"Greed is good" is no longer a very popular slogan. Instead, most people expect businesses to pay attention to the effects of their work on others, including the environment. As corporate responsibility becomes more and more important, businesses are hiring sustainability consultants to help them go green instead of focus on greed.
Sustainability consultants are experts in environmental policy and eco-friendly business practices. They advise businesses on ways to decrease their environmental footprint, for example by making manufacturing processes more efficient or finding ways to use less energy. They also find other ways that sustainability can benefit a company, like improving their reputation among consumers or by getting tax rebates.
Sustainability consultants work hard to develop the skills and know-how to advise companies, often by getting master's degrees in sustainability or a related field. All that hard work has a good chance of paying off-the demand for sustainability consultants is set to increase by 6 percent by 2028.
How to Become a Sustainability Consultant
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a sustainability consultant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $29.04 an hour? That's $60,401 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 17,300 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Sustainability Consultant Do
There are certain skills that many sustainability consultants have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed organizational skills, speaking skills and writing skills.
How To Become a Sustainability Consultant
If you're interested in becoming a sustainability consultant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 65.6% of sustainability consultants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 29.4% of sustainability consultants have master's degrees. Even though most sustainability consultants have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a sustainability consultant. When we researched the most common majors for a sustainability consultant, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on sustainability consultant resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a sustainability consultant. In fact, many sustainability consultant jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many sustainability consultants also have previous career experience in roles such as project manager or consultant.
Sustainability Consultant Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a sustainability consultant can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as consultant, progress to a title such as project manager and then eventually end up with the title senior product manager.
Average Salary for a Sustainability Consultant
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Sustainability Consultants
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
3. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
4. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
5. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
6. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Private
7. University of California - Davis
Davis, CA • Private
8. SUNY Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY • Private
9. New York University
New York, NY • Private
10. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Private
Top Skills For a Sustainability Consultant
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 40.5% of sustainability consultants listed sustainability on their resume, but soft skills such as organizational skills and speaking skills are important as well.
Sustainability Consultant Demographics
Sustainability Consultant Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among sustainability consultants, 46.0% of them are women, while 54.0% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among sustainability consultants is White, which makes up 73.9% of all sustainability consultants.
- The most common foreign language among sustainability consultants is Spanish at 36.8%.
Online Courses For Sustainability Consultant That You May Like
Can building structures be sustainable? This course aims to answer that question. It covers sustainable construction management project elements from conception to completion. We discuss the important contributions facility managers and property managers make to sustainable construction projects by acting as the owner’s representatives. And we show how the construction contract and project delivery method greatly influences how the project will be performed sustainably. Sustainable...
Tourism’s profound impact on the world Tourism continues to experiencing incredible growth. Of all the industries of major importance worldwide, Travel and Tourism directly contribute $1.4 trillion to the global economy and provides one out of ten jobs and that number is growing. But tourism is more than just a powerful economic force. Tourist activities come with a host of social and environmental issues at tourism destinations. And return, tourism business itself is highly sensitive to...
The MOOC introduces learners to key environmental health and natural resources management challenges associated with the rapid growth in international tourist arrivals into low-income countries. Since infrastructural and regulatory capacities in such countries are often limited they are more exposed to the negative implications of such development. The MOOC will present experiences and potential avenues to develop a more sustainable form of tourism. The Course particularly focuses on the problem...
Best States For a Sustainability Consultant
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a sustainability consultant. The best states for people in this position are Michigan, Alaska, New Mexico, and Mississippi. Sustainability consultants make the most in Michigan with an average salary of $86,342. Whereas in Alaska and New Mexico, they would average $86,143 and $84,104, respectively. While sustainability consultants would only make an average of $83,994 in Mississippi, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. New Mexico
$84,104
Avg. Salary
2. Mississippi
$83,994
Avg. Salary
3. Michigan
$86,342
Avg. Salary
How Do Sustainability Consultant Rate Their Jobs?
Top Sustainability Consultant Employers
Most Common Employers For Sustainability Consultant
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Autodesk | $133,184 | $64.03 | 5 |
| 2 | Chevron | $108,831 | $52.32 | 2 |
| 3 | Pwc | $93,867 | $45.13 | 2 |
| 4 | IFC - International Finance | $84,620 | $40.68 | 2 |
| 5 | Stericycle | $83,797 | $40.29 | 3 |
| 6 | Vringo | $75,013 | $36.06 | 1 |
| 7 | Arup | $73,094 | $35.14 | 5 |
| 8 | Waste Management | $73,090 | $35.14 | 2 |
| 9 | Steven Winter Associates | $72,380 | $34.80 | 7 |
| 10 | AECOM | $72,285 | $34.75 | 4 |