The relationship between sustainability and talent in the packaging sector has become significantly more complex over the past two years. It’s no longer simply a question of whether a business has a sustainability strategy — it’s a question of how genuinely embedded that strategy is, and whether the leadership talent required to deliver it is in place.
The Shift in What Businesses Are Hiring For
Three years ago, sustainability in packaging was largely the domain of dedicated ESG managers or corporate responsibility functions. Today, sustainability literacy is increasingly expected at Board level, in senior commercial roles, and in technical leadership positions. Buyers at major FMCG brands are asking packaging suppliers sustainability questions that require commercially credible answers — and the people providing those answers need to be senior enough to commit the business.
We’re seeing this translate into specific hiring activity. Senior Account Directors who can navigate sustainability conversations with procurement teams at Tesco, Unilever or Nestlé are in significantly higher demand than those who can’t. Technical Directors with genuine knowledge of material alternatives, recyclability testing and lifecycle assessment are a premium hire. And MDs who can articulate the business’s sustainability roadmap convincingly to both clients and investors are commanding a different kind of attention.
What Candidates Are Prioritising
Packaging professionals at senior level are increasingly using a business’s sustainability credentials as a positive or negative signal in their career decisions. This is particularly pronounced among candidates in their late 30s and early 40s — people who have built genuine commercial expertise but who are also at a point in their careers where they want to be proud of what they’re building.
We consistently hear from candidates that a business with a credible, evidenced sustainability programme — reducing plastic, investing in fibre-based alternatives, working with clients on closed-loop solutions — is materially more attractive than one without. Salary still matters. But the culture and purpose of the business is a more active factor in career decisions than it was five years ago.
The Talent Gap
The challenge for packaging businesses is that genuinely experienced sustainability leaders with a commercial background remain scarce. Most of the available candidate pool either has deep technical knowledge without commercial breadth, or commercial experience in adjacent sectors without specific packaging expertise. The overlap — senior commercial or technical leaders who understand both the packaging supply chain and the sustainability landscape — is genuinely thin.
Businesses that move quickly when they identify a candidate with that profile will win. Those that run an extended process will lose them — usually to a larger business with a clearer sustainability narrative and more resource to move at pace.
Chad Harrison International has placed senior sustainability-focused talent across the packaging supply chain, from rigid to flexible, from primary to transit. If you’re planning a senior appointment with a sustainability dimension, we’d welcome a conversation.
