Management, Sustainability and Carbon Management.

The main gap for Australia has been at the strategic level which has seen many senior professionals move into the not for profit and industry association arena where their skills could be utilised to affect change. Demand for more strategic roles will now increase as a result of the carbon tax and clean energy plan, and as momentum builds there will finally be a need at the top end and gaps will emerge.

What skill sets and personal attributes do you see employers favouring in sustainability roles?

The Turning Green Sustainability Roles & Salary Survey highlighted 22% of 400 respondents operate in a stand-alone capacity. Assuming this to be the status quo for the immediate future, sustainability professionals face continued pressure to be across a number of key areas.

Technically they will need a good grasp of the impact their organisation has on the environment through its operations, which requires a good understanding of the impact of waste, water, energy, packaging and lifecycle analysis for goods and services.  They will need to find innovative solutions in all these areas appropriate to the industry sectors they are operating in.

They will need to minimise any skills gap within a range of fields, including legislation compliance, emissions trading, renewable energy, risk management, sustainability principles, governance and disclosure, carbon management, CSR program implementation and communication and marketing. The more multidisciplinary the approach is, the more we can recruit people with a sustainability mindset that will be of great benefit to the organisation.

What are your predictions for sustainability as a role discipline?

I think that leading companies will develop innovative products, processes and business models to meet both financial and non-financial objectives.  Embedding sustainability into core business will see corporate decision-makers balance investors’ expectations of financial performance along with the non-financial performance demands (environmental, social and governance) of other stakeholders.

This is inevitable as it becomes common practice to distinguish between “normative” and “business case” CSR intentions (ie, altruistic rationale or “doing the right thing” versus purposefully designing and implementing a CSR strategy for competitive advantage).

Sustainability is very much the key philosophy of CSR, driving companies to act for the long term good of all stakeholders and they correspondingly therefore must be able to account for their actions within this framework.

What excites you most about the sustainability movement in business and what are your personal hopes for industry adoption?

What excites me most is being mindful and present as this era unfolds and witnessing the changes that ensue. Whilst the industrial revolution changed our quality of living, what we now know about climate science, finite resources and how we can better care for our planet leaves us with no excuse but to act accordingly. It’s fascinating to watch how innovation applied in the corporate world can result in positive change that enables continued growth but in a sustainable manner.  This is not easy and the question of whether economic growth and sustainability can co-exist is continually debated.

I am also excited by the increase in industry adoption, in a growing trend whereby many countries have begun requiring companies to report their environmental, social, and governance performance. There is now evidence to show that reporting actually induces companies to improve their non-financial performance and contribute toward a sustainable society.

Find out more about Turning Green.