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"Sustainability has become an operations job" — inside a CSO's second year

An interview on decarbonisation targets, capital allocation and why the sustainability team is shrinking as the work spreads.

By Helena Marsh · 20 August 2026 · 8 min read

"Sustainability has become an operations job" — inside a CSO's second year

"My job is to make my department smaller," she says. "If the emissions reduction plan lives in my team, it has already failed."

The conversation ranges across supplier engagement, internal carbon pricing and the practical politics of getting capital committed at the right point in the budget cycle.

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