Sustainability Talent Market Update – Mid Year 2026

Half-year check-in on the sustainability market.

Let's start with the good news, because there is some and it tends to get drowned out by the politicians and media. Sustainability hasn't retreated. If you've only been half-listening since 2024, you'd be forgiven for thinking sustainability had quietly been retired — "ESG is over," and all that. It isn't. It's gone quieter, sure, but it's still bubbling away nicely, and in the corners where it's a genuine practical necessity rather than a nice-to-have, it's actually growing. Food systems, nature and biodiversity, real assets — these have stopped being conference-panel talking points and become places where organisations feel they can;t grow without.

Now the less cheerful bit, because I'd rather be straight than sell a rosy picture. The macro backdrop is tough. Growth hiring has more or less frozen everywhere that isn't AI or data. Last year the culprit was Trump and his tariffs; this year it's the war in the Middle East. Different headlines, but ultimately the same outcomes. A shock lands, the mood turns recessionary, and the first reflex of most leaders is to pause anything that looks like "extra" spend. The catch is that pausing the spend is exactly what stops the growth. And no growth means no new hiring. Round and round we go.

We're in a pause, not a retreat — and while that sounds like the more hopeful of the two, I'm not sure it always is. A retreat, at least, is a decision. Someone's made a call, drawn a line, and you know where you stand. A pause is more like a room full of people holding their breath, each waiting for someone else to move first. The intent hasn't gone anywhere. The roles are still sketched out, the budgets still technically exist. Everyone's just… waiting.

Which, if you squint, is quietly good news for anyone willing to not wait.

We are so tuned into the macro picture that when there was the beginnings of a peace deal in the Middle East, we had clients start the process of kicking off a search, which was then paused when the bombings resumed. What we learnt last year was that as soon as there was a collective acceptance of the uncertainty, or when the uncertainty lifted there was a mad rush to hire whcih was only halted by the ME conflict. Hopefully next year we are global shock free!

If you do have growth plans (and of course I would say this), now is not a terrible time to start kicking off the search. You may beat the mad rush and the supply-demand tilt is very much in your favour. This tilt alters quickly and dramatically.

If you're in this field and it all feels a bit flat, my honest steer for the second half of the year: follow the necessity. Wherever sustainability is a must-have rather than a line item, that's where the energy, the growth and the genuinely interesting work are hiding.

Sustainability hasn't gone anywhere. It's just waiting for someone to make the first move.

No reason that can't be you.