Not too long ago, the question of whether or not to hire a dedicated sustainability manager was a valid one.
But today, for any company interested in long-term success, the question isn’t whether or not they should hire a sustainability manager. Instead, companies need to decide what kind of sustainability management structure they should put in place.
Because sustainability is expected now, by stakeholders, and by law (did somebody say CSRD!?). And as it has grown more complex in recent years, so has the process of managing it.
Many different types of sustainability managers now exist, each focusing on different aspects of sustainability. Energy managers for example focus on optimizing energy usage, sustainable product managers focus on developing sustainable products, and so on.
The particular blend of sustainability managers a company chooses will depend on their particular situation. But for companies of all shapes and sizes, and sustainability managers of all types, the interim option is rapidly growing in popularity.
Many companies are now choosing to hire interim sustainability managers, as they offer the same expertise as full-time managers, but with several added benefits.
So often when it comes to sustainability, companies find themselves in a situation where they need specific expertise for a particular project or challenge. Whether that is preparing for new legislation like the CSRD, completing a sustainability certification like B Corp, or transitioning to renewable energy.
In many cases, overcoming these challenges doesn’t necessarily require hiring somebody in a permanent role. Instead, companies can hire an interim sustainability manager, and pay them only for the duration of the project in question.
This means sustainability goals can be reached, with no long-term salary or benefits required.
The interim option also offers flexibility. If all of a sudden a company’s sustainability needs grow, they can easily hire the necessary interim expertise. After a few months, when challenges are overcome and sustainability needs decrease, the company can scale down its sustainability team.
Basically, the help is always accessible when needed, but only paid for when used.
As we’re sure you already know, in the sustainability world, things move fast and new challenges appear all the time. And when new legislation or updated processes get introduced, companies need to incorporate them ASAP.
Thankfully, interim sustainability managers are ASAP-compatible. (Did we just coin a new phrase? Well, you heard it here first!)
Forget about the lengthy hiring processes involved with long-term employees. Interims can be brought in quickly to provide immediate support wherever it is needed. This gives companies the peace of mind that, no matter what sustainability challenges come their way, they can always respond quickly and effectively.
Not all sustainability challenges are external. As so many areas of sustainability require very specialized expertise, it can be a challenge for companies to maintain performance when they lose this expertise. Even if it’s just for a short time.
For companies employing any number of long-term sustainability managers, interim sustainability managers offer a way to seamlessly fill expertise gaps during maternity or medical leave.
The long-term employee takes leave, the interim specialist with equivalent expertise is quickly onboarded, everything runs smoothly for the duration of the leave, the long-term employee comes back. Crisis averted.
While finding maternity/medical cover might sometimes be considered a minor crisis, unfortunately, crises come much bigger than that in the sustainability world.
Even with the best intentions, companies can sometimes put a foot wrong; use the wrong materials, source from the wrong supplier, fail to meet carbon reduction targets etc.
When this happens, hiring an interim sustainability manager can be the perfect antidote. As we know, they can be onboarded quickly, and work to resolve any crisis without fuss.
Maybe you can consider the interim sustainability manager to be the ultimate form of damage control.
Another often overlooked benefit of hiring interim sustainability managers is the fresh perspective they offer.
Because they are temporary, and external to the organization, they are unclouded by internal politics and processes. This allows them to offer a more objective viewpoint that otherwise might not be considered. In a way, the interim manager literally comes from outside the box, to help the company think outside the box.
If you’d like to think outside the box yourself by hiring your own interim expertise, Dazzle is here to help you do that.
Dazzle is a platform that offers the world’s best sustainability freelancers on-demand.
Amongst those freelancers, we have every type of interim sustainability manager available, with multiple options to choose from.
With Dazzle, each of our freelancers comes with a guaranteed track record due to our extensive screening process. And we offer maximum flexibility, as you can choose to work with our freelancers on a project-based, on-demand, or interim basis.
We’ve talked about all the benefits interim sustainability managers can offer, and now we would love to help you avail of those benefits.
If you contact us today, we can send you a list of quality interim options within hours.
We know the perfect solution is here waiting for you within our network.