---
title: "Chief Sustainability Officer"
description: "Communicate and coordinate with management, shareholders, customers, and employees to address sustainability issues. Enact or oversee a corporate…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/chief-sustainability-officer"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Chief Sustainability Officer

**Category:** Management · **SOC code:** 11-1011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 11-1011.03

Communicate and coordinate with management, shareholders, customers, and employees to address sustainability issues. Enact or oversee a corporate sustainability strategy.

Also advertised as: Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO); Corporate Sustainability Process Manager; CSR and Sustainability VP (Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Vice President); Sustainability Chancellor; Sustainability Chief; Sustainability Director; Sustainability Initiatives Vice President (Sustainability Initiatives VP); Sustainability Manager.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $213,990 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $102.88/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $75,700 to $507,730, with the middle half between $129,540 and $356,200
- **Total US employment:** 204,350
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +4.3% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 22,200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 38/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 204,350 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $75,700 |
| 25th | $129,540 |
| 50th (median) | $213,990 |
| 75th | $356,200 |
| 90th | $507,730 |
| Mean (average) | $269,630 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| OR | $341,630 | $330,521 | 910 |
| WA | $339,810 | $317,541 | 3,170 |
| IL | $331,920 | $332,059 | 4,620 |
| NC | $314,290 | $333,196 | 1,930 |
| VA | $310,740 | $307,347 | 4,870 |
| NJ | $310,440 | $285,318 | 2,430 |
| CT | $295,120 | $284,837 | 1,660 |
| HI | $281,640 | $256,150 | 470 |
| SD | $280,900 | $317,093 | 510 |
| NY | $257,980 | $239,045 | 8,430 |
| TX | $257,850 | $265,669 | 8,780 |
| MI | $255,560 | $265,608 | 4,950 |
| IN | $254,180 | $272,348 | 1,820 |
| MD | $248,660 | $236,912 | 3,180 |
| RI | $235,360 | $230,113 | 460 |

33 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 48 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/chief-sustainability-officer/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/chief-sustainability-officer.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 309,400 in the 2024–2034 base year to 322,700 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 13,300 jobs, or +4.3%. Faster than average: 4.3% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 22,200 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** 5 years or more.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Master's Degree | 74.1% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 18.5% |
| Post-Master's Certificate | 7.4% |

## What the work involves

- Develop or execute strategies to address issues such as energy use, resource conservation, recycling, pollution reduction, waste elimination, transportation, education, and building design.
- Develop, or oversee the development of, sustainability evaluation or monitoring systems.
- Supervise employees or volunteers working on sustainability projects.
- Develop sustainability reports, presentations, or proposals for supplier, employee, academia, media, government, public interest, or other groups.
- Develop, or oversee the development of, marketing or outreach media for sustainability projects or events.
- Create and maintain sustainability program documents, such as schedules and budgets.
- Formulate or implement sustainability campaign or marketing strategies.
- Research environmental sustainability issues, concerns, or stakeholder interests.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Writing — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Communications and Media — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Building and Construction — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Enterprising (E), Investigative (I), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 6.68 |
| I — Investigative | 4.78 |
| C — Conventional | 4.49 |
| S — Social | 3.55 |
| A — Artistic | 2.48 |
| R — Realistic | 2.04 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ENTJ | 70.8 |
| ESTJ | 67.4 |
| ESFJ | 62.1 |
| ENFJ | 61.7 |
| ESTP | 58.0 |

Best-fitting types: ENTJ, ESTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Sustainability Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sustainability-specialist) — median $83,050
- [Climate Change Policy Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/climate-change-policy-analyst) — median $82,220
- [Industrial Ecologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/industrial-ecologist) — median $82,220
- [Wind Energy Development Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/wind-energy-development-manager) — median $141,900
- [Environmental Scientist and Specialist, Including Health](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-scientist-and-specialist) — median $82,220
- [Urban and Regional Planner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/urban-and-regional-planner) — median $89,320
- [Brownfield Redevelopment Specialist and Site Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/brownfield-redevelopment-specialist-and-site-manager) — median $141,900
- [Environmental Restoration Planner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-restoration-planner) — median $82,220
- [Conservation Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/conservation-scientist) — median $73,010
- [Chief Executive](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chief-executive) — median $213,990

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/chief-sustainability-officer