There are an unlimited number of other ways to have a positive impact through your work. Thus, I am thrilled to move on this week to talk about those other ways. I have met a number of people from organizations such as The Gap, Whole Foods and Ford that have told me stories about how being a “tempered radical” in those organizations allowed them to bring about significant sustainability changes and initiatives.
This week I delve into a bit more detail about how you can launch a career in sustainability consulting (though much of this advice translates across other areas as well.) If you put a concerted effort into determining where it is that you and your skills best fit, you should be able to evaluate whether sustainability consulting is where you belong or perhaps whether there is a different space where you fit even better AND you can still have the impact you so desire.
As individuals from all kinds of backgrounds and industries push into the field of sustainability consulting, it can become murky as to what that work even entails. This is especially true when considering the different perspectives and methodologies that are employed and adding even more complexity is the variability among clients and their needs. Thus, this quote sums up for me what sustainability consultants are trying to do – they help businesses address and redress the way in which they operate so that they will be better positioned for the market of the future a la decreasing their negative impact on the natural environment. Some argue that like the trends of international business and e-commerce, sustainability will at some point cease to be its own discipline and assume its rightful place within all of business practices. (At which time sustainability consultants will become just “consultants” and we can never have enough of those!)
