Leadership in the sustainability era

Knowledge-sharing, expert insights and best practice to move you from ambition to action

Sustainability leaders have a crucial role in tackling ESG challenges and moving their organisations from ambition to action. Progressing from setting sustainability targets to embedding change across multiple functions takes judgement and experience to navigate. Balancing that transformation with commerciality while building trust takes a particularly rare set of human qualities.

Convening to accelerate change

“The remit of CSOs has seen rapid change. Within many organisations it is still an emerging role evolving at pace, and there is no blueprint. That’s why we regularly convene sustainability leaders from across industries and sectors. By sharing knowledge and best practice we are aiming to help everyone move further, faster.”

Marissa Thomas,Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer, PwC UK

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Understanding the science with Coca-Cola Europacific

Joe Franses, Vice-President, Sustainability

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The qualities needed in CSOs with the MOD

James Clare, Director, Climate Change and Sustainability, MOD

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Latest thought-leadership

Create a movement, not a silo

Alongside embracing data and tech, sustainability leaders are finding a powerful ally by empowering their workforce to tackle emissions from the ground up.

“Successful businesses recognise that sustainability isn't an add-on to their strategy, but rather that it is a fundamental part, deeply embedded into their operations. Championing that culture change and flipping sustainability from a compliance play into a source of competitive advantage is a key part of the CSO’s role that should not be underestimated.”

_{Zubin Randeria

ESG Leader, PwC UK}

“We all have a responsibility for sustainability, whether it’s in your job title or not. As business leaders we can be catalysts for change by empowering individuals across the organisation to take ownership of progress in their area. We need to take a holistic view, share our knowledge and truly understand the impact of our actions so that we can accelerate the change that is needed.”

_{Zelda Bentham

Group Head of Sustainability, Aviva}

“Ensuring that sustainability is kept at the heart of the business is imperative and that’s why the role of sustainability really needs to sit at the board level. It needs to be represented as part of decision making, plugged into the finance from a profit and loss perspective on a more long-term basis around where investments need to be made for the benefit of the business in the future.”

_{Musidora Jorgensen

Chief Sustainability Officer, Microsoft}

ESG tech - an ally for all sustainability leaders

Technology enables faster, more effective decision-making and broader ambitions. Net zero targets, reporting and sustainability goals are complex issues, best faced with robust, timely and insightful data in the hands of the right people. The right tech frees up the ingenuity of the human mind to solve, ideate and create by reducing the time spent on time-consuming manual tasks. Yet identifying and integrating the appropriate tech into organisations is not always straightforward.

At PwC, we have close relationships with the market leaders in new ESG specific technologies, who are delivering innovative solutions to help organisations measure and meet their ESG goals. From carbon accounting, footprinting and reporting, to bespoke risk assessment, decarbonisation and complex data analysis, digital tools can be integrated across all stages of your ESG agenda to deliver impactful results. We’ll share insights, in-house expertise and new developments in sustainability tech regularly in this space.