Dr. Tauni Lanier
Founding Partner
Read Dr. Tauni Lanier’s full article on Substack. Over the past 18 months, we’ve watched the sustainability field reorganise itself. Some see this as retrenchment. But if you’re advising boards, managing CSO transitions, or building leadership pipelines, you’ll recognise what’s actually happening: the skills that built the sustainability agenda from 2015 to 2021 are no longer the skills it needs now. This isn’t about ESG being “dead”, 87% of major companies have quietly increased sustainability spending even as they’ve dropped the language. It’s about where that work lives, who leads it, and what expertise actually matters in the moment we’re in. This essay explores that shift through two historical tests for leadership: the Hamlet test (does success depend on you?) and the Havel test (are you the right person for this moment?). Most organisations are still hiring for the first. The field is asking for the second. If you’re navigating CSO transitions, building advisory collectives, or trying to identify who can actually deliver impact now rather than who built the momentum then, this piece offers a framework for thinking it through.