How do I work in Sustainability?

It’s a question I’m asked all the time. Usually by smart, capable people who care about climate and impact, assuming the answer involves a career pivot, a new qualification, or landing a shiny role with “sustainability” in the title.

My answer usually surprises them:

Stay in the job you have!

It’s not what most people expect.
It’s not what many sustainability professionals advise.
But it’s often the most impactful thing you can do.

Why staying put can create more impact

Sustainability isn’t a single function or a stand alone role. It’s a network of issues that cut across how organisations operate, make decisions, manage risk, spend money, and create value.

Which means every role already sits somewhere in that network.

Here’s why your current job matters more than you think.

1. You already have skills, credibility, and influence

In your current role, you’ve built experience, relationships, and trust. That gives you a level of influence — even if it doesn’t feel like much.

You understand how decisions are really made. You know where the friction points are. You have context that an external hire or a newly created sustainability role simply won’t.

Influence compounds. Starting again often means giving that up.

2. Sustainability shows up everywhere

Sustainability isn’t just about emissions, reporting frameworks, or ESG decks. It shows up in:

• Purchasing and supplier decisions

• Product design and materials

• Risk management and insurance

• Pricing, inventory, and waste

• Workforce policies and culture

• Capital allocation and investment decisions

Every function touches sustainability - whether it’s labelled that way or not.

If you work in finance, operations, procurement, sales, HR, legal, marketing, strategy, or tech, sustainability is already in your remit. You just may not be looking at it through that lens yet.

3. Doing your role differently beats changing your title

When you build your understanding of sustainability principles, you start asking better questions in the role you already have.

You notice risks earlier.
You spot inefficiencies others ignore.
You design processes that are more resilient, not just cheaper or faster.

That kind of impact is far more powerful than starting again in a junior or narrowly scoped sustainability role.

Change from the inside almost always travels further.

4. You avoid the “permission problem”

Creating a new sustainability role often requires convincing leadership it’s necessary, funded, and urgent. That can take years, if it happens at all.

By contrast, applying sustainability thinking inside your existing responsibilities doesn’t require permission. You’re not asking to add headcount or reinvent the org chart. You’re improving how work gets done.

That’s a much easier sell.

What this doesn’t mean

This isn’t an argument for winging it or slapping a green label on business-as-usual. You can’t create meaningful impact without building your capability.

Staying in your role doesn’t mean doing nothing differently. It means:

• Learning core sustainability principles

• Understanding how environmental and social issues intersect with business models

• Connecting sustainability to commercial outcomes, not slogans

• Applying that thinking deliberately in your day-to-day decisions

• Working with experienced sustainability professionals.

You don’t need to change your job title to do that. You need to change how you see your job.

The quiet power of embedded sustainability

Some of the most effective sustainability work never sits in a sustainability team.

It happens when:

• A procurement lead rewrites supplier criteria

• A finance manager reframes risk and capital decisions

• An operations leader redesigns systems to reduce waste

• A product team questions materials and lifecycle impacts

• Every employee eliminates waste and inefficiency in their job.

That’s not “extra” work. That’s better work. And it’s often where the real leverage sits.

Where to start

If you’re curious about sustainability but unsure how it applies to your role, start by building shared language, confidence, and practical understanding.

You don’t need to quit your job to make a difference. You need to see it differently.

If you want support doing that, my online impact community is designed to help people apply sustainability thinking where they already are, without career resets or empty theory.

Because the fastest path to impact usually isn’t a new role. It’s using the one you already have, better.

Get more details on the online impact community here.