Trellis: Business Leaders Must Think Like Sustainability Professionals, Whatever Their Title

In an article for Trellis, Amy Skoczlas Cole, Director of the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business (CSB), explores how the corporate sustainability profession is changing—and why the systems thinking behind it remains valuable across business roles.

Drawing on conversations with CSB’s network of alumni and practitioners, Cole describes a profession adapting to AI and political backlash. She identifies three capabilities for business leaders: making the financial case, tracing policy shifts into business opportunities, and applying outside-in thinking to anticipate external forces that could affect performance.

Her central argument: climate change, water access, and human rights continue to shape business conditions. Leaders need to translate those factors into operational and financial decisions, regardless of their job titles.

Read the full article in Trellis.

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