Ten years ago, the job of a sustainability manager was largely about data collection, writing sustainability reports, and representing the company externally. Today, we see a clear shift where the sustainability manager is also expected to drive change across the organization, increasingly with a sharp focus on business impact.
At its core, this is about financial risks and opportunities. Will your cost of financing rise as banks start pricing climate risk? Are you at risk of ending up with stranded assets, or assets that simply can no longer be insured? A growing number of large private and public actors are tightening sustainability requirements for suppliers, which will lead to lost key customers for companies that fail to keep up.
Responsibility Is Spreading Across the Organization
Ownership of what was previously concentrated in the sustainability function is now partly moving out into the organization. Reporting is being linked to controllers and finance. Sustainability risks are moving to the risk function, and communications to public affairs and marketing. The integration of sustainability into supplier dialogues and procurement is being embedded in purchasing processes.
The sustainability manager therefore plays a critical role in coordinating company efforts toward a sustainable and profitable transition. But arguing that a sustainability manager is no longer needed just because sustainability is being integrated across the organization is a bit like a CEO abolishing the CFO because financial matters are embedded in operations. The sustainability function continues to serve an important role as a center of expertise, setting direction, ensuring momentum, and driving follow-up.
Sustainability Work After Omnibus?
CSRD raised the bar for sustainability work and reporting. Even though Omnibus has dramatically reduced the number of companies formally in scope, the effect remains: customers, investors, and financiers have adjusted their expectations upward, and they show no signs of lowering them.
What we see with our clients is that CSRD has raised the bar even for those who formally fall outside the reporting requirements. Structures for double materiality, value chain data collection, and climate target governance are now in place to a degree that was simply unimaginable just a few years ago. The market has adapted. Expectations from customers, investors, and financiers have not come down.
But reporting is not the goal. Reporting creates the conditions. Value is created when the analysis of collected data is used to make better decisions: where should we invest, how should we price, which offerings are sustainable over the long term?
Three Shifts We See With Our Clients:
- From reporting to business impact. The sustainability manager needs to help the organization navigate between material impact on people and the environment and financial risks and opportunities, now and in the future, working closely with different functions. Understanding when material environmental impact and climate risks show up on the income statement and balance sheet and acting before that happens. Climate scenario analysis and double materiality are two concrete tools for doing exactly that.
- From staff to line. The concrete and practical decisions are made in procurement, in product development, in the marketing department. The sustainability manager needs to help set the sustainability direction through targets, prioritized activities, and policies, and collaborate with the responsible functions. That requires the ability to translate what sustainability means for different parts of the business in a way that is clear and actionable.
- From expert to change leader. No one can be an expert on everything when sustainability topics such as climate, biodiversity, social issues, value chain responsibility, and regulatory development are all material. The sustainability manager becomes the person who knows what expertise is needed and when, both inside and outside the organization, and who can prioritize and drive change through the business.
Collaboration and Change Leadership: The New Core Competencies
As sustainability work spreads across the organization, coordination is what determines whether anything actually happens. The sustainability manager does not need to have all the answers, but must get other functions to take ownership of the right questions. That is change leadership, not sustainability expertise in the traditional sense. Building understanding, forging alliances, managing resistance, and holding the course when other priorities push in. That is the capability that separates a sustainability manager who gets things done from one who produces reports.
What Does It Take to Succeed?
- Budget and resources. A mandate without resources is an empty promise. Driving change across the organization requires dedicated funding, otherwise ambition stays on paper.
- Integrating sustainability into the strategic annual cycle. Sustainability cannot run on a parallel track. It needs to be embedded in the budgeting process, business planning, and management and board-level follow-up.
- Measurability at the right level. Overarching targets are necessary, but it is activity plans and sub-targets by function that drive real progress.
- Change leadership as a core competency. Getting people to want to and dare to change how they work becomes at least as important as knowing the rules and methodologies.
- Leadership and board engagement. Having a mandate is not the same as having a CEO and board who actively drive the agenda. The latter is often the real success factor.
- Access to the right expertise. No sustainability manager can be an expert on everything, and should not have to be. It is about knowing what expertise is needed and when, and securing access to it, both internally and externally.
The companies at the forefront have understood that sustainability risks are business risks. The question is not whether they will affect your operations, but when and by how much.
Read More:
- Experten: Här är nycklarna som får hållbarhet att lyfta i företagsledningen, Miljö & Utveckling, April 17 2026, Markus Ekelund, SEO at 2050 Consulting
- “A Shift That Deserves More Attention: The Shifting Role of the Sustainability Director/Manager”, LinkedIn, April 2026, Anna Rindefjell, Head of Business Unit and Marketing Manager at 2050 Consulting
The Authors & Contacts:
Senior Consultant at 2050
Senior Consultant at 2050
This article is part of 2050 Highlights, a series where we explore pressing sustainability and business topics. Want to learn more about how your company can navigate the evolving regulatory landscape? Contact us at 2050!