The packaging industry is under more regulatory and consumer pressure to decarbonise and circularise than at any previous point in its history. The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, Extended Producer Responsibility frameworks, and customer sustainability scorecards are creating genuine urgency. And yet the talent required to lead the response — executives with both deep sustainability expertise and real packaging sector credentials — is in critically short supply.
The Scale of the Gap
CHI data shows that demand for sustainability-focused leadership roles in packaging grew 34% year-on-year in 2023. Supply of genuinely qualified candidates grew at approximately 8%. The result is a widening talent gap that is now a material business risk for many organisations — not just an HR problem.
We define “genuinely qualified” carefully: we mean individuals with authentic technical expertise in areas like Life Cycle Assessment, circular design, biodegradable polymer science, or extended producer responsibility — not individuals who have added “sustainability champion” to a primarily operational or commercial role without substantive programme delivery experience.
Why Supply Is Constrained
Several structural factors limit the supply of genuine packaging sustainability talent:
- It is a young discipline. Formal sustainability education at postgraduate level has only become mainstream in the past 8–10 years. The cohort of individuals who have both completed that education AND accumulated 10+ years of packaging sector experience is therefore small.
- Definitions are inconsistent. “Head of Sustainability” means something fundamentally different in a business with a genuine net-zero programme versus one that is primarily focused on reducing packaging weight to cut costs. Candidates are understandably selective about which mandates represent genuine opportunities.
- The best people have multiple options. An executive with FMCG packaging sustainability credentials and a track record of delivering measurable carbon reduction programmes will have 5–8 approaches from recruiters per month. Retention is as hard as attraction.
What Boards Should Do
Start early. If you are planning to recruit a Head of Sustainability in the next 18 months, begin the process now. The search will take longer than equivalent operational roles, and the candidate who accepts will almost certainly have competing offers.
Be specific about the mandate. Exceptional sustainability candidates are evaluating whether the role represents genuine scope to make a measurable difference. Boards that can articulate a specific, resourced programme — with real budget, real authority, and real board sponsorship — will attract materially better candidates than those offering a vaguely defined “sustainability leadership” role.
Revisit your total compensation package. Sustainability executives are increasingly expecting equity or LTIP participation that ties their personal financial outcomes to the organisation’s sustainability metrics — not just financial performance. Businesses that can offer this will access a better candidate pool.
Consider grow-your-own. Given the supply constraint at senior level, a structured “grow your own” programme — identifying high-potential mid-level sustainability talent and accelerating their development — is a strategic complement to external hiring, not a substitute for it.
We have clients who’ve been searching for a Head of Sustainability for 14 months. Not because we can’t find candidates with the right keywords on their CV — but because the intersection of genuine expertise, sector credibility, and mandate ambition is exceptionally rare. — Sarah Whitmore, Director, CHI Sustainability Practice