Up to 50% of existing roles are including sustainability priorities: report
As Canadian organizations face expectations to address climate change and environmental responsibility, HR is shaping up to be a key cog in pushing companies towards their sustainability goals and requirements.
A 2025 report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that more than 80 per cent of US companies expect sustainability to become a core element of their business strategy within three years. It also emphasized that integrating sustainability into talent strategies is not just about compliance or reputation — it’s about building organizations that can thrive in a changing world.
According to Baniyelme Zoogah, a professor of human resources and management at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University in Hamilton, HR has a critical role in pushing forward their organization’s sustainability initiatives — particularly in recruitment strategies and designing roles within the organization.
“It's the HR manager who has to design a job to emphasize the aspects of sustainability that are in line with the strategic objectives of the company, so that a new person coming in would then enact behaviors that are consistent with those strategic objectives – ensuring the person is coming in with talent that fits the overall strategy of the organization,” says Zoogah.
Rethinking job design for sustainability
Traditional job design has focused on efficiency and productivity, but the report notes that “organizations must now consider the environmental impact of every role and process, embedding sustainability into the fabric of work itself,” with up to 50 per cent of existing roles evolving to include sustainability priorities and about one in four linked to sustainability objectives — with only five per cent of sustainability-related roles occupied by specialists. Companies aren’t just setting up “green jobs” — they’re transforming existing positions so they help push towards sustainability goals.
Zoogah believes that designing jobs in such a way is an effective way for organizations to integrate their sustainability initiatives into their operations.
As an example, he suggests looking at whether jobs can be done in the office or remotely, which can affect the organization’s use of resources. And various job tasks can be designed with sustainability in mind, such as using outdoor lighting when possible, being waste conscious, and any efficiencies that can be carried out in each position.
“In one sense, it's minor, but when you multiply that by the number of employees and by the number of days over a period of time, that accumulates and results in some significant savings or efficiencies that would contribute to the overall strategic sustainability objectives of the company,” he says. “And the starting point, from the HR perspective, is thinking of how these tasks can be designed in such a way that they can facilitate sustainability goals.”
The BCG report determined that embedding sustainability into daily routines and behaviours is is necessary for a lasting impact, and when sustainability is woven into hiring, infrastructure, and daily operations, it can boost company culture – as indicated in the report’s finding that “companies with clear sustainability routines and expectations see higher employee engagement and innovation.”
Overcoming challenges of mindset, time
The report identifies “organizational inertia and resistance to change” as major barriers to embedding sustainability in talent strategies. Zoogah agrees, identifying mindset and time as key challenges.
“People are used to their old ways of doing things, so changing is something that they really don't want to do and they don't see the need for it — so first managers have to change their mindset to see sustainability as good and not as hindering progress in the organization,” he says. “The other is time in the sense that when you are going to move your company to a sustainability route, you can’t just do that all of a sudden — infrastructure and systems were set up before the sustainability push and to change those things requires time.”
Market dynamics can also play a role in a sustainability push, according to Zoogah, who notes that if competitors are going full-blown into sustainability, a company wouldn’t want to be left behind.
Promotive, preventive strategies for HR
For senior HR professionals seeking to drive sustainability, Zoogah recommends both promotive and preventive strategies.
“A promotive strategy essentially would be making the case to the C-suite that the way the world is going, and given the importance of sustainability, this is what our organization has to do,” he says. “This involves making cases or advancing reasons why, at a broad level, how the organization can change and why it should change — and in addition to the advocacy, outlining how certain infrastructures and systems, be it people, technologies, or financial, can be modified or adopted to promote sustainability.”
For preventive strategies, HR would make the case that certain things the organization used to do must change because they’re not healthy for strategic objectives and would hinder the advancement of sustainability goals, according to Zoogah.
The BCG report notes that “organizations that successfully integrate sustainability into their talent strategies will be better positioned to attract top talent, foster innovation and achieve long-term growth," revealing that 44 per cent of green and sustainability talent and 24 per cent of other talent would reject a job offer if the employer didn't have sustainable or environmental initiatives.
In line with this, Zoogah believes that weaving sustainability into all organizational strategies can enable companies to thrive.
“Flourishing is a function of looking at sustainability mechanisms that would move not only the people forward but the entire organization forward,” he says. “The case for flourishing organizations is highly dependent on sustainability behaviors of people, bringing in sustainability talent, and fostering sustainability mechanisms within organizations – putting in place systems and processes that facilitate sustainability would in the long run lead to flourishing organizations.”
Advancing green talent
It's possible that HR leaders will find some resistance to sustainability initiatives at the executive level, but organizational change can start at the bottom and work its way up through the culture and job functions, says Zoogah.
“This is the time for sustainability to move forward, and HR managers should look for employees that can help promote sustainability - in other words, advance green talent,” he says. “I see sustainability as likely to facilitate flourishing organizations, and the contribution of HR is that they help organizations to flourish.”
