LINCOLN, United Kingdom — Corporate high-fliers aiming to boost their career prospects are increasingly picking up environmental skills in an effort to bolster their career prospects, according to one of the sustainability sectors' leading industry bodies.

Speaking to BusinessGreen, Martin Baxter, executive director of policy at the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), said that despite the economic downturn, the profile of environmental and sustainability professionals has never been higher, as companies look to green experts to direct organizational change.

IEMA research published last month found that the number of companies reporting on GHG emissions has grown steadily over the past 10 years, with a 20 percent rise in 2009-10 alone, as organizations begin to recognize that accounting for their emissions not only minimizes cost and risk, but also creates business opportunities.

And this realization has sparked a huge demand for the skills held by environmental professionals, vaulting them into hitherto rarely experienced strategic positions, Baxter said.

"Significant companies are integrating this into the way they do business rather than a bolt-on on the side," he said. "They're looking [beyond] operational footprint, which is where traditionally you might have seen environmental professionals working, [and] putting them on a more strategic level.

"To be able to look with a green-tinted lens across the supply chain, across environmental products and services, unlocks much greater value both in terms of minimizing risk and cost, but also business opportunity. So we have to ensure environmental professionals don't just have the technical skills, but actually can make changes in their organizations. You have to have leadership skills, communications skills, you've got to be able to speak the language of finance."

Baxter added that people working in other parts of the business are recognising that environmental knowledge will further their careers and that positions in sustainability are increasingly being taken up by candidates without solely environmental qualifications.

He cites the example of the head of operations at a multinational infrastructure company who joined IEMA to further his knowledge and contacts, which ultimately led him to head up the firm's sustainability efforts.

"Traditionally it would have been people with an environmental background, an environmental degree. But there are now change makers in companies who have a lot of the business skills, but who are now developing environmental knowledge," he said. "A lot of members in IEMA [now] come from a general business background."

The crossover of business to environment functions and vice versa will only get larger, Baxter forecast, and the demand from his members for commercial training is matching that of those looking to enter the environmental realm.

He predicted that the immediate issues recruits on both sides are likely to have to deal with will center on the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) and the potential advent of mandatory emissions reporting in 2012.

The recent alteration of the CRC rules so companies no longer receive payments based on their position in a league table renders the rankings obsolete, said Baxter, who remains unconvinced by the argument that being seen to perform poorly will drive an organization to improve.