How inclusive job descriptions can power real environmental impact
Why this matters for company leaders
As sustainability moves from the edge of the boardroom agenda to its centre, more companies are setting bold goals; net zero targets, circular supply chains, ethical procurement, etc. But these ambitions often stumble at the operational level because the responsibility for sustainability is rarely written into the everyday work of the team.
When job descriptions don’t mention sustainability, people assume someone else is handling it. Yet if companies want to walk the talk, they must connect purpose to roles, from the warehouse to the marketing desk. This blog explores how inclusive, thoughtfully-written job descriptions can become one of the most underused tools in building a sustainable business, and how assigning responsibility in small but deliberate ways, can make sustainability a shared, living responsibility.
Sustainability with no ownership is a missed opportunity
It’s easy to assume that sustainability belongs to the strategy team, or to the CSR lead, or to the founder who champions it. Even more so as companies scale and the founder’s step back from leading the vision. But when nobody has explicit responsibility in their role, sustainability quickly becomes an abstract concept. It’s referenced in team meetings or marketing materials, but it’s not actively embedded in how the business operates day to day. This is the missed opportunity.
Even in ambitious, purpose-led companies, we often find that job descriptions are still focused entirely on functional delivery; tasks, KPIs, and lines of productivity and reporting. There’s nothing that links the individual’s role to the bigger picture, let alone to environmental impact, supply chain responsibility, or sustainable customer outcomes.
When sustainability isn’t someone’s job, or at least a defined part of their role, there’s no accountability. No mandate to research, no time allocated to trial better approaches, no incentive to challenge old systems. It becomes an extra, not a priority.
But when companies assign ownership, even partial, they create a shift. It becomes legitimate for a logistics manager to spend time rethinking transport emissions. It becomes normal for a product designer to question material waste. It becomes expected that someone in customer service will feed back on how products are used, reused, or disposed of. Ownership unlocks action, and action, not intention, is what moves the needle.
From overlooked to owned
In 2023 I started working with a mid-sized e-commerce business who had proudly committed to becoming carbon neutral within five years. The leadership team spoke regularly about sustainability in internal comms and investor updates. But when a asked one of the warehouse supervisors whose job it was to monitor packaging waste, the question was met with silence. No one knew. Not even the operations director.
Packaging choices had always been based on speed and cost. The people doing the ordering had no remit to change them. The people unpacking and shipping orders weren’t asked to report on waste. And the marketing team, who were publicly promoting the business’s green credentials, didn’t know what actually left the warehouse.
The leadership team realised they’d fallen into a common trap, making sustainability a company value, but not a company responsibility.
The shift began with rewriting a few key job descriptions.
- The warehouse team lead now had a line in their role: “Work with procurement to reduce single-use packaging by 30% and report on progress quarterly.”
- The buyer’s role was updated to include: “Research and trial at least two sustainable packaging suppliers per year.”
- The head of customer experience added: “Gather and analyse customer feedback on packaging sustainability and suggest improvements.”
By allocating real ownership, the company made space for real progress. Within 9 months, they’d switched to a supplier using 90% recycled materials, reduced filler use by half, and created a new metric for sustainability in their monthly ops reviews. Sustainability wasn’t a separate initiative anymore. It was part of the job.
The case for inclusive, purposeful job design
Inclusive job design isn’t just about making space for different people, it’s also about making space for bigger purpose. When we design roles with intention, we create a line of sight between what someone does each day and what the business stands for. Sustainability, when embedded thoughtfully into job descriptions, becomes more than a policy, it becomes part of how people see the value of their work.
This is especially important in fast-moving businesses, indeed any business that is truly serious about building a future legacy. People want to contribute, to innovate, to do work that matters. But too often, they don’t see where sustainability fits into their role. It’s not mentioned in their objectives. It’s not on the agenda in 1:1’s. And it’s certainly not in their job description. So while the company might be running a brilliant sustainability campaign externally, internally there’s a disconnect.
When we include sustainability in job design:
- It signals commitment from leadership — “This matters here because…”
- It gives people permission and priority to think differently.
- It shows that sustainability isn’t reserved for experts — it’s a shared effort.
Even one or two lines in a job description can unlock action. And if those lines are written with inclusive language focusing on contribution, learning, and shared progress, it encourages a wider group of people to engage. Sustainability doesn’t need to be sidelined as a “nice to have”. It can live in creative, operational, financial, or client-facing roles. But only if we design the job to allow it.
There’s more about my Future Job Descriptions principle here: https://mark-jarvis.co.uk/building-a-team-that-can-scale-with-your-business/
Making sustainability part of the creative brief
In 2022, I started working with a growing creative agency in Manchester. They had built their reputation on bold brand work, and often for purpose-led clients. They had sustainability values on the wall, eco mugs in the kitchen, and a digital-first production policy. But when a major client asked about the agency’s own sustainability commitments, the founder realised something was missing – internally, no one ‘owned’ sustainability.
Rather than create a separate role, we took a more inclusive approach. In their next round of job description updates, they wove sustainability responsibilities into roles across the team:
- Client Services were given this line:
“Champion sustainable production choices in client proposals and support clients in achieving their own sustainability messaging goals.” - Project Managers were asked to:
“Evaluate suppliers on environmental impact and propose sustainable alternatives where available.” - Designers and Creatives had a new expectation added:
“Actively explore lower-impact creative approaches, including reduced energy file formats, minimalist design for print, and reusable campaign assets.”
A small shift made a big impact not just in the numbers but also in ownership, belief and purpose. Designers began testing lightweight digital formats that reduced hosting energy by 40%. PMs questioned old print suppliers and discovered greener alternatives. And clients noticed, several even asking for sustainability support in their own campaigns, opening new commercial conversations.
What changed was that sustainability wasn’t an add-on. It was in everyone’s job. And because the descriptions were written inclusively inviting ideas and shared responsibility, the team felt motivated not burdened.
Where sustainability can live in your organisation
One of the biggest misconceptions about sustainability in business is that it needs to be someone’s full-time job before it can be taken seriously. In reality, meaningful progress often starts not with a new team member, but with a fresh look at the roles that already exist.
Every business, whether it makes products or delivers services, has multiple touchpoints where sustainability could live. Not as an afterthought, not as a bolt-on project, but as a thread running through the decisions people already make daily.
You don’t need a ‘Head of Sustainability’ to get started. What you need is clarity, commitment, and connection. Clarity about where sustainability efforts are already happening (often informally). Commitment to name those responsibilities, however small, in people’s roles. And connection to help individuals see how their work, even if it’s not traditionally ‘green,’ can still contribute to a more sustainable business.
Here’s where that starts to take shape:
- First, look at who influences procurement and supplier decisions. Often, a single role holds quiet power over sustainability outcomes, but without an explicit mandate, they won’t challenge the status quo. A small tweak to their job description can unlock huge improvements.
- Next, consider who controls the day-to-day operational choices. Things like how resources are used, what systems are followed, and how energy and waste are managed. These roles are the gatekeepers of efficiency and process and often the most overlooked when it comes to sustainability ownership.
- Finally, look to client-facing or public roles, particularly in professional services. These people shape perception, influence behaviour, and can integrate sustainability into client conversations, policies, or expectations, but only if it’s recognised as part of their remit.
When companies take the time to look at where sustainability could live, not one day soon, but now, and with the team they already have, they unlock a new kind of momentum. It becomes less about waiting for budget or headcount, and more about working with what’s already within reach. And please do remember if you are a founder/director reading this, whilst it may be your role now, it cannot be if you are truly going to scale your company.
Bringing sustainability to the legal sector
I think sometimes it can be harder to see how a services-based business can build sustainability into their whole team so thought I’d share this one as a further example.
The managing partners of a regional law firm with 150 staff had signed up to a national climate pledge, committing to measurable sustainability goals. But like many in this profession, they weren’t sure where to start. Legal services are, after all, not a physical product. How do you embed sustainability into fee-earning roles?
Instead of creating a new department, the firm took a whole-organisation approach. During annual appraisals, they reviewed each team’s responsibilities and identified natural places where sustainability could be embedded:
- The facilities manager’s role was updated to include:
“Lead the firm’s energy and resource efficiency programme, working with suppliers to improve sustainability credentials.” - The procurement and finance coordinator was assigned:
“Assess and update supplier selection criteria to include sustainability and ethical sourcing as standard.” - A senior solicitor in corporate law, who had personal interest in ESG, took on a new responsibility:
“Provide guidance to clients on legal considerations relating to sustainability disclosures, greenwashing risk, and environmental compliance. Where relevant, conduct pre-engagement reviews of a prospective client’s sustainability claims to identify legal or reputational risks.”
This last point gave the solicitor permission to raise red flags for example, if a company appeared to be overstating its environmental progress without formal reporting, or lacked transparency in its supply chain. These reviews weren’t just box-ticking exercises, they became a practical step in managing the firm’s own ESG exposure.
And across all client-facing roles, a new expectation was added:
“Promote the firm’s sustainability commitments where appropriate and model low-impact professional behaviours (e.g. paperless workflows, remote meetings etc). As part of new client onboarding, assess alignment between the client’s public sustainability stance and their operational practices, for instance, reviewing CSR or ESG reports, policy statements, or evidence of recent environmental action.”
This wasn’t about gatekeeping. It was about awareness. The team began to spot when a prospective client’s website said one thing, but their pitch or paperwork told a different story. These insights helped the firm advise with more integrity, sometimes challenging clients to align actions with words, sometimes choosing to step away.
Within 12 months, the firm had reduced energy use by 18%, switched to 90% renewable office supply contracts, and won a new commercial client specifically due to their ESG positioning. But perhaps more importantly, their people felt empowered because they weren’t just reacting to a sustainability target. They were helping shape what good looked like.
I’m sure you can see how these principles could be applied in pretty much any services-based industry.
Making it measurable without overcomplicating it
One of the most common pitfalls when integrating sustainability into roles is either saying too little; a vague “support the organisation’s green goals”, or far too much, adding layers of complexity that feel impossible to action, let alone measure.
But good practice sits in the middle: specific, meaningful, and manageable.
The aim isn’t to turn every employee into a sustainability expert overnight. It’s to give them clear markers for what good looks like in the context of their work, so they know what they’re aiming for, and so leaders can track progress without resorting to complex reporting systems or external consultants from day one.
These are the three measures we use in my companies:
- Behavioural measures: how someone works (e.g. defaulting to digital over print, choosing low-impact travel options, challenging wasteful practices).
- Responsibility measures: what someone owns (e.g. reviewing supplier practices, managing a carbon data spreadsheet, coordinating sustainability projects).
- Influence measures: where someone creates change (e.g. engaging students, clients, or peers in sustainability dialogue, embedding green thinking into decision-making).
These don’t need to be weighted, scored, or benchmarked unless the business is ready. Often, simply naming what a sustainable version of the role looks like is enough to unlock action and set the tone for accountability.
Applying this in the education sector
A multi-academy trust with six schools across two counties had committed to embedding sustainability into its operations and curriculum. The leadership team knew it wasn’t enough to install solar panels or hold a ‘green week’ once a year. They wanted sustainability to show up in how staff worked and led every day.
But with stretched budgets, varied job types, and different leadership styles across schools, they knew the approach had to be simple.
So, they focused on role-by-role clarity, and added measurable sustainability elements to each job description at the time of performance review.
This is where we ended up after discussion and refinement:
- The Head of Estates and Facilities had new behavioural and responsibility measures added:
“Demonstrate and promote energy-conscious practices in all maintenance and infrastructure decisions. Lead quarterly reviews of energy use and waste streams across sites and report findings to the SLT.” - A Geography teacher and eco-club coordinator had influence measures introduced:
“Embed practical sustainability themes into curriculum delivery. Run at least one student-led campaign each term that explores local or global environmental issues and proposes action.” - Even the school business manager had an adjusted role brief:
“Work with suppliers to reduce carbon impact in procurement and contracts. Benchmark catering, transport, and materials purchasing against agreed sustainability criteria and report annually.”
Each responsibility was realistic and aligned with the scope of the role, but specific enough to know if it was being done.
The result was teachers and operational staff began collaborating more meaningfully, student and parent awareness improved, and the trust secured additional funding from a regional climate education grant. More importantly, the changes stuck because they were built into what people already did, not added on as extra.
Role design as a culture shaper
In ambitious and values-led organisations, culture isn’t just a by-product of good leadership, it’s something that gets deliberately designed. And one of the most overlooked tools in that design process is the formal job description.
Every role sends a message. It tells people what’s valued, what gets noticed, and what they’re here to be part of. If sustainability is truly part of your company’s identity, it needs to live in the language of the roles you ask people to live, not just in strategy presentations or leadership soundbites.
Too often, especially in fast-paced industries like hospitality, job descriptions become bloated with compliance, stripped of purpose, or simply copied over from previous roles without reflection. The result is usually that staff treat the role as a set of tasks, not a contribution to a mission. When sustainability feels like ‘someone else’s job’, culture becomes accidental, not intentional.
I spent over 15 years working in the hospitality industry, and I’ve seen both ends of the spectrum. I’ve worked with teams where roles were just boxes to tick which bred apathy, high turnover, and a total disconnect from the values the business claimed to care about. But I’ve also seen it done right: where roles were written to connect the ‘what’ to the ‘why’, where people felt proud to do their part, and where sustainability wasn’t a separate policy, it was just how the business ran.
Shaping culture through role design in hospitality
Early in 2020 I started working with a boutique hotel group with five properties across the UK. They had set out a bold claim to become “the most sustainable independent hotel brand in the country”. The Covid years took a toll on that initially and the owners knew it may take a little longer to achieve but stuck to their goal none the less. They knew it wasn’t enough to retrofit solar panels or source local produce, the culture had to change, and he whole customer experience had to shout sustainability. And that meant reshaping the roles people worked in every day.
We began with the basics, rewriting every frontline job description through the lens of the company mission; “to provide exceptional guest experiences with the lightest environmental footprint”.
- For the housekeeping team, the role wasn’t just about cleanliness. It included:
“Model low-impact housekeeping practices using eco-certified products, managing linen changes based on guest preference, and reducing single-use consumables in guest rooms. Be a visible advocate for our sustainability promise.” The wording wasn’t fluffy. It showed trust, purpose, and expectation all at once. - In the kitchen brigade, chefs had a new line in their remit:
“Champion sustainable sourcing by collaborating with local growers, reducing food waste, and adapting menus to reflect seasonal availability and ethical procurement.” Something they had always done but now it was recognisable and measurable. - Even the receptionists were given sustainability touchpoints:
“Welcome guests in a way that reflects our environmental values from explaining the paperless check-in process to promoting nearby low-carbon travel options and local ethical suppliers.”
Crucially, the tone wasn’t top-down. These job descriptions were co-created in workshops with staff, so the wording felt real and the commitment felt mutual.
And the culture shift was tangible. Staff became proud storytellers of the hotel’s sustainability journey. Guests began leaving reviews not just about the food or the rooms, but about the values. Recruitment became easier, and turnover dropped. People weren’t just doing tasks, they were living the mission.
That’s the power of role design done well. It doesn’t just change behaviour. It shapes belief.
Mark Jarvis
Founder | Interim MD | NED
Author of The Very Best Business Handbook You’ll Ever Own
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