Are chief sustainability officer jobs women's fast-track to the C-suite?

Women hold many major leadership positions in sustainability. Their presence is important for representation – but familiar problems may make these gains temporary.

In 2022, Mattel Inc released a series of four Eco-Leadership Team Barbies, one of which was a chief of sustainability officer. Dressed in a sleek pink suit, mobile phone and computer in hand, she's described as "ready to help companies go green and find creative ways to solve problems affecting her community". A cultural bellwether, the toy reflected a trend already well underway: the rise of women in the role of chief corporate sustainability officer (CSO). 

According to the global sustainability recruiting firm Weinreb Group, in 2011, the majority of CSO roles were held by men (72%), with just 10 of the then 29 CSO roles held by women. In 2020, when more companies than ever hired their first CSO, female CSOs broke the 50% mark; by 2021, held more than half (54%) of CSO positions. CSO presence at Davos, home to the World Economic Forum's annual meeting, tripled from 20 to 60 in the past five years, with more than 60% of these held by women.

Outside the C-suite, sustainability leadership in general also currently skews female, with the percentage of women holding any sustainability position rising steadily since 2010. Between 2011 and 2020, women with a vice president role grew from 31% to 51%. The pool of female directors grew from 37% to 55%. Markedly, the percentage of female managers in sustainability roles has gone up the most, from 39% to 63%.

As women traditionally struggle to climb the corporate ladder in general – for reasons including gender stereotypes, lack of support and shaky confidence – a new class of sustainability leadership positions represents a novel path to high-ranking roles, including within the C-suite. And for some women, it's a fast-track to top-ranking positions as well as a way to make a real difference in the corporate world. But a larger problem still looms in the workplace – and it's a familiar one for women hoping to excel.

One reason for this swath of women at top leadership ranks in sustainability is because these jobs are wholly new, with little history or roadmap for execution – it was not a job that automatically went to men because they'd historically filled these roles. 

"When CSOs began being introduced in businesses, there was no real precedent for the job description or type of role holder, so it came without the trappings of a traditionally male or female domain," says María Mendiluce, CEO of We Mean Business Coalition, which works with businesses to accelerate transitions to net-zero emissions. 

More like this:

And they are an excellent fit for many women, whose passions and talents align with the goals of the role – and who are primed to create positive business outcomes. Researchers have found women are drawn to working on solutions to climate change and are more likely to be concerned about the environment and have stronger pro-climate opinions and beliefs than men.

From corporate leadership to product development, evidence also suggests women are the most likely changemakers for climate action in economic areas; for example, companies with more women on the board are more likely to invest in renewable power generation, low-carbon products and energy efficiency. 

They're also known to possess the skills and attributes needed to tackle the leadership challenges inherent in sustainability and social change. And according to the European Investment Fund, women-led firms have higher ESG scores than other companies, and businesses with greater representation of women in leadership positions have better track records of adopting environmentally friendly policies.

The advancement of women into these top roles is not only good for representation and diversity, but there's also staying power: these jobs are not going anywhere. "Sustainability is now a critical consideration in decision-making from the boardroom on down, and customers demand that we understand these issues as a core part of how we run our businesses and operate in our communities," says Kara Hurst, chief sustainability officer at Amazon. 

Mendiluce believes that the more impact women's leadership has on sustainability and performance, the more CSO will become "a mainstream position for recruitment, talent investment and promotion within organisations".

Yet while women are advancing in sustainability quicker than other business areas – and the CSO role may be perceived as women's ticket into the boardroom – it doesn't guarantee more women in the C-suite overall. 

Despite the work of trailblazing female CSOs and other leaders in the space, women in sustainability positions are still afflicted with many of the same issues that hold back women leaders in general. Chief among these is the 'broken rung' phenomenon, in which women are often passed over for the management positions that lead to higher leadership jobs.

So, women may hold these positions now, but future CSOs will be found in the talent pipeline. And many candidates in waiting are men.

Despite women joining the "green" talent pool at a higher rate than men throughout the past two years, the growth is still more than 2.5-times too slow to close the widening green-talent gender gap. Two-thirds of the green talent pool is male, and the gender gap has grown by 25% during the past seven years. 

"For senior green roles [like CSO], women aren't developing the skills quickly enough and there's a widening green talent gender gap, which suggests that this is not a fast track to the C-suite," says Sue Duke, vice president of global public policy at LinkedIn. These are 88 million jobs in green sectors, and that number is expected to go up to 155 million in 2030.

But experts believe even as jobs grow, women's involvement could plummet. "This gulf will keep growing if we don't change the current trajectory," warns Duke.

Experts say it's important that green roles are offering a path to advancement for some women. But at the same time, they argue it's also crucial not to pigeonhole them to one type of leadership.

"We don't want certain senior roles to feel like they're one of just a few routes for women to reach the top in an organisation," says Duke. "While the CSO role represents a new route to the C-suite that women can take advantage of, we must make sure it's actually a viable path by equipping women with skills they need to successfully coordinate sustainability efforts – whether that's within green industries, or helping companies across industries reach their climate goals."

Sustainability roles can be part of the change, but experts say it's still important to solve for the big picture. "We need more women in leadership positions across all sectors and jobs, period," says Amazon's Hurst. "Do I want more women in sustainability? Also yes. I hope that women exploring different career paths today can see the growing number of women leading sustainability efforts across global companies as a point of inspiration and pride."