CSOs Past, Present, and Future: How the Role Keeps Reinventing Itself

As sustainability work moves from building programs to embedding them across the business, what carries forward between generations of leaders, and what gets reinvented? What can practitioners at different career stages learn from each other about building influence and growing a career that lasts?

The sustainability profession has been reinvented more than once, growing from a lone champion’s side project into an executive role with budgets, disclosure obligations, and a seat in strategic conversations. Practitioners are now shaping that role from very different vantage points across industries and levels of leadership, from those who built the function from scratch to those just deciding what they want it to become. Join sustainability leaders at every career stage as they compare notes on what the job demands today, how influence actually gets built inside a company, and where the role is headed, and leave with a clearer view of how to grow your own career and team through the next cycle.