Today’s guest post comes from Ellen Weinreb, who is the CEO of Sustainability Recruiting, a search firm based in Berkeley (where else?) focusing on sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate citizenship jobs. Ellen got interested in fair trade issues as an undergrad at Wellesley College (she sold African jewelry on campus), did a stint in Cameroon as Peace Corps volunteer, got an MBA from Yale, and became a CSR consultant in the late 1990s. working for such companies as Levi Strauss, HP and Nike. She’s now a full-time recruiter, and says that the market for CSR jobs, which took a steep downturn in 2009, seems to be recovering. “Climate change, Obama and clean tech are driving the increase in jobs for 2010,” she tells me. Ellen tweets about new CSR jobs @sustainablejobs and has a website at http://weinrebgroup.com.
As a corporate social responsibility (CSR) recruiter, I study CSR job postings and titles. For the past six years, I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet of CSR-related job postings. Last month I published my biennial CSR Jobs Report, which identifies hiring trends in the field.
One of the most notable findings is the increase in senior-level corporate positions—those with VP and Director titles. Before 2006, none of the job postings had a title of VP or above. What’s changed? Companies are placing an increased value on CSR as a component of corporate strategy, which elevates the importance of positions overseeing CSR. Dave Stangis, Vice President of CSR and Sustainability at Campbell’s Soup, says: “The emergence of the VP of CSR and VP of Sustainability titles seems proof of the growing strategic business position of CSR.”
But, why stop at Vice President? How high can the title go? What about a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO)? Can CSR find a place in the C-Suite? [click to continue…]
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