can you answer these Question using the text under it. For Case study presentation, Thanks

1. What kind of personality would be best suited for this kind of career?

1. What are some ways students can actively seek out companies with corporate ESG embedded into the organization?

Current Career Opportunities

The range of sustainability careers was increasing rapidly, with the International Labour Organization estimating that twenty-four million jobs worldwide could be created by the green economy alone by 2030,

spanning a wide range of industries-from renewables to fashion technologies.' Based on the current state of the industry, there appeared to be five main types of careers in sustainability. However, these categories were a generalization, and there was considerable overlap between them. In addition, the categories would likely change in the coming years as the industry developed. Although these five specialty roles existed within the sustainability field, much sustainability work happened in basic business functions, which focused more and more on challenges and opportunities in sustainability.

Rating

There were several ESG rating firms whose primary goal was to assess and score the ESG disclosure of various companies. Scores were commonly based on a 1 to 100 scale, with most companies being automatically rated based on disclosures in the public domain.' Examples of these rating firms included Sustainalytics, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc., and MSCI Inc. Roles in rating firms could include evaluation and solution development, client relations, and operations, each requiring varying skill sets.

Environmental Policy and Regulation

Careers in environmental policy focused on defining how environmental concerns could be approached by governments and organizations, and these roles existed in both the private and public sector."

Advisory

Many traditional consulting firms were developing new sustainability divisions and offering advisory services or giza sina ife sectors ee a read susan business, Feames, consume ferns with

sustainability arms included McKinsey & Company, KPMG International Limited, and Boston Consulting

primarily on sustainability. Certain non-governmental organizations could also play an important role in advising companies by sharing expertise and ensuring sustainability targets were met. For example, Environmental Defence Canada was a non-profit organization made up of policy experts and community members that worked with governments, industry, and individuals to shape sustainability initiatives.

Internal Corporate Roles

Many companies were evolving their internal sustainability and corporate responsibility teams from a compliance and operational model to a senior-level, strategic, and external collaboration focus. The responsibilities of these teams were continuing to grow; examples of the responsibilities covered included strategy development and implementation, internal integration and capacity development, and external reporting and communications? Internal sustainability reporting was currently one of the biggest responsibilities of these divisions, as regulatory reporting requirements continued to evolve and become more clearly defined. At the same time, sustainability responsibilities had begun to evolve beyond specialized roles and teams within companies. Finance, accounting, communications, and analytics were just a few of the many other functional areas where sustainability-related work opportunities also existed in addition to opportunities on dedicated sustainability teams.

Academic

As the industry continued to grow, numerous opportunities for research and development arose. Career positions in think tanks or other kinds of research organizations were expanding as demand for data and information increased. Even imperfect research and information were needed for future decision-making in the industry.

The Intersection of Sustainability and Business

Although sustainability was sometimes thought to be a field or profession all on its own, as demand for expertise in this area grew, there also arose the possibility of layering a sustainability lens in traditional business roles. The scale of impact desired and changes organizations would need to make, required the involvement of more than a team of sustainability specialists alone could achieve. For this reason, there were opportunities to drive positive sustainability impact through mainstream roles in areas such as operations, supply chain, strategy, finance, marketing, and others, and these opportunities would only increase over time. Although it might be natural to assume that a passion for sustainability issues could lead to a job focused exclusively on sustainability, the reality was that there were orders of magnitude more jobs in mainstream roles that could create sustainability impact. As Ewart stated, "The greatest need for change and opportunity for impact is in the traditional business roles, employing existing business knowledge and skills through a sustainability lens." Roopa Dav, a partner in sustainability and ESG at KPMG, further suggested, "Early career professionals can become invaluable sustainability practitioners by first deepening their real-world business experience then move to understanding how sustainability can be embedded to transform core business operations."2 For example, individuals could develop expertise in accounting and undertake sustainability training to build a solid strength in core business disciplines, and then integrate those values into a company's sustainability initiatives.

To be at the leading edge of sustainability, there had to be continual learning and an understanding of the most up-to-date news. As the industry continued to change at a rapid pace, new approaches to problems constantly emerged, making previous approaches less relevant. To provide valuable recommendations. sustainability professionals of all types had to stay up to speed on the changing landscape of knowledge and have a passion to do so. To keep abreast of the industry, sustainability professionals constantly scanned trade journals, professional associations and other sources of information, often spending substantial time seeking news sources and sharing information across teams outside of normal corporate working hours. At the same time, even if individuals were not passionate about sustainability, it would eventually become a part of any job. Dav stressed that "the end goal is to upskill all professionals to be knowledgeable about the basics of sustainability and to be able to apply that lens to their jobs. In the same way that developing digital literacy has become important in recent years, soon individuals will need to be sustainability literate' for any job in the future."

For individuals interested in starting their career in sustainability, entry-level careers were vaned, with possible roles in administration, analytics, or communications. Available roles might also be present in organizations already well known for their sustainability efforts, or in those that were beginning to integrate sustainability within their existing work. As described by Jessica Fisher, senior partnerships and social impact advisor at Co-operators, "NGOs [non-governmental organizations], co-operatives, charities, foundations, small and medium-sized businesses, larger corporations - all of these might have entry-level positions that could lead to greater sustainability work down the line. Or there's always intrapreneurship; i.e., acting like an entrepreneur from within an established organization.*24 Intrapreneurship was often seen in organizations where sustainability was not explicitly present to demonstrate the need and value of sustainability integration.

However, this approach was a long process and had a higher probability of success if there was support from senior leadership to invest in employees' development and take their ideas to heart.

Sustainability also created opportunities to move up an organization's hierarchy in traditional for-profit businesses. For example, demand for ESG executives was growing across the financial services industry as investors increasingly expected fund managers to take sustainability factors into account. Many investment teams were screening for potential ESG issues and working with portfolio companies to improve their performance on issues like climate change.? Core business operations were being reconfigured to meet emerging sustainability trends. ESG executives frequently worked with senior leadership on high-level strategic initiatives and the direction of organizations.

Emerging Trends in the Industry

Growing Concern for Climate Change

Even with other emerging topics that would impact business, climate change was a concern that could not be avoided. Based on responses from the World Economic Forum's 2021-2022 Global Risks Perception Survey, "climate action failure" was ranked as the most critical threat to the world in both the medium and long term. There was clear physical evidence of the risk of climate change, such as melting land ice, rising sea levels, and prolonged periods of extreme heat and cold, in addition to their associated consequences for human and economic systems. " Climate transitions would also be disorderly as a result of "the sheer scale, complexity, and interdependency of the needed changes," and of decades of inaction." Overall, climate change created the highest potential to severely damage societies, economies, and the planet.

Interconnection of Issues Required System Thinking

Systems thinking could be understood as a framework for solving complex problems that emphasized interdependencies. It considered all system components and how these interrelated dynamically within and across systems.28 The COVID-19 crisis had highlighted multiple interdependencies and systemic vulnerabilities within society, further stressing the importance of applying a systems lens in ESG analyses.

In the same way that the health of an individual person impacted the health of others and the economy, environmental decisions intersected social issues such as diversity and inclusion. Dav emphasized, "One of the major qualities needed in sustainability professionals will be the ability for candidates to apply systems thinking to understand the connections between the environment, society, and business using a multidisciplinary perspective."29

TOM EWART'S STORY

Impact of Early Years on Passion for Sustainability

When Ewart was around seven years old, he discovered a hand-sized ball made of dozens of elastic bands wrapped around each other in a drawer at his grandparents' house. As a seven-year-old, it was simply a fun bouncy ball that he could play with. As a sustainability professional now reflecting on that memory, Ewart realized that the ball reflected certain values he had been raised with. Specifically, the elastic band demonstrated resource efficiency and waste reduction: As a child, his grandmother had been evacuated during the World War II from her home in Scotland. During that time there was limited food and resources. so anything that citizens could find, even an elastic band, was kept in case it was needed in the future. As a result, Ewart's family had raised him to be mindful of resources and to be respectful of others.

University Experience

Ewart graduated from Western University in 2005 after completing a dual degreea bachelor of engineering science and an honours bachelor of arts (HBA) from Ivey Business School. During his time at Western, he and a number of his peers founded a student club called EnviroWestern, which focused on promoting environmental sustainability at Western with a group of like-minded students. When he started in the HBA program at Ivey. Ewart began to educate himself on specific terminology, frameworks, and ways of thinking related to sustainability. Initially, Ewart had decided to attend business school with the idea that in learning how businesses worked, he could be a more effective change agent from the outside.

However, over the course of his studies, he realized that his skills might be better suited to being a change agent from the inside through collaboration, problem-solving, intrapreneurship, and seeking win-wins.

Early Work Experience

In January 2003, as his peers were preparing for summer internship interviews, Ewart realized he was not as excited by the same career aspirations as many of those around him. Through his involvement with Ivey peacets, as destined duani a r. Toma Bansi, a pests at retribute to the sol. is entic ther taking a summer job as a research assistant supporting Bansal.

When he graduated in 2005, Ewart still did not see himself working in the jobs typically offered to Ivey students, leaning instead toward academia or social entrepreneurship. At that time, Bansal informed Ewart that she had an idea to start up a network with the aim of bridging the worlds of research and practice, and offering evidence-based sustainability guidance to businesses. Knowing that he wanted to pursue a career related to sustainability, Ewart decided to take the risk and pursue this entrepreneurial social venture, which eventually became the Network for Business Sustainability (NBS).* He was the only employee for several years, and he learned how to build a community, fundraise, and manage finances; once the organization grew he learned how to build and lead a team. Between 2005 and 2011 (the year Ewart left NBS), the organization raised millions of dollars and grew into a large community of staff, researchers, and practitioners.

Transition from Small Entrepreneurial Venture to Large Corporation

Ewart decided to leave NBS upon realizing he had spent much of his young career there; he wanted to diversify his skills and experience. After spending some time travelling with his partner, he reconnected with key people in his network, which led him to Co-operators, an organization with which NBS had had a collaborative project. What started as a short-term contract covering a maternity leave turned into a permanent, long-term role for Ewart.

Reflecting on his early career decision to work at NBS, Ewart shared that he had traded off security and compensation for diversity of experience and the excitement of entrepreneurship and social impact. He was excited about the opportunity to dedicate his time and talent to driving change and accelerating progress within an organization committed to sustainability.

Co-operators

In 2013, Ewart joined Co-operators, a Canadian financial services co-operative based in Guelph Ontario.

With more than CA$57.8 billion in assets under administration, Co-operators offered multi-line insurance and investment products, services, and advice." At Co-operators, sustainability supported the organization's mission of financial security, which required building resilient communities. The organization aimed to embed sustainability principles into every aspect of its business model, from claims handling and product offerings to people practices and community investment. As stated in its 2020 Integrated Annual Report.* Co-operators was working towards a set of goalsits 2030 Enterprise Long-term Goals, aligned with the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goalsintended to lay the groundwork for a more sustainable future (see Exhibit 1). In 2021, it announced a further commitment to being netaem in is beators to inaresmente boas see xhibit, respectively, and set interim targets to

Co-operators developed a three-level governance structure to guide their sustainability efforts-board, senior leadership, and supporting professionals. At the top level, Co-operators' board of directors had five standing committees, including the Sustainability & Citizenship Committee.

Sustainability Committee constituted the second level of the governance structure and consisted of a set of senior executives who reported to the board and championed sustainability throughout the enterprise. While all staff were accountable for sustainability, co-operators also invested in a team of subject matter experts on Sustainability and Citizenshipa team of sustainability professionals who reported to the Sustainability Leadership Committee and whose day-to-day operational activities supported the organization in meeting its sustainability goals.

Ewart's first role was as manager of Sustainability and Citizenship from 2013 to 2014, where he focused on promoting sustainability literacy among Co-operators employees. From 2014 to 2015, he was the manager of Citizenship Programs and developed recommendations to enhance community giving programs. He then became senior manager of Sustainability from 2016 to 2021, where his team supported the development of the organization's climate commitments and led the creation of its integrated annual report. Between 2018 and 2021, Ewart also completed a master of environment and business degree from the University of Waterloo. In 2022, Ewart began his position of associate VP of Sustainability.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities as Associate Vice-President, Sustainability

Working closely with his VP, Ewart oversaw the Sustainability team at Co-operators and directly managed 4 staff members (one of whom divided their time between the Sustainability and the Citizenship teams).

The team was responsible for supporting the organization in realizing its corporate vision of being a

"catalyst for a sustainable society." The Sustainability team supported different internal departments, helping them develop new ways to view their work through a sustainability lens. The Sustainability team supported the various departments in identifying and addressing risks and opportunities facing the organization and society. To support this process. Ewart's team focused on improving overall sustainability literacy within the organization and supporting teams internally.

Ewart's team was also responsible for providing sustainability input into internal reporting and external public disclosures, an example of which was the organization's integrated annual report. Co-operators had made significant commitments to climate change, with the Sustainability team working in the background to integrate research and analysis into their recommendations to ensure goals were realized. Ewart and the team also worked within external partnerships and coalitions on industry and public policy advocacy for sustainability.

When asked about the proportion of work that was routine versus work that was stimulating, Ewart shared,

It feels like 99 per cent of it is non-routine: every day is quite different and stimulating-getting to work with different people on different projects. The reality is probably that it's more like three-quarters non-routine because there are still certain administrative and committee responsibilities. ensuring that "regular trains" are running smoothly. But the majority of my time is collaborating. innovating, and pushing to the future, as opposed to fulfilling past commitments."

Major Contributions to Sustainability by Co-operators

Ewart was particularly proud of two major examples of instances when Co-operators took a leadership role in improving sustainability.

In 2013, severe flooding inundated parts of southern Alberta, claiming five lives and costing over CASS billion in estimated property damage, one of Canada's costliest natural disasters in history. At the time, Co-operators had already identified overland flooding as a significant threat to the financial security of Canadians and their communities, and had initiated research to assess the viability of an insurance solution (published a few months later)." Acknowledging that the issue was bigger than any one insurer or societal actor could tackle alone, Co-operators assembled a set of cross-sectoral stakeholders to identify priorities to advance flood resilience in Canada. In 2015, Co-operators became the first Canadian insurer to provide overland flood insurance, initially in Alberta but followed closely by the other provincestbridging a significant gap Canadians faced in addressing a growing climate risk. In 2022, it remained the only insurer offering coverage for all homeowners regardless of their level of flood risk, as well as coverage against storm surge.

In 2015, the sustainable investing team at Co-operators' majority-owned asset management company.

Addenda Capital, made a case to senior management that the company should be looking into impact investing, a growing trend. Impact investing was an investment strategy that sought to generate financial returns while also focusing on companies that created positive social and environmental impact." At the time, this was not a mainstream concept, and only certain niche players in North America and beyond were starting to engage in this practice. As an organization that had made an explicit commitment to integrating sustainability into its entire business model, Co-operators was quick to leverage impact investing in its own processes. This practice initially began as a niche siloed approach where sustainable investing strategies and committees were created. Over time, the siloed approach was abandoned and there was no longer a separate impact investing committee, but instead simply an investment committee that considered impact investments a core focus of the organization. By 2022, over 20 per cent of Co-operators' invested assets-more than CA$2 billionwere in impact investments, with a 2030 target to reach 60 per cent in either impact investments or investments that supported the transition to a sustainable, resilient, low-emissions society.

THE SUSTAINABILITY TEAM AT CO-OPERATORS

As emphasized by Poloz, businesses were rapidly investing more in sustainability as they recognized the growth of the industry. To stay on top of trends, companies were recognizing the value in building their own internal sustainability teams rather than outsourcing individual experts to address sustainability issues within their organization.

At Co-operators, the board of directors was directly supported by a Sustainability Leadership Committee that provided oversight of the sustainability performance across the entire organization. This committee was supported by the VP of Sustainability and Citizenship, Chad Park, to whom Ewart reported and who in turn reported to the C-suite level. Ewart led the Sustainability team, comprised of 3.5 full-time-equivalent subject matter experts; the four other individuals on the Citizenship side of Park's team complemented the Sustainability team by overseeing the organization's contributions to communities. The members of Ewart's team were as follows.

Wendy Perkins, Senior Advisor, Sustainability

Perkins started her career at Co-operators in 2014 in a junior role on the Citizenship side of the team. Even though Perkins was working on more junior tasks, there were still projects she was assigned to where she was leading the work. In her current role and for the past four years, her work had shifted to the Sustainability side of the team, and her job was primarily now to focus on Co-operators' integrated annual report. The goal of the report was to share the organization's value creation story with external clients. members, and internal employees. The report had also helped advance Co-operators' integrated thinking

provided for all careers, not just for engineers and information technology professionals. Perkins's interest in sustainability started when she took an environmental science class in her senior year of high school, which further led her to environmental studies at the University of Waterloo.

In Perkins's experience at Co-operators, she always had the opportunity to take initiative in her job and felt supported as she developed as a leader. When asked about the opportunity for early career professionals to lead projects at Co-operators, she stated, "It really all depends on your individual preference, but I definitely think that there are always opportunities to lead, if you want to... There are lots of opportunities and lots of ways you can try to get into leading and building up that level of confidence."* For early professionals who were not as comfortable leading individually, there were also opportunities to lead under the guidance of a mentor if initiatives were offered to them. At the end of the day, according to Perkins, "Not everybody's born to lead [and] it's totally individually based. Some people want to try to lead projects and other people are happy not to and that's okay."

Shannon Turnbull, Sustainability Analyst

Since starting at Co-operators over ten years ago, in 2011, Turbull's role had primarily focused on carbon inventory for the organization and its carbon footprint reduction efforts. Reflecting on the work when she first started, Turbull said, "The wheels had been set in motion, and the inventory was set up in a certain way.

There was a target to become carbon neutral, and so one accomplishment was meeting that target in 2020 that was a big win. Looking ahead, a big part of Tumbull's role would be to enhance the organization's carbon inventory, measurement, reporting, and reduction processes. Turnbull's interest in sustainability started from a disposable diaper project she had completed at an environmental science fair in the sixth grade. This ultimately led her to study environmental science at the University of Guelph. Although she was not in a people leader role, Turnbull still had opportunities to show thought leadership. A large portion of her work involved providing key input on projects where she had specific expertise. She brought her background experiences to provide leadership through offering guidance and direction. After working in consulting early in her career, she was able to transfer her sustainability skills into her role at Co-operators.

investments and to support organizations that were aligned with Co-operators' four social impact focus areas.

The social impact framework helped assess current partnerships as well as potential future partnerships, with the aim of having the most impact. Fisher also incorporated feedback from members of the general public, senior leaders, and Co-operators' board of directors into the development of the framework.

During her time at the co-operative, Fisher gave credit to Co-operators for how supported she felt as an employee. She shared, "I have always felt encouraged to get out of my comfort zone and learn the ropes.' Fisher had specifically been working on a program to engage Co-operators' financial advisors in self-reporting on practices they undertook to contribute towards sustainable communities, and to encourage them to do more. Reflecting on that experience, Fisher said, "In the conceptualizing of that new program, which in its current form is kind of like a rethink of an older program, it was again very collaborative, but I felt that I was encouraged along the way, I was pushed ... I can recall going to speak to some very senior leaders in the organization alongside our VP, so that was a cool opportunity to be invited alongside.' Growing up, Fisher had always considered herself very socially minded. In high school, she took classes on world issues and environmental studies. These courses helped to open her eyes and led her to consider potential jobs in those areas. Fisher shared, "My thinking at the time was something along the lines of. well, the world has so many problems, certainly there will be a need for people to try to solve those problems.'" This interest led her to study environment and resource studies at the University of Waterloo, and her early career roles were heavily weighted on the charity and not-for-profit side of environmental and sustainability work. Although this work was very inspiring and a very important learning experience, she felt burnt out by the fundraising aspect of the not-for-profit sector.

In reflecting on her future career trajectory, Fisher stated.

I feel so fortunate to have found a supportive workplace like Co-operators, doing work that is purposeful and surrounded by bright and inspiring colleagues. My sincere hope is to continue my career at Co-operators, working on innovative and impactful social impact partnerships and deepening my own knowledge and expertise so as to contribute to the betterment of Canadians. I hope to take on more leadership roles in future, with support from my employer to do this well.

GOING FORWARD

Ewart was excited to see how the sustainability profession would continue to grow in the coming years, and how Co-operators could be a part of that change. He loved his work and was passionate about ensuring Co-operators remained a "catalyst" for a sustainable society. As he thought about the future of the company, Ewart wondered what the growth of his team would look like, and how sustainability could be more deeply embedded in all roles within the organization. How could he ensure that team members shared the same passion for sustainability and understanding of the meaning of their work? Where did Co-operators fit into the market as trends continued shifting?

Given that Co-operators staff were increasing integrating sustainability into their roles, he also thought about the relationship between sustainability and purpose at work. He wondered how sustainability and community engagement could be leveraged to drive deeper employee engagement.