Insights on Sustainability (2024)

Jan 17, 2025 7 min read

Climate Change & Sustainability

By Daphne Yow and Vivien Kwai

Discovery+ is a series of online industry panels which gives students the chance to interact with working professionals and learn about the careers they aspire to enter. These panels provide youths and working professionals with the opportunity to better understand industry trends, hear first-hand perspectives from industry professionals, and gain valuable advice on entering or navigating these industries.

On 26 March 2024, Advisory hosted Discover+: Sustainability, the 81st edition of the Discovery+ series. Speakers on the panel included:

Darius Lim (Moderator), Director, Sustainability Training Development Group, Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment
Dr Bess Ng, Associate Principal, Sustainability Business Division, Schneider Electric Energy & Sustainability Services
Samuel Tan, Vice President, ESG Solutions, Group Wholesale Banking, UOB

There were 235 attendees, including students at various levels of education with a desire to know the different career paths in Sustainability, and how to best position themselves for such roles.

Below are some key points shared during the session:

What do you think the sustainability industry encompasses, and what are the roles that are becoming more prominent?

When you hear the word ‘sustainability’, what may first come to your mind are people studying the seagrass meadows, working on forestry projects, or working in green sectors like renewables. But all businesses play a very important role in solving the climate crisis as they collectively have the largest carbon footprint – be it changing the way they innovate new products and solutions, or integrating climate decisions in traditional enterprise risk management, or the way they finance and invest. Hence, the rise of the corporate sustainability function to help the company to connect the dots.

The professional services and financial services sectors are also evolving to support companies of all sizes in their sustainability journey.

If you do not know where to begin, sustainability consulting is always a good place to start to build your experience through client engagement and networking. You will be able to work on various projects at once and quickly learn the ropes – from climate risk assessment to helping clients with their decarbonisation and net-zero strategies, and more.

Sustainability assurance is also a growing field as there is a stronger demand for verification of environmental, social and governance (ESG) data in sustainability reports or other business requirements (e.g. carbon tax, business customer requirement for suppliers, etc.).

You can also consider starting as an analyst at a provider of ESG ratings and benchmarks – many traditional rating agencies now have sustainability focus to assess and rate corporate performance when it comes to sustainability. Alternatively, you may explore testing, inspection and certification (TIC) companies who help certify sustainability-related aspects of companies from environmental, health and safety to artificial intelligence risks and more.

Finally, financing is key to unlocking sustainability and enabling green activities and projects. Sustainability is now interwoven ino many roles in banks, asset managers and insurance. For instance, there are many functions within a bank that have now expanded ESG responsibilities – credit risk, credit administration and control, relationship managers, data, technology, and teams overseeing the development of new products and solutions.

Ultimately, the question is not about how you can break into sustainability, but rather, how long it takes until sustainability breaks into your field. No matter the function or company you are in, sustainability will only become more important in the future.

What makes your work meaningful and how do you find that purpose in your work?

There is this concept called ikigai, which focuses on four areas – what you are good at, what the world needs, what you can be paid for, and what you love to do. Sustainability is one of the unique fields where you can achieve all these objectives, and the problems you want to solve should give you a good idea as to where you want your career to be headed towards. Becoming a sustainability practitioner or joining an organisation with a strong sustainability mandate can help give you a strong sense of fulfilment.

For instance, banks play a pivotal role in influencing corporate behaviour shifts because they control capital flows. They are starting to look at how they can support green transition activities and projects, and help businesses future-proof themselves while capturing new growth opportunities. This can also be done through incentivising companies – especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – by way of sustainability-linked financing which gives them preferential rates should they meet pre-agreed sustainability performance targets within the bank.

What skills and domain knowledge are needed for different roles in sustainability?

Soft skills like people management are very important because you deal with a lot of stakeholders. If you are in a corporate sustainability role, colleagues in other functions may not be very nice to you because of the conflicting interests and their lack of time. You may have to impose additional ESG requirements or reporting obligations on them. The same is expected of external stakeholders – for instance, investors, suppliers or business customers. Those who can patiently build credibility and demonstrate value that they can bring, will eventually get the buy-in of other stakeholders and deliver a smoother sustainability integration.

You will also need to be diligent in keeping up with new technologies and information. Nascent technologies and new discoveries about sustainability are introduced constantly. You will need to understand the latest market developments your company operates in and be nimble to navigate new policy shifts.

Hard skills can be learnt by involving yourself in sustainability initiatives. The learning curve for sustainability can be steep. For instance, it can be as complex as assessing a product lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions or modelling the impact of climate change on your business – these are unlikely to be taught in universities today. Starting out in sustainability consulting can give you these opportunities to sharpen your skillsets.

Regardless of the domain you are in, be it architecture, accountancy, procurement or finance, hone your core domain knowledge and expertise, and layer on the sustainability lens. Connect with sustainability practitioners, pursue higher education such as a Master’s in environmental management, or consider internships.

What tips do you have for those who wish to stand out in the hiring process in sustainability?

Do come prepared for the interview to show your understanding, knowledge and passion for sustainability, and for the role. If available, you should have at least read the company’s latest sustainability report and disclosures to familiarise yourself with their latest sustainability initiatives and performance. If you manage to observe any gaps and challenges, think about how you can contribute and add value to the organisation.

If you are looking for an entry-level role, do not be afraid to recount past sustainability projects in school, or even community engagements outside school such as grassroots and other volunteering initiatives. If you do not have any sustainability experience, you may consider relevant higher education or certifications to get trained on the fundamentals such as greenhouse gas accounting.

It would help to demonstrate keenness in experimenting solutions. Many of the needs and challenges in sustainability are new and evolving. As such, solutions are still at its nascent stage. Hiring managers will be looking out for candidates with a nimble mind and keen interest to learn.

What is the role of the accountancy sector (e.g. accountants, auditors) in sustainability? What can be done to stay relevant in this space?

Accountants possess various skills that are transferable to the sustainability field. In Singapore, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) have recently introduced additional climate reporting requirements for listed and large non-listed entities to be in line with standards published by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), a body under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

The accounting and finance profession is being brought to the heart of sustainability conversations – aside from sustainable finance and sustainability reporting, they will soon be expected to also harness financial data to calculate their organisation’s indirect greenhouse gas emissions through environmentally-extended input-output (EEIO) models, and navigate more complex topics such as natural and social capital valuation. The field is advancing quickly, and there is a need to upskill and remain future-fit.

If you are interested in developing your skills in these areas, the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA) has new certifications which can equip you with these skills: Sustainability Professional Certification and Sustainability Assurance Professional Certification.

What are the educational backgrounds or specific programmes that are most favoured for sustainability roles?

Sustainability is cross-sector and cross-functional, so regardless of your educational background or professional experience, there will always be a way to navigate yourself into a sustainability role. As mentioned earlier, obtaining the right certification and higher education is only the starting point.

As more organisations – especially large MNCs – have set their net-zero or decarbonisation targets, they are looking at ways to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions not only in their operations but in the way their products are being used and managed end-of-life. For instance, there may be a strong need for technical expertise in chemicals and material sciences to develop sustainable and circular product solutions. There is also a strong demand for sustainable building materials to green the built environment, and a push towards sustainable food and agribusiness. Those who are interested in public policy can also consider joining the Public Service to take up roles related to sustainability. Ultimately, you should find a sector that you are passionate about and chart your career trajectory accordingly.

How important is the role of entrepreneurs in advancing sustainability causes?

Entrepreneurs are very important as change-makers. Finding solutions to rising sustainability challenges is very important. In this part of the world, there is a need to consider a just and equitable transition to ensure that no one is left behind. For instance, the new EU regulation on Deforestation-free Products impacts products containing any of these seven commodities – cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood. This may negatively affect the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and producers in Southeast Asia. Entrepreneurs or ‘greentechs’ can help innovate new traceability or sustainable trade solutions to support these new requirements.

Additionally, in spaces like energy transition, development occurs in a very decentralised way. Therefore, it is easier to grow these ventures bottom up to increase the speed at which solutions are provided to communities.

If you are already working, try to gain a more holistic picture of your company’s impact areas when it comes to sustainability. How do different roles within the company interact with one another, and how does your company interact with the industry at large? Triangulate the gaps and opportunities and raise your hand to be a change-maker, or be part of a new sustainability initiative.

Do not be afraid to network on LinkedIn – reach out to have coffee chats with different people in different roles in sustainability. You may also consider entering a sector that you are interested in to build your niche in. Be it consumer goods, energy, infrastructure, metals, real estate, technology, transport – there is a strong agenda to decarbonise and a need for practitioners who not only know the sector well but also have the right passion and mindset to contribute to a sustainable future.