Today, Greenbiz published “CSOs in a pickle,” an article I wrote about the immense challenge chief sustainability officers face to do their jobs.
CSOs have an impossible job! They are tasked with helping their CEOs guide their companies through the sustainability transformation. Yet, data gathered from nearly 100 CSOs at a February 2016 meeting I ran told us that they have:
- Very little in-person time with the CEO (generally not even 30 minutes each quarter),
- Very little air time with the Board of Directors, and
- Pathetically small access to budgets and resources.
But all is not lost. We outline five key actions that CSOs can take to increase their leverage. In addition, we provide a powerful, recent case study where a sustainability director single-handedly got his full board of directors to spend a half-day in a sustainability scenario planning exercise.