Our latest State of the Sustainability Profession report told a tale of two companies: those staying the course and those in retreat. The good news? More are staying the course: 46 percent of companies have increased budgets and headcount in sustainability over the last two years, 25 percent have cut back and the rest are keeping them roughly unchanged. Within these companies, two very different experiences for sustainability professionals are also playing out at once: those who report they are thriving, and those who are disillusioned. Not surprisingly, the most satisfied professionals work at companies that are leaning in on sustainability. As part of the survey that underpins the report, we asked the following questions to gauge how sustainability professionals are doing during this turbulent moment: Over the past two years, how has your level of professional fulfillment in your sustainability career changed? Here are some words sustainability professionals have used to describe their feelings about the profession: confident, insecure, optimistic, pessimistic, discouraged, resolved, angry, accepting, happy, sad, confused. Which best describes how you feel? Of more than 1,000 respondents who answered at least one of these questions, about equal numbers are feeling satisfied and unsatisfied. Slightly more than 40 percent reported high satisfaction, meaning they gave at least one positive signal (more fulfilled or only positive emotions) without contradicting it on the other question. Another 40 percent reported low satisfaction; 20 percent landed in the middle. When we dug into the data, we found three factors clearly predicted satisfaction…
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