According to recruitment consultants, companies in the Asia-Pacific region are cutting down junior-level sustainability talent to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to perform automated functions.
At the Rethink Conference held in Hong Kong last week, Paddy Balfour, managing director of Asia-Pacific recruitment firm Acre, said that companies are automating several tasks to deploy AI and improve efficiency.
“We've seen more senior recruitment — and fewer junior employment,” said Balfour, who serves companies in the sustainability division of corporate services across the region. “We definitely see it,” he said.
His observations reflect a study by Bloomberg in July, showing that entry-level jobs in many sectors are being overwhelmed by AI as employers use AI-based tools to automate basic tasks.
This trend exacerbates the “massing of talent pathways” in the sustainability sector. This told EcoBusiness about event side jobs as junior and mid-level staff are deprived of the experience they need to advance their careers by doing labor-intensive but important jobs.
He said there is more to be done by the industry and academy to incorporate mentorship into companies that give alumni the experience they need to advance their careers.
Specialists, commercial skills in demand
The Rethink panel was about attracting and maintaining sustainability talent. Image: Robin Hicks/Eco-Business
As the sustainability sector matures, companies are focusing on building capacity and more on achieving “focused goals.” This means there is a high demand for professional roles such as biodiversity managers as companies are increasingly reporting their natural and climate impacts.
At the C-Suite level, Balfour said, today pressures the best sustainability officers (CSOs) to prove commercial value for their businesses.
“There are a variety of things CSOs are dealing with today. Regulation, carbon markets, reporting, and more, all require a diverse skill set,” he said. These rapidly evolving topics also require nasty, he said.
Balfour observed the end of the trend that consultants are being hired by businesses to run the sustainability sector. He said last year at Rethink it created a gap in consulting expertise for businesses to leverage. “It stopped,” he said.
However, recruiters noted that in order to take sustainability more seriously at the Asian corporate level, more sustainability experts need to move into the role of senior companies. Vinamra Srivastava, Head of Sustainability and Investment at Capitaland Investments, is a rare example in Asia.
“Even if there's a transition from CSO to CEO, we don't see a lot of people,” he said. “As soon as we had sustainability experts who would bring a more holistic understanding to senior positions who could bring authentic sustainability expertise, I think we began to see more representation for sustainability at the very top,” he said.
Balfour's comments come as the sustainability sector is under pressure to prove its value amid increasingly scrutiny of tough economic situations and environmental, social and governance (ESG) following Donal Trump's election as US president.
Hendrik Rosenthal, sustainability chief at Hong Kong power company CLP, recently told the Eco-Business podcast that they need to remain “practical” to remain relevant to the current climate. John Haffner of real estate company Hanglanguage Properties admitted that the sustainability team faces resistance in pushing its ESG agenda, but said the company's ambitions remain unchanged.
