Your sustainability strategy depends on your people. It’s time to invest in them.

Businesses are increasingly focused on the role they play in tackling climate change and embracing sustainability like never before. In addition to making ambitious public commitments, they’ve begun disclosing their progress to stakeholders and investors. By the end of 2021, more than 2,000 companies had set a carbon emissions target, and almost all the world’s biggest companies had released sustainability reports.

As the EY Global Deputy Vice Chair for Sustainability, I’ve seen firsthand what it takes for a business to follow through with its commitments and make an impact through true transformation. While goal setting and transparent reporting are important ingredients of any effort, there is another equally critical component: talent. Companies need an effective sustainability strategy and they also need many more people with the skillsets to pull off the transformation needed in order to truly reduce an organization’s carbon footprint and drive change that will benefit the planet and society for generations to come.

So right now, companies are facing a significant challenge. As urgent as corporate sustainability is, it’s also a relatively nascent field when it comes to the scale and breadth of capabilities needed to transform businesses for a more sustainable future – and the supply of environmental, social and governance (ESG) professionals hasn’t kept up with demand. Consider that in 2020, Fortune 500 companies hired more Chief Sustainability Officers than they had in the previous three years combined. It’s little wonder that last year, the Financial Times reported about a growing ESG talent shortage that can’t keep up with the current demand.

Fortunately, there are two important actions that organizations can take right now to help close the talent gap and put this process in motion.

Equip your people with ESG aptitude

The first is offering continuing education and upskilling opportunities for employees at all stages of their careers. While deep technical expertise and degrees are vital to meeting the societal needs, many people who assume ESG roles today come from a range of different professional backgrounds. According to a recent study, more than 50% of Chief Sustainability Officers have a background in business, and 20% are engineers. Meanwhile, people from fields like law and marketing outnumber those with backgrounds in biology and chemistry.

If businesses plan on making sustainability a core part of their strategy, it’s imperative they work to ensure all their employees have the right skills to help advance this work.

That’s why, EY believes it’s important to focus on giving all employees – from new hires to top executives – a working knowledge of sustainability so they can support their clients’ sustainability goals. For instance, we recently collaborated with Hult International Business School to offer a free, fully accredited Masters in Sustainability to all EY people. EY are also helping other organizations build their employees’ ESG competencies through the EY Skills Foundry program. After all, if businesses plan on making sustainability a core part of their strategy, it’s imperative they work to ensure all their employees have the right skills to help advance this work.

Transform the professional services industry

While continuing education and upskilling is vitally important, there is also more we can do to equip recent graduates with the skills they need at the very beginning of their careers. Since businesses are starting to think more holistically about sustainability, anyone planning to enter professional services – whether they have a future in accounting, supply chain management, risk management, finance or marketing – would benefit from learning about sustainability.

As ESG expectations have evolved, so too must professional services.

Consider accountants, for instance. As EY Global Chairman and CEO, Carmine Di Sibio – a CPA himself – has said, accountants are positioned to make a difference in the ESG space. By learning how to assess carbon credits, evaluate risks associated with climate change, and comply with new reporting standards, they can play a pivotal role in their company’s sustainability journey. To that end, we’re already seeing the rise of the “green MBA,” and we need more efforts like this.

As ESG expectations have evolved, so too must professional services. Working alongside colleges and universities and implementing their own training initiatives, businesses can better prepare graduates and existing employees to take on a range of sustainability challenges from the very start of their careers.

The time to meet the moment is now

We know businesses must take urgent action to curb climate change. We also know the choice between delivering profits or generating value for stakeholders is a false one. Research by FCLTGlobal found that companies that “walk the talk” and prioritized stakeholders generated, on average, 4% higher returns. That means companies have every reason to back up their bold promises with bold action.

As I like to say, now is not the time for a “say, do”-gap. Businesses have the resources, the resolve, and the capabilities. Now, they just have to keep up the momentum – and that starts with putting the right people behind their efforts.