Sustainability Communications Jobs: Why the Role is Harder Than Ever (and More Important)

Lee Green
Dec 13, 2025
4 min read

Updated: Dec 20, 2025

Sustainability communications jobs have quietly become some of the most complex roles in organisations today.

On paper, they often sound straightforward enough: communicate sustainability commitments, manage messaging, support campaigns, tell the story. But anyone actually working in sustainability communications knows the reality is far messier and more complicated.

These roles now sit at the intersection of risk, trust, regulation, reputation, and expectation. And that shift has happened faster than most organisations have acknowledged.

The quiet evolution of sustainability communications roles

Not that long ago, sustainability communications was largely about storytelling. Highlighting initiatives, sharing progress and raising awareness. Today, that’s only a small part of the job.

Sustainability communications roles are increasingly expected to:

Translate complex environmental and social data into plain language
Navigate evolving regulations and disclosure requirements
Align sustainability, legal, procurement, finance, and marketing teams
Sense-check claims before they become public commitments
Protect the organisation from accusations of greenwashing or overstatement

This isn’t just communications anymore. It’s risk management, internal diplomacy, and strategic judgment rolled into one.

Yet many sustainability communications job descriptions haven’t caught up.

The “unicorn” problem in sustainability communications jobs

Spend five minutes scanning sustainability communications job ads and a pattern emerges.

Organisations are often looking for one person who can:

Write compelling content
Understand ESG frameworks and data
Manage stakeholders across the business
Handle media and reputational risk
Keep pace with regulation
Deliver campaigns that still “cut through”

All while working with partial information, limited authority, and evolving strategy.

The problem isn’t ambition. It’s misalignment.

Many sustainability communications jobs carry responsibility without decision-making power. People are asked to “own the narrative” without owning the inputs. They’re held accountable for claims (and even content) they didn’t create, data they didn’t collect, and actions they can’t control.

That tension is one of the defining features of sustainability communications careers today, and it’s rarely acknowledged openly.

From marketing function to trust function

One of the biggest shifts in sustainability communications roles is where they now sit in the organisation.

These roles are no longer just about promotion or positioning. They are increasingly about trust.

That means:

Knowing when not to say something
Being comfortable communicating progress, not perfection
Asking hard questions internally before going public
Slowing things down when others want to move fast

Good sustainability communications today is often invisible. It’s the campaign that didn’t happen, the claim that was softened, the language that was changed before it caused damage.

That can be frustrating for people in these jobs, especially in organisations that still measure success by volume of output rather than credibility of impact.

What sustainability communications jobs actually require now

Rather than a long list of technical skills, the most effective people in sustainability communications roles tend to share a few core capabilities:

Strong judgment about what’s ready to communicate and what isn’t
The ability to translate between technical sustainability teams and non-expert audiences
Confidence to push back when claims feel premature or overstated
Comfort working with uncertainty and incomplete data
An instinct for credibility over polish

These aren’t always taught. And they’re rarely written into job descriptions. But they’re what keep organisations out of trouble and help sustainability communications careers endure.

Where AI genuinely helps (and where it still doesn’t)

AI is starting to show up in sustainability communications jobs, whether formally or informally. Used well, it can be genuinely helpful, especially in roles that are under-resourced and overloaded.

The best AI tools can already:

Sense-check claims for common greenwashing risks
Flag vague or absolute language that may overstate progress
Help stress-test whether a message aligns with evidence provided
Surface questions that should be asked before something goes public
Bring structure and consistency to sustainability narratives

In other words, AI can help people decide whether a claim is defensible, or at least whether it’s risky, premature, or poorly framed.

But it still doesn’t remove the hardest part of the role.

AI doesn’t sit in internal meetings.AI doesn’t understand power dynamics, incentives, or unspoken pressure.AI doesn’t carry the personal or organisational consequences if trust is lost.

The best use of AI in sustainability communications isn’t automation; it’s augmentation. It gives people in these roles better prompts, better questions, and earlier warnings, but it still relies on human judgment to make the final call.

That’s not a limitation. It’s the point.

A role that deserves better support

Sustainability communications jobs are becoming more demanding, not less. The expectations are rising, the risks are clearer, and the margin for error is shrinking.

What hasn’t always kept pace is the support around these roles. Clear frameworks, shared language, and space to sense-check decisions are often missing, even as accountability increases.

For organisations, that’s a risk.

For individuals working in sustainability communications, it can be exhausting.

As this function continues to evolve, the conversation needs to shift from simply asking people to “tell better stories” to giving them the tools, structure, and confidence to communicate sustainability responsibly.

Because in the end, credibility isn’t built through perfect messaging.It’s built through better decisions, made earlier.