For most of the last decade the sustainability leader's job was to make the case. Build the strategy, win the board over, get the targets agreed. That work is largely done. The organisations we work with now have commitments, reporting obligations and capital attached to them, and the role has quietly turned into something else: a delivery job with a P&L shadow.
The briefs we receive have not always caught up. They still open with mission, with "passion for the agenda" and with a long list of frameworks the candidate should know. All of which matters. None of which is the thing that separates a leader who keeps the plan on track from one who presents it well.
What the role actually demands now
Three things, in our experience. First, the ability to translate a target into an operating plan that a site manager, a procurement team and a finance director can all act on. Second, enough commercial judgement to argue for the capital, and to know when not to. Third, the credibility to sit in front of investors and regulators and be believed.
The question is no longer "do they care?". It is "can they carry it?".
That shift changes who the right candidates are. Some of the strongest appointments we have seen recently came from operations, from corporate finance and from risk, rather than from sustainability functions. They learned the frameworks quickly. The reverse journey is harder.
What it means for the search
Write the brief around outcomes, not credentials. Be explicit about the decisions this person will own and the money attached to them. And be honest, internally, about whether the role has the authority to deliver what it will be measured on. The best candidates will ask. If the answer is no, they will decline, and they will be right to.