Just 25% of industry experts believe the standalone sustainability function will exist in five years. So what is the next great frontier for sustainability leaders?

In this episode, host Saif Hameed asks a provocative question fresh from hosting the Chicago State of Sustainability Summit: Will corporate sustainability functions still exist in five years? To help answer, Saif breaks down the three massive shifts currently challenging the sustainability professional's day-to-day workflow.

First, integrating green goals into mainstream roles means CFOs, procurement officers, and supply chain teams are absorbing sustainability tasks - a double-edged sign of success.

Second, rapid advancements in automation and agentic AI is likely to completely overtake routine tasks like carbon accounting, data aggregation, and stakeholder reporting in the coming years.

Finally, a macro backlash against corporate sustainability has stifled the ambitious blue sky thinking that characterised the late 2010s, leaving behind more mundane compliance work.

The good news, as Saif explains, is an exciting new horizon for the profession: Volatility Management. Driven by geopolitical conflicts and the terrifying reality that seven of our nine planetary boundaries are now breached, businesses face unprecedented high price variability in crucial commodities like rice, wheat, and cocoa. True business resilience now requires constant transformation and stabilisation to survive these shocks.

Saif explains how sustainability professionals can secure their future by repositioning themselves as volatility managers. By leveraging their three bedrock skills - systems thinking, data insight, and storytelling - and combining them with deep business context, sustainability experts can build the crucial playbooks CEOs need to navigate an increasingly unpredictable world.

What are your thoughts on this? Are you already pivoting towards volatility management as a way of insulating yourself from these developments in the sustainability space? I'd love to hear from you. Email Saif@altruistiq.com

Ready to transform your sustainability reporting? Start your journey at Altruistiq.com

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

Are sustainability teams about to be automated out of existence, or will they lead the food industry's next big shift?

Saif Hameed records this episode on the road ahead of the State of Sustainability Summit in Chicago. His argument: traditional sustainability workflows are increasingly vulnerable to AI automation or absorption by procurement and finance. To stay relevant, sustainability professionals need to move into new territory - specifically, nutrition and nutrient density.

Saif walks through the commercial pressures making health credentials non-negotiable for food and beverage companies right now. Retail access is being gated by evolving health standards. GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are changing how consumers eat. Clean labels are commanding a premium. Big corporations are responding: Danone and Unilever have both made recent acquisitions to strengthen their health and wellness positions.

That creates an opportunity for sustainability professionals. Product formulation has traditionally sat in R&D, but Saif sees a real gap for sustainability teams to step into - applying the same data and systems thinking they've used for packaging optimisation and EPR reporting to nutritional complexity and portfolio-level decision-making.

Sustainability, he argues, is a transformation capability. This episode makes the case for what that looks like in practice.

We'd love to get your thoughts on this topic. Email saif@altruistiq.com and if you enjoyed this podcast, don't forget to share it with a friend.

Ready to transform your sustainability reporting? Start your journey at Altruistiq.com

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

"If you were to calculate all the greenhouse gas emissions associated with food waste, it would be the third largest country after the US and China."

In this episode of The State of Sustainability, Saif Hameed sits down with Catherine David, CEO of WRAP, for a "vibe check" on the global food sustainability landscape. From the shift toward "Resilience" in the US to the "Polluter Pays" principle of EPR, Catherine brings a level of radical candor to the challenges of leading a global circular economy non-profit.

We dive deep into why the industry is moving past surface-level CSR pilots and into "scale play," and Catherine shares a fascinating, counterintuitive discovery about why removing plastic packaging from fruit might actually be the key to reducing household food waste.

Key Discussion Points:

• The WRAP Mission: How a "British export" is helping US and European businesses transition to a circular economy through outcome-driven programs.
• Resilience vs. CSR: Why "Resilience" is the hottest topic in sustainability right now, and why the era of the "sustainability pilot" is officially over.
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): A deep dive into the "polluter pays" principle and how it incentivizes businesses to design better, more circular systems.
• The Food Waste Paradox: Insight into WRAP’s research showing that removing plastic packaging and date labels from fresh produce actually reduces waste by changing consumer behavior.
• Leadership in a Volatile World: Catherine’s experience stepping into the CEO role during a period of global economic and political instability.
• The Future of Nutrition: Why nutrient density is poised to become as significant a metric as carbon footprint in the coming years.

"I’m someone who thinks that decisions should be made with evidence, analysis, fact, and data... but the way I actually make decisions is to listen to the key voices and trusted people in my circle." — Catherine David

Meet Saif Hameed in person at the State of Sustainability Summit in Chicago on April 15th! To book your place, email saif@altruistiq.com

Ready to transform your sustainability reporting? Start your journey at Altruistiq.com

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.