Job description

Sustainability Specialists address organizational sustainability issues, such as waste stream management, green building practices, and green procurement plans.

• Create or maintain plans or other documents related to sustainability projects.
• Develop sustainability project goals, objectives, initiatives, or strategies in collaboration with other sustainability professionals.
• Assess or propose sustainability initiatives, considering factors such as cost effectiveness, technical feasibility, and acceptance.
• Provide technical or administrative support for sustainability programs or issues.

Featured Schools

Salary

Sustainability Specialists with little to no experience tend to make between $38420 and $52200 while the more experienced ones can earn over $94890 per year.

One of the easiest ways to increase your salary as a Sustainability Specialist is to move to a higher paying state like DC. Right now, the highest paying states for Sustainability Specialists are DC, MD, VA, MA and AL.

However, a higher pay at DC doesn’t guarantee that you will make more because the living expenses at DC might be twice as high than where you are currently at now.

Three other factors that can increase your salary as a Sustainability Specialist is the degree you hold, the industry you work in, and lastly the company you work for.

Requirements

We asked other Sustainability Specialists what degree they had when they got the job and most of them said they had a Bachelor’s Degree followed by a Master’s Degree.

Other than that, we also asked them what did they major in and here are the most popular majors that came up.

Pros and Cons

Here are some of the pros and cons of being a Sustainability Specialist.

What is the job like

70% of Sustainability Specialists said they were satisfied with their job and 47% said they feel like their job is making other people’s lives better.

Is this right for me

You can read more about these career personality types here.

People who are suitable for this job tends to like starting up and carrying out projects. They like leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business..

They also like working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. They like searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

Explore other careers