In today’s evolving business landscape, sustainability has emerged as an important consideration for companies aiming to achieve long-term success and to please their stakeholders. This has led to exciting opportunities for students interested in sustainability to make a positive impact, whatever their major is. Let’s explore some of the different career paths available to business students and some of the sustainability training offered in Montreal.

- Sustainability Consulting
Companies hire consultants to receive help reducing their GHG emissions, water usage, environmental impacts, and more. Their job consists of analyzing the current sustainable state of the client, developing a strategy, setting appropriate goals, etc. Some of the biggest companies hiring sustainability consultants include EY, KPMG, Deloitte, and McKinsey & Company.
- Sustainable Finance
Sustainable finance involves taking environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria into consideration when making an investment decision. Companies hire investment analysts, sustainability advisors and ESG analysts to analyze sustainable data, find trends, and prepare reports to convey investing recommendations to financial institutions. A lot of companies are disclosing ESG information and claim to have the desire to become more sustainable, but it can be difficult to differentiate the ones who are actively working towards their goals and the ones who are simply saying they want to become more sustainable to attract investors. Having a professional analyze the environmental performance of companies is therefore a strong asset for investing funds, mutual funds, asset managers and other financial institutions.
- Supply Chain Management
Supply chains often account for more than 90% of a company’s GHG emissions, so finding ways to optimize the supply chain to make it more sustainable can have a significant impact. There are four ways an organization can manage their supply chain regarding sustainability:
- responsible partnerships: choosing strategic partners, managing supplier risk and material traceability.
- circularity enablement: redesigning the supply chain process to allow for circular economy.
- impact-driven supply chains: Finding supply chains strategy to minimize environmental impacts and energy consumption
- external emissions reduction: scope 3 emissions management and reporting
To achieve this process, organizations need to hire sustainability managers, supply chain analysts, project managers, procurement managers, etc.
- Green Marketing
As more companies are developing sustainability initiatives and trying to achieve certain goals, the need for organizations to communicate their progress towards these goals is growing. Green marketing specialists work on developing a marketing campaign that highlights a company’s commitment to sustainability to help them stand out from their competitors.

Sustainability is getting broader as a field, and the need for specialists will continue to grow. Embracing the opportunities offered by sustainability not only offers personal and professional growth but also fosters a greener future for all.
Resources
https://eco.ca/career-profiles/sustainability-consultant
https://www2.deloitte.com/ca/en/pages/strategy/solutions/sustainable-supply-chain.html
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