Chief Sustainability Officer
Here's an article on creating a new title: Chief Sustainability Officer. An excerpt from the start of the article:
The Internet Age spawned a new C-level title: CTO, or chief technology officer. The case for hiring a CTO was clear: The business-technology tides were turning quickly and dramatically, and traditional, old-school C-level execs really weren't equipped with the tech savvy to make sure their organizations were keeping pace and staying competitive.
Well, we've entered a new age, the next logical step to follow the Internet Age. Some might call it a Green Age; I prefer referring to it as an Age of Sustainability.
The original business case for Chief Sustainability Officer came via Rick Walker at GreenBiz. Read on for a few excerpts:
There are four areas where sustainability tends to reside currently: Environment Health and Safety, Public and Investor Relations, Corporate Responsibility, Facilities or Real Estate. Placing the topic in any of these areas has certain logic. But placing it in any of these groups has certain actual or perceived limitations as well.
Those that say sustainability should be driven into every aspect of the organization are of course correct. However, at this point in time, responsibility for the coordination and advocacy to make change happen needs to be vested somewhere.
CSOs must serve at least three roles: They must look inward, end-to-end driving business opportunity; they must look outward, walking the talk and communicating with customers and other stakeholders; and they must lead. A CSO must articulate, implement and sustain the organization's vision of sustainability and provide visibility and transparency of that vision both internally and externally.