Sustainability Specialist

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Sustainability Specialist addresses environmental sustainability issues for companies or organizations, including university systems. Develops strategies for reducing energy costs, promotes environmentally friendly production, business or maintenance practices.

Job Outlook

There were 193 Sustainability Specialist job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 7198 in the United States.

We do not have this data at this time.

Salary

Many new Sustainability Specialist jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.

National

The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $86,999.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $84,339.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Sustainability Specialist postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $64,487.

Education and Experience

Posted Sustainability Specialist jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.

Education Level	Percentage
Associate's Degree	0%
Bachelor's Degree	69.12%
Master's Degree	31.08%
Doctoral Degree	3.01%
Other	6.28%

Posted Sustainability Specialist jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Years of Experience	Percentage
0 to 2 years	21.64%
3 to 5 years	50.27%
6 to 8 years	18.33%
9+ years	9.75%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Sustainability Specialist positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.

Baseline Skills

A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.

Communication (62.23%)
Management (44.9%)
Operations (37.43%)
Research (35.97%)
Leadership (32.81%)
Presentations (28.95%)
Detail Oriented (23.94%)
Microsoft Excel (23.88%)
Planning (22.31%)
Writing (22.12%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

Project Management (44.97%)
Environmental Social And Corporate Governance (ESG) (33.53%)
Environmental Science (31.95%)
Data Analysis (25.17%)
Sustainability Initiatives (26.37%)
Greenhouse Gas (21.54%)
Sustainability Reporting (22.95%)
Sustainability Strategies (17.12%)
Net Zero (10.39%)
Corporate Sustainability (17.06%)
Life Cycle Assessment (8.3%)
Carbon Accounting (9.77%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

Supply Chain (22.26%)
Accounting (17.11%)
Decarbonation (15.6%)
Auditing (19.56%)
Finance (17.31%)
Data Collection (19.34%)
Marketing (12.96%)
Business Development (8.03%)
Procurement (14.34%)
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (12.78%)
Economics (7.89%)
Data Management (14.65%)
Benchmarking (9.6%)
Thought Leadership (5.33%)
Continuous Improvement Process (11.38%)
Stakeholder Engagement (12.04%)
Sustainable Business (11.01%)
Power BI (9.83%)
Risk Management (7.95%)
Green Building (8.02%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

ESG Research And Analysis (8.49%)
Circular Economy (3.68%)
Sustainable Materials (5.46%)

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.

Circular Economy (100%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Sustainability Specialist skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

Sustainability Manager
Sustainability Analyst
Sustainability Consultant
Sustainability Intern
Sustainability Program Manager
Product Manager
Sustainability Coordinator
Sustainability Associate
Sustainability Project Manager

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.

Common Employers

Here are the employers that have posted the most Sustainability Specialist jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

Amazon (233)
Waste Management (225)
Arrow Electronics (134)
Black & Veatch (108)
Beacon Hill Staffing Group (101)
Liberty Utilities (100)
WSP Global (88)
Cardinal Health (87)
Hks (84)
Deloitte (77)

North Carolina

Black & Veatch (8)
WSP Global (6)
First Horizon (5)
Compass Group (5)
Aramark (5)
Siemens (5)
Trane Technologies (4)
Honeywell International (4)
Waste Management (4)
Environmental Jobs Network (4)

NC State Programs Relevant to this Career

If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!

All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.

Engineering