How to be a CSO in 2026

The past couple of years have been challenging for those working in sustainability. Political pushback, regulatory uncertainty, and shifting corporate priorities have created the impression that sustainability has been pushed to the sidelines.

Fortunately, that is not the full story.

What we are seeing is not the end of sustainability. It is the maturation of the field. The role of the sustainability leader in 2026 looks very different from the role many Chief Sustainability Officers were asked to play a few years ago. It is less about public commitments, high-profile announcements, and standalone sustainability programs. It is increasingly about integration, commercial relevance, risk intelligence, and organizational change.

In this Q&A, Jimena Padilla speaks with David Carlin about how the sustainability field is evolving, why this shift may ultimately be positive, and what CSOs need to do to create value for their organizations.

What has changed in the sustainability sector, and why?

A few years ago, Chief Sustainability Officers were everywhere. They were highly visible at major conferences, featured prominently in corporate announcements, and often positioned as the public face of a company’s climate and sustainability ambitions.

That has changed.

Some of this is clearly due to political headwinds. Sustainability has become more contested in a number of markets, and some companies have become more cautious about how they communicate their work. But there is also a healthier explanation. Many sustainability commitments are no longer new. The field has matured. Companies are moving from the era of big public pledges into the harder work of implementation.

That changes what is required from sustainability leaders.

The task now is less about launching new commitments and more about embedding sustainability into strategy, finance, risk, operations, procurement, product development, and client engagement. This is a more difficult job, but also a more valuable one.

The challenge is that many sustainability teams have found themselves becoming more siloed at exactly the moment when they need to be more connected to the business. Other parts of the organization are asking harder questions about value, cost, commercial relevance, and priorities. Sustainability leaders need to be able to answer those questions clearly.

Breaking down those barriers is essential. Sustainability will only deliver its full value when it is integrated into how the business actually makes decisions.

How do you define the role of a CSO today?

I think the role of the CSO is much broader than leading a sustainability program.

At its best, the CSO is a leader who helps the organization understand change. That means looking ahead, identifying new conditions, making sense of uncertainty, and helping the business respond before risks become crises or opportunities are missed.

I see three core functions for the CSO in 2026.

The first is the cartographer. The CSO needs to help map a changing world. They need to connect policy, regulation, technology, markets, climate impacts, customer expectations, and geopolitical shifts into a clearer picture of what may be coming next.

The second is the teacher. Sustainability knowledge cannot sit inside one team. The CSO has to translate complex information into practical insights that other functions can use. Sales teams, risk teams, finance teams, product teams, legal teams, and senior executives all need different parts of the sustainability picture.

The third is the business person. Sustainability leaders need to be able to speak in commercial terms. They need to show how sustainability reduces costs, manages risk, protects revenue, opens new markets, strengthens client relationships, and supports long-term resilience.

Those three roles together are where I see the CSO function going. The sustainability leader of the future cannot have a single-track mind. They need to be visionary, practical, commercially aware, and deeply engaged with the rest of the organization.

Can you explain what you mean by the CSO as a cartographer?

Historically, cartographers made maps of uncertain territory. They were trying to make sense of places that were only partially understood. Some areas were known. Some were inferred. Some were still blank.

That is a useful analogy for sustainability leadership today.

We are operating in a world that is volatile and uncertain. No one has a perfect map of the future. We do not know exactly how regulation, technology, climate impacts, trade, insurance markets, consumer expectations, and geopolitics will evolve. But the CSO can help the organization make better sense of the landscape.

The point is not that the CSO must be the world’s leading expert on every issue. That is impossible. The value comes from connecting the pieces.

A strong sustainability leader can look across policy, economics, technology, climate science, supply chains, and stakeholder expectations and say: “There is a pattern here. There is a risk emerging here. There is an opportunity we may be missing here.”

That is systems thinking in practice. It is the ability to see relationships that others may not see because they are looking through a narrower lens.

For senior leadership, that is incredibly valuable. It helps the organization prepare for change rather than simply react to it.

How does that connect to the CSO as a teacher?

The teacher role is essential because insight only matters if it reaches the people who need to use it.

Sometimes teaching is treated too narrowly, as if it just means delivering sustainability training. Training is important, but this role is much broader than that.

In a knowledge economy, the ability to take specialized information and help others apply it is a major multiplier of impact. A sustainability team cannot make every decision itself. It cannot be in every client conversation, every investment committee, every procurement decision, or every product development meeting.

So the CSO has to help knowledge move through the organization.

For client-facing teams, that may mean explaining which sustainability issues matter most to customers and how those issues can shape commercial conversations.

For regulatory affairs, it may mean identifying emerging policy developments that could affect the business.

For finance and strategy teams, it may mean showing how climate, nature, technology, or geopolitical risks could affect future performance.

For risk teams, it may mean asking better questions before the company buys data, enters a market, finances an asset, or commits capital.

That is what teaching means in this context. It means bringing the right knowledge into the conversations where business decisions are actually made.

Why does the CSO also need to be a business person?

There is sometimes a false tension between sustainability and business performance. That tension is unhelpful.

If sustainability is going to be mainstreamed, it has to connect to the purpose and economics of the organization. That does not mean pursuing profit blindly. It means being able to show how sustainability contributes to the things senior leaders are already accountable for: revenue, cost, risk, resilience, reputation, and long-term value.

If energy efficiency lowers operating costs, say that clearly.

If sustainable products help win clients, show the revenue case.

If better climate risk management protects assets, reduces disruption, or improves access to finance, make that visible.

If sustainability strengthens the company’s ability to compete in changing markets, explain that in business language.

Senior leaders are responsible for performance. They need to understand how sustainability affects performance. When sustainability leaders can make that connection, they become far more influential.

This is not about abandoning values. It is about making sustainability actionable inside the organization. Commercial clarity gives sustainability leaders more power to drive change, not less.

What advice would you give CSOs and sustainability leaders in 2026?

First, I would say: hang in there.

This is not an easy time to work in sustainability. The external environment is more contested, the internal questions are tougher, and the easy phase of public commitments has passed.

But the work has never been more important.

We are living through a period of deep disruption. Conflicts in the Middle East, technology shifts, supply chain volatility, climate impacts, insurance pressures, regulatory changes, and changing customer expectations are all interacting with each other. This is exactly the kind of complex and uncertain world that sustainability leaders need to help organizations understand.

My advice is to focus on three things.

1. Be a better systems thinker. Help your organization see how the pieces fit together.
2. Be a better teacher. Move knowledge out of the sustainability team and into the parts of the business where decisions are made.
3. Be a better business leader. Explain sustainability in terms the organization understands: risk, cost, revenue, resilience, innovation, and value.

The CSOs who do this well will become important strategic leaders in their organizations. They will help their companies navigate change, avoid blind spots, and find opportunities in a world that is becoming more complex by the day.

Enjoyed this analysis? D. A. Carlin & Company helps clients navigate these turbulent times through strategic briefings, practical capacity-building workshops, and regulatory support. Book a call with us today (info@dacarlin.com) and find out how we can give you and your team the future-ready skills and strategies you need.