Sustainability Consultant: What is the cost of hiring?

Why recruit a sustainability consultant?

Hiring a sustainability consultant can support your business in achieving its sustainability goals, setting new targets and ensuring you’re adhering to environmental regulations. Professionals in this role bring extensive expertise and are well-equipped to provide guidance on a range of issues, ranging from energy efficiency and water conservation to waste management and reducing your carbon footprint. Sustainability consultants are typically also skilled in data collection and analysis, meaning that they can assist you with identifying areas for improvement and determining which changes might work best for your company.

Qualities of a great sustainability consultant:

• Collects and analyses data relating to a company’s environmental impact to create new goals and suggest changes
• Advises on relevant environmental regulations to ensure your company is compliant and aligned with national targets
• Collaborates with employees and stakeholders to drive positive change and implement new initiatives

Deciding between a full-time vs freelance sustainability consultant

Sustainability consultants often work on an ad-hoc basis, with companies bringing them on board for specific projects, launches or business restructuring. Because of this, many are engaged by consulting firms, while others work as freelancers. Hiring a freelance sustainability consultant could benefit your business if there are key areas you’d like them to work on, for a limited period of time. However, a growing number of companies, particularly in industries that have a significant impact on the environment, are hiring sustainability consultants as full-time employees. Consider your business needs and long-term goals carefully, along with any budget constraints, before deciding whether to hire a full-time or freelance sustainability consultant or to reach out to a consulting firm.

What are the different types of sustainability consultant?

Sustainability consultant is a broad role that encapsulates many activities to do with sustainable commerce and the environment. Within this field, there can be numerous subtypes of professionals that specialise in specific areas. If you are recruiting for short-term help with a particular project or goal, you may want to consider hiring a more niche type of consultant.

• Sustainability strategy consultant: A sustainability strategy consultant helps create actionable plans for companies to achieve their sustainability goals.
• Circular economy expert: A circular economy expert focuses on designing systems to reduce waste, like implementing recycling initiatives or introducing reusable materials.
• Product carbon footprint consultant: A product carbon footprint consultant assesses an organisation’s carbon emissions and looks at ways to reduce and/or off-set them.
• Corporate social responsibility consultant: A corporate social responsibility consultant guides companies in implementing ethical practices that can reduce harm or even positively impact the local community.
• Travel cost optimisation consultant: A travel cost optimisation consultant develops strategies to reduce business travel expenses and minimise carbon emissions.
• Business process transformation consultant: A business process transformation consultant looks at changing a company’s processes to improve efficiency, sustainability and other important metrics.

Where to find a sustainability consultant

To find the right sustainability consultant for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies

• Reach out to your network for recommendations
• Create an employee referral programme for your staff to suggest qualified candidates who they know personally – this can also assist you with recruiting for future positions
• Search for freelance sustainability consultants online – many will have their own websites with details of previous projects or a portfolio of work
• Browse social media and reach out to sustainability personalities or influencers who you follow for referrals
• Post the vacancy on your company’s social media accounts and encourage your followers to share it

Post your job online: Try posting your job for a sustainability consultant on Indeed to find and attract quality sustainability consultant candidates.

Skills to look for in a great sustainability consultant

A great candidate for a sustainability consultant role will have the following skills and attributes as well as work experience that reflects:

• sound knowledge of sustainability in the corporate world
• an understanding of environmental regulations
• communication and presentation skills
• data-analysis skills
• creativity and out-of-the-box thinking
• a passion for the environment and protecting it

Writing a sustainability consultant job description

A thoughtful description is important for finding qualified sustainability consultant candidates. A sustainability consultant job description includes a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities and the required and preferred skills for the position.

When writing your job description for a sustainability consultant, consider including some or all of the following keywords to strengthen the visibility of your job posting. These are the most popular search terms resulting in clicks on jobs for sustainability consultants, according to Indeed data:

• sustainability
• sustainability consultant
• environmental
• sustainability graduate
• conservation
• graduate
• environmental consultant
• esg
• sustainability consultant
• consultant

Interviewing sustainability consultant candidates

Strong candidates for sustainability consultants positions will be confident answering questions regarding:

• Previous experience in consulting roles and positions relating to sustainability
• Details of previous projects they’ve worked on and initiatives they helped implement
• Topics like energy efficiency, carbon footprint, the circular economy and environmental regulations
• Their communication skills and how well they work in a team environment
• How they collect and analyse data to make informed decisions