# Business Leaders Must Think Like Sustainability Professionals, Whatever Their Title.

Opinion

— September 30, 2026

By Amy Skoczlas Cole

As seen in: Trellis

![Amy Skoczlas Cole headshot](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/2026-05/asc_low_res_2024_1.jpg?itok=UG1gQARq)

My students at NYU Stern showed self-restraint in waiting until the second day of class to ask me: “What’s the prognosis for the corporate sustainability profession?”

At the Center for Sustainable Business, conversations with our broad network of alumni and practitioners at global companies and investors point to a clear theme: The profession is changing fast. Artificial intelligence is absorbing reporting work, and political backlash has led many companies to call the work of reducing greenhouse emissions or mitigating environmental impacts something else.

I told my students that job titles are changing, but the systems thinking that underpins sustainability can be their competitive edge in any role. Here are three core skills that make that possible — and they are just as applicable for today’s leaders as tomorrow’s.

Read the full [*Trellis* article](https://trellis.net/article/why-business-leaders-must-think-like-sustainability-professionals/).
\_\_\_\_
*Amy Skoczlas Cole is a Clinical Professor of Business and Society and Director of the Center for Sustainable Business.*

## More from Amy Skoczlas Cole

- [3 Things Sustainability Professionals Can’t Afford to Outsource to AI.](/experience-stern/faculty-research/opinion/3-things-sustainability-professionals-cant-afford-outsource-ai)
- [The Sustainability Profession Has Been Given a Mulligan. Let’s Take It.](/experience-stern/faculty-research/opinion/sustainability-profession-has-been-given-mulligan-lets-take-it)