How to get promoted to sustainability director or VP in 2025

The opinions expressed here by Trellis expert contributors are their own, not those of Trellis.

Securing an internal promotion within corporate sustainability has always been tough. In the early days, teams were so small you couldn’t get to the next level unless your manager was promoted or left. Later, when demand for sustainability talent was on fire, people could move up one or two levels just by changing organizations.

However, today’s job market is incredibly competitive and hiring managers have a large candidate pool to select from. Economic uncertainty and job market instability are also driving many people to stay longer with their current employer. As a result, investing effort in an internal promotion is likely the best option for growth right now.

The path to internal promotion begins with understanding the scope and requirements of various levels within your organization, says Ellen Weinreb of Weinreb Group Sustainability Recruiting. In companies with several levels, managers tend to be sole contributors, directors concentrate on strategy within their domain and vice presidents take a more active role managing up and influencing senior leadership.

While managers often require technical skills and subject matter expertise, director and VP roles rely more on leadership competencies such as stakeholder engagement, the ability to balance strategic vision with execution and systems thinking. To find out more, I spoke with several directors and VPs and they consistently shared two key insights:

At the director level and above, it’s less about sustainability expertise and more about leadership skills and the ability to navigate internal politics, secure resources and drive transformation.
At the time they were promoted, they’d already been performing work of the quality and scope expected at the new level.

Below is advice on how to secure a promotion to a director or VP of Sustainability role within your current organization.

Positioning yourself for an internal promotion

Build a wide network: Teams that award promotions often include senior leaders from multiple areas of the business evaluating a pool of candidates up for a limited number of open roles. That’s why it’s important to build visibility and trust beyond your direct reporting line.

Reach out to leaders you admire from outside of your team, function and company to ask them for advice, ideas and feedback. They’ll become informal mentors and advocates who can help you learn and grow.
Attend and speak at conferences to build your reputation as a thought leader and representative of your corporate brand.

Develop skills outside of the sustainability function: Most senior sustainability leaders bring a strong functional skillset from another area to their roles and understand how the business works. Develop a knowledge of how each functional area contributes to profit, loss and risk and learn how to operate effectively across different domains.

Get experience beyond sustainability by taking a role on a different functional team or working on cross-functional projects.
Invite people to lunch or to present to your team to learn about their functional area’s priorities, KPIs and incentive structures.

“I had already demonstrated my ability to do the role, and had created strong connections with stakeholders who had seen what I could deliver and could act as advocates for me.”

— Katie Schindall, VP of Decarbonization Strategy and Transformation at Schneider Electric, on her promotion to global director at Cisco

Get experience engaging with key stakeholders: Stakeholder engagement takes up a larger part of your role as your career advances. Get as much experience as possible with engaging the board, executive team, investors and other key stakeholders.

Listen to investor calls and ask your manager to sit in on board meetings or executive conversations to develop a sense for how these audiences operate.
Volunteer to help your manager or another leader prepare for key stakeholder conversations. Offer to manage the development schedule, draft slides, collect feedback or manage updates.

Demonstrate a desire and readiness for more scope and strategic work: One of the most difficult parts of transitioning to director is demonstrating readiness to move from programmatic project delivery to responsibility for longer-term strategy across a portfolio. Do as much strategy work as possible in your current role.

Clearly communicate about the kind of work you’d like to take on and the ways in which you’d like to contribute more. Be eager to take on less-glamorous projects.
Ask your manager if you can help with strategic work. Offer to write first drafts, do research, collect stakeholder feedback or update documentation.
When you learn of new initiatives, reach out to the lead with ideas for how to approach the work and ask if you could contribute to the project.
Take on responsibilities for co-workers who go out on leave.

“I was well-positioned for promotion due to my extensive procurement experience and my ability to apply a sustainability lens to the function.”

— Allison Lin, Global VP of Healthy Planet and Chief Circularity Officer at Mars, about her promotion to global director at Coca-Cola

Get an MBA, maybe? Trellis’s 2024 State of the Sustainability Profession report showed that only 38% of directors and 44% of VPs had an MBA or other advanced degree, so attending graduate school isn’t a requirement for advancement; however, if you’re having difficulty using the approaches described above at your organization, an MBA can help you to:

Gain experience with leading a team of peers by doing practicum projects.
Practice pitching and communicating ideas to diverse audiences.
Learn to speak the language of business by mastering core concepts such as profit and loss drivers, risk-adjusted scenario planning and resource optimization.

What could be preventing your promotion

While it’s important to know what can help you secure a promotion, it’s equally important to understand what could hold you back. Here are the most-cited reasons for why people aren’t promoted to the director or VP level.

Internal or external competition

A “high-potential talent” candidate from another function is given the position as a recognition of their achievements or development opportunity.
An external candidate with more experience in leadership, broader business experience, or specific subject matter expertise is hired.
Sustainability is moved to report under a different unit and there’s no opening in the new leadership structure.

Organizational politics and fit

Your approach to influencing others doesn’t align with the organization’s culture whether through over-reliance or underuse of charisma, assertiveness or data-driven reasoning.
You’re viewed as having “only” sustainability expertise.
An influential stakeholder is intentionally impeding your growth.

Poor performance and attitude

You don’t consistently deliver on commitments or respond in a timely manner.
You struggle to communicate complex sustainability topics effectively to broad audiences.
You push back when offered the opportunity to take on new projects or areas of responsibility.
You have unrealistic expectations about the timing and number of promotions you should expect throughout your career and express your impatience in an unproductive way.

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