Use as a copilot
Task areas where people work with AI — iterating, learning, or checking — staying in the loop rather than handing the task off.
- Provide technical or administrative support for sustainability programs or issues. · 0.4%
Sustainability Specialists
Occupation · SOC 13-1199.05
Address organizational sustainability issues, such as waste stream management, green building practices, and green procurement plans.
Also called: Sustainability Consultant · Sustainability Coordinator · Sustainability Specialist · Sustainable Design Coordinator · Campus Energy Coordinator · Energy and Sustainability Strategic Advisor · Sustainability Advisor · Sustainability Champion · Sustainable Design Champion · Sustainable Design Consultant · Building Performance Specialist · Energy Analyst
Job family: Business and Financial Operations Occupations
Take this to your AI
A source-stamped Markdown brief of this occupation — paste it into an agent, or fetch
/roles/role-13-1199-05/context.md directly.
AI work map
A fast read on where AI already shows up in this occupation, where it stays a copilot, where humans remain in the loop, and what the labor market is doing. Built from observed Claude.ai conversations mapped to O*NET tasks and from published research — measures of usage and exposure, not advice or predictions that the job is going away.
Keep a human in the loop
Task areas where a human was still judged necessary in a large share of observed conversations — not a safety ruling, an observed-need signal.
- Provide technical or administrative support for sustainability programs or issues. · 94.7% need a human
Skills it runs on
The capabilities O*NET rates most important for this occupation — the human ground the work is built on.
See all skills →Market signal
Independent published positions, read together — not a forecast.
- About average employment outlook (+3.0% by 2034)
- 108,200 openings/yr
- High AI exposure
- Observed AI use leans augmentation
- Median pay $81,270/yr
- Can largely be done remotely (teleworkable)
- A reversal from 2013 — rated low automation risk then (35th), high AI task-overlap now (87th)
87th-percentile task overlap — yet about 108,200 openings a year (+3% projected, BLS), and observed AI use leans 5263% copilot, not hand-off (AEI) . What exposure means →
AI & job outlook
What today's research says about this occupation's exposure to AI, how AI is actually being used in it, and where employment is headed. These are positions within published studies — measures of exposure and usage, not predictions that this job will disappear.
Exposure to current AI
Each study uses its own scale, so the raw scores are not comparable across rows — the percentile (this job's rank among all U.S. occupations with data) is the comparable figure, and sizes the bars.
| Measure | Rank vs all occupations | Percentile | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.) High | 77th | 1.0 | |
| LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou) High | 95th | 1.0 | |
| AI assistant applicability (Microsoft) High | 73rd | 0.2 |
OpenAI's exposure study scores tasks three ways: with a language model alone (α 0.2), with simple added tooling (β 0.6), and including AI-powered software (γ 1.0). Higher means more of the job's tasks could be done at least twice as fast — not that they will be automated away.
Most of this job's tasks can be done remotely (Dingel–Neiman), which tends to track with higher digital and AI exposure.
Historical automation estimate (2013)
A pre-LLM (2013) estimate of how automatable this job is by computerization and robotics. Shown for historical context only — it is not part of any current AI ranking.
Frey–Osborne probability 0.2 · 35th percentile among occupations · Moderate
How AI is actually used in this job
Among measured AI assistant conversations mapped to this occupation (Anthropic Economic Index, 2026-01-15), these task types came up most. These are shares of observed AI conversations — not shares of the job, of worker time, or of what could be automated.
| Create marketing or outreach media, such as brochures or Web sites, to communicate sustainability issues, procedures, or objectives. | 1.3% | |
| Develop reports or presentations to communicate the effectiveness of sustainability initiatives. | 0.8% | |
| Create or maintain plans or other documents related to sustainability projects. | 0.5% | |
| Review and revise sustainability proposals or policies. | 0.3% | |
| Develop sustainability project goals, objectives, initiatives, or strategies in collaboration with other sustainability professionals. | 0.2% | |
| Research or review regulatory, technical, or market issues related to sustainability. | 0.2% |
Job outlook
Independent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projection for 2024–2034 — a labor-market forecast, not an AI-impact forecast.
| Outlook | About average · +3.0% by 2034 |
| Projected annual openings | 108,200 |
| Employment 2024 → 2034 | 1,205,700 → 1,242,000 |
“Annual openings” counts new jobs plus replacements for workers who leave the occupation, so it can be large even when growth is modest.
Where this work sits on the global GenAI gradient
The ILO's 2025 global study scores generative-AI exposure on the international ISCO-08 occupation system, not US SOC. Bridged through the published (and approximate, many-to-many) IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 crosswalk, this US occupation corresponds to the international 2 occupations below. Exposure here means how much of the work's tasks today's AI can attempt — task overlap, not automation, adoption, or jobs lost.
Sustainability Specialists sits at the 80th percentile of 427
occupations on the global GenAI task-exposure gradient
— exposure eased from 2023 to 2025. Each dot is one occupation; the
ringed one is this work. Exposure is task overlap, not automation or jobs lost.
43% mean task exposure (2025)
80th percentile of 427 placed occupations
−5 pts shift 2023 → 2025
| International occupation (ISCO-08) | Task exposure (2025) | Most tasks fall in |
|---|---|---|
| Business Services Agents Not Elsewhere Classified · 3339 | 45% | Gradient 2 |
| Policy Administration Professionals · 2422 | 42% | Minimal |
Read the whole six-band gradient on the GenAI exposure gradient page. The crosswalk is approximate: a US occupation can map to several international ones, and the ILO scores describe the international occupation, not this exact US role.
Working with AI in this job
How people actually apply AI to this occupation's tasks, from Claude.ai (Free and Pro) conversations in the Anthropic Economic Index, 2026-01-15. This is one AI assistant's consumer sample — not all AI, not the whole workforce. Autonomy and the collaboration mix are model-rated estimates; figures below the sample floor are hidden.
| Augmentation vs. automation | 52.6% working with AI · — handed to AI |
| Most common way people use AI here | Iteration · you and AI go back and forth |
| Typical AI autonomy | 3.0 / 5 · higher = AI acts more independently |
| Used for work (vs. personal / coursework) | 76.3% |
What people delegate to AI
The role's most common tasks in AI conversations, each tagged with how people work with the AI on it. “Usage” is the share of observed conversations, not of the job.
| Task | How | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Provide technical or administrative support for sustainability programs or issues. | Iteration | 0.4% |
Where a human is still needed
Tasks where the model most often judged that a person remained necessary — a useful read on the current boundary, not a guarantee.
| Provide technical or administrative support for sustainability programs or issues. | 94.7% |
What people most often hand AI here
Example prompts phrased from the tasks people most often delegate to AI in this occupation (Anthropic Economic Index). Each shows the underlying measured task and its share of observed AI use. They are suggested phrasings of real tasks — starting points, not endorsed instructions.
-
Help me provide technical or administrative support for sustainability programs or issues.From: Provide technical or administrative support for sustainability programs or issues. · 0.4% of measured AI use · task iteration
Tasks
All 14 tasks O*NET lists for this occupation, ordered by importance. Each links to its own page with AI-exposure and observed-use detail.
- Develop sustainability project goals, objectives, initiatives, or strategies in collaboration with other sustainability professionals. Core · importance 4.4
- Monitor or track sustainability indicators, such as energy usage, natural resource usage, waste generation, and recycling. Core · importance 4.2
- Assess or propose sustainability initiatives, considering factors such as cost effectiveness, technical feasibility, and acceptance. Core · importance 4.1
- Provide technical or administrative support for sustainability programs or issues. Core · importance 4.0
- Review and revise sustainability proposals or policies. Core · importance 4.0
- Create or maintain plans or other documents related to sustainability projects. Core · importance 4.0
- Develop reports or presentations to communicate the effectiveness of sustainability initiatives. Core · importance 4.0
- Collect information about waste stream management or green building practices to inform decision makers. Core · importance 4.0
- Research or review regulatory, technical, or market issues related to sustainability. Core · importance 3.7
- Identify or investigate violations of natural resources, waste management, recycling, or other environmental policies. Core · importance 3.7
- Identify or create new sustainability indicators. Core · importance 3.6
- Create marketing or outreach media, such as brochures or Web sites, to communicate sustainability issues, procedures, or objectives. Core · importance 3.4
- Identify or procure needed resources to implement sustainability programs or projects. Core · importance 3.4
- Write grant applications, rebate applications, or project proposals to secure funding for sustainability projects. Core · importance 3.2
Emerging tasks
Newer responsibilities O*NET has flagged as growing for this occupation.
- Deliver sustainability training to employees.
Work activities
- Establish organizational guidelines or policies.
- Research issues related to the environment or sustainable business practices.
- Investigate legal issues.
- Prepare proposal documents.
- Advise others on business or operational matters.
- Obtain information about goods or services.
- Purchase products or services.
- Develop sustainable business strategies or practices.
- Prepare financial documents.
- Prepare operational reports.
- Create marketing materials.
- Assess the cost effectiveness of products, projects, or services.
- Monitor business indicators.
Knowledge, skills & abilities
O*NET importance rating, from 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important).
Essential skills
| Reading Comprehension | 4.0 | |
| Writing | 4.0 | |
| Speaking | 4.0 | |
| Active Listening | 3.9 | |
| Critical Thinking | 3.9 | |
| Monitoring | 3.5 | |
| Active Learning | 3.3 | |
| Learning Strategies | 3.1 |
Abilities
| Written Comprehension | 4.0 | |
| Written Expression | 4.0 | |
| Oral Comprehension | 3.9 | |
| Oral Expression | 3.9 | |
| Deductive Reasoning | 3.8 | |
| Inductive Reasoning | 3.8 | |
| Problem Sensitivity | 3.6 | |
| Speech Clarity | 3.6 | |
| Originality | 3.5 | |
| Information Ordering | 3.5 | |
| Fluency of Ideas | 3.4 | |
| Speech Recognition | 3.4 | |
| Category Flexibility | 3.3 | |
| Near Vision | 3.1 |
Knowledge
Transferable skills
| Complex Problem Solving | 3.6 | |
| Judgment and Decision Making | 3.6 | |
| Coordination | 3.3 | |
| Systems Evaluation | 3.3 | |
| Social Perceptiveness | 3.1 | |
| Persuasion | 3.1 | |
| Systems Analysis | 3.1 | |
| Negotiation | 3.0 | |
| Instructing | 3.0 | |
| Time Management | 3.0 |
Skills in demand
Skills employers ask for in job postings for this occupation (Lightcast), with whether each is a common or specialized skill.
Showing the top 40 of 48.
Tools & technology
Work context
How characteristic each condition is of the job, on O*NET's 1–5 context scale (higher = more present in day-to-day work). Each condition links to how it varies across all occupations.
How to get in
- Job zone
- Zone 4 — Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
- Education
- Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
- Typical entry-level education
- Bachelor's degree · BLS, the typical path — not a requirement
- Related experience
- A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
- Preparation level
- SVP (7.0 to < 8.0) — total schooling plus on-the-job experience.
What to study: Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services . Fields of study crosswalked to this occupation (NCES CIP–SOC), not a requirement.
Education of current workers
Share of people in this occupation at each level of education.
| Bachelor's Degree | 52.2% | |
| Master's Degree | 39.1% | |
| Some College Courses | 4.3% | |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 4.3% |
Interests & work styles
The interests and personal qualities O*NET associates with people who do this work.
Career interests (Holland / RIASEC)
| Investigative | 5.2 | |
| Enterprising | 5.1 | |
| Conventional | 4.4 | |
| Social | 3.0 | |
| Artistic | 2.5 | |
| Realistic | 2.1 |
Wages & employment
U.S. · annual wages (BLS OEWS)
| 10th percentile | $46,230 |
| 25th percentile | $60,820 |
| Median (50th) | $81,270 |
| 75th percentile | $110,030 |
| 90th percentile | $147,830 |
| People employed | 1,128,200 |
Wages and employment are reported by BLS for the broader occupation group this specialty belongs to (SOC 13-1199), not for the specialty alone.
Industries that employ this occupation
Where these workers are employed, by number of jobs (national, BLS OEWS). Pay shown is the occupation's national median, not industry-specific.
| Industry | Workers | National median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services · Sector | 155,730 | $85,150 |
| Educational Services · Sector | 100,750 | $66,200 |
| Finance and Insurance · Sector | 76,760 | $83,480 |
| Health Care and Social Assistance · Sector | 71,430 | $68,010 |
| Manufacturing · Sector | 70,690 | $101,460 |
| Management of Companies and Enterprises · Sector | 67,210 | $85,920 |
| Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services · Sector | 62,030 | $66,550 |
| Other Services (except Public Administration) · Sector | 46,900 | $66,050 |
| Wholesale Trade · Sector | 40,900 | $79,180 |
| Information · Sector | 37,210 | $101,650 |
| Retail Trade · Sector | 22,110 | $50,040 |
| Temporary Help Services · National industry | 20,690 | $64,790 |
Where this work is most concentrated
Industries where this occupation is far more common than in the economy as a whole. The location quotient is how many times more concentrated it is here (a value of 5 means five times its economy-wide share).
| Industry | Concentration | Workers |
|---|---|---|
| Nuclear Electric Power Generation · National industry | 4.27× | 1,160 |
| Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities · National industry | 4.05× | 1,800 |
| Labor Unions and Similar Labor Organizations · National industry | 3.53× | 2,740 |
| Management of Companies and Enterprises · Sector | 3.27× | 67,210 |
| Wind Electric Power Generation · National industry | 3.17× | 230 |
| Direct Health and Medical Insurance Carriers · National industry | 2.8× | 9,200 |
| Utilities · Sector | 2.06× | 8,750 |
| Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services · Sector | 1.98× | 155,730 |
Related occupations
Part of the Management & Entrepreneurship career cluster.
- Chief Sustainability Officers · 11-1011.03 Compare →
- Wind Energy Development Managers · 11-9199.10 Compare →
- Industrial Ecologists · 19-2041.03 Compare →
- Energy Auditors · 47-4011.01 Compare →
- Project Management Specialists · 13-1082.00 Compare →
- Climate Change Policy Analysts · 19-2041.01 Compare →
- Energy Engineers, Except Wind and Solar · 17-2199.03 Compare →
- Management Analysts · 13-1111.00 Compare →
- Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health · 19-2041.00 Compare →
- Solar Sales Representatives and Assessors · 41-4011.07 Compare →
- Environmental Engineers · 17-2081.00 Compare →
- Urban and Regional Planners · 19-3051.00 Compare →
Side-by-side comparisons place two occupations’ pay, preparation, skills, and AI exposure on the same page — same data, same scale, no forecast.
What you can do with this
Options the data surfaces for Sustainability Specialists — not advice or a forecast. Each is a real cross-link you can follow into the evidence.
Skills that travel
Capabilities this work builds that are used across many other occupations.
Adjacent roles
Occupations O*NET rates as related — the nearby moves on the map.
Paths in
How people typically prepare for this work.
- Bachelor's degree · typical entry level
- Job zone 4 — Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed · preparation tier
- Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services · field of study
Zoom out
On the global GenAI exposure gradient this work sits around the 80th percentile of 427 international occupations.
Write a report on thisheadline · factoids · citation
Sustainability Specialists show 87th-percentile AI task overlap — and about 108,200 annual U.S. openings
- Sustainability Specialists rank in the 87th percentile (High band) for AI task overlap across U.S. occupations — a measure of how much of the work today's AI can attempt, not how much is automated.Eloundou et al. (GPTs are GPTs) + Felten AIOE
- The occupation is projected to see about 108,200 U.S. job openings per year (2024–34), counting growth and replacement — a labor-demand projection made independently of AI.BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
- BLS projects employment to be about average (+3%) from 2024 to 2034.BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
- Median annual pay is $81,270, across about 1,128,200 U.S. workers.BLS OEWS (May 2024)
- Of the AI use actually observed for this work, 53% looks like augmentation (drafting, iterating, checking) rather than hands-off automation — from a Claude.ai usage sample, not a census.2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2
Copy the whole kit
Sustainability Specialists show 87th-percentile AI task overlap — and about 108,200 annual U.S. openings • Sustainability Specialists rank in the 87th percentile (High band) for AI task overlap across U.S. occupations — a measure of how much of the work today's AI can attempt, not how much is automated. (Eloundou et al. (GPTs are GPTs) + Felten AIOE) • The occupation is projected to see about 108,200 U.S. job openings per year (2024–34), counting growth and replacement — a labor-demand projection made independently of AI. (BLS Employment Projections 2024–34) • BLS projects employment to be about average (+3%) from 2024 to 2034. (BLS Employment Projections 2024–34) • Median annual pay is $81,270, across about 1,128,200 U.S. workers. (BLS OEWS (May 2024)) • Of the AI use actually observed for this work, 53% looks like augmentation (drafting, iterating, checking) rather than hands-off automation — from a Claude.ai usage sample, not a census. (2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2) Source: Singulariki — "Sustainability Specialists". https://singulariki.com/roles/role-13-1199-05 Note: AI task overlap measures what today's AI can attempt, not automation, job loss, or a forecast.
AssetsShare imageMethodology & sourcesPress & newsroomThe newsroom
Every line is built only from figures this page already shows and cites. AI task overlap means what today's AI can attempt — not automation, job loss, or a forecast.
Sources for this page
Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.
- O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
- Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai Microsoft Research
- “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic
- AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans academic
- ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025 International Labour Organization
- IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022 Institute for Structural Research (IBS)
- Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation academic
- Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome academic
Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.
Cite this page
Plain
Singulariki. "Sustainability Specialists." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-13-1199-05
APA
Singulariki. (2026). Sustainability Specialists. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/roles/role-13-1199-05
BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-role-13-1199-05,
title = {Sustainability Specialists},
author = {{Singulariki}},
year = {2026},
note = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
url = {https://singulariki.com/roles/role-13-1199-05}
} Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.