Professional Growth in Environmental and Social Sustainability Essay

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Environmental and Social Sustainability Field

The field of environmental and social sustainability is relatively new and has largely been driven by recent concerns regarding environmental protection and sustainability. Given the nature of its focus, the profession is related to various disciplines in sciences, social sciences, and humanities. As a result of relation to different disciplines, there are numerous job opportunities in the environmental and social sustainability field. The diverse nature of this field has partly contributed to the lack of a single definition that effectively defines profession. Therefore, success in this field requires identifying its operational definition as well as developing a plan for professional development. This paper focuses on a professional development plan for a career in this field and incorporates an operational definition, employment outlook, professional mission and vision statement, and professional goals.

Operational Definition of the Field

Environmental and social sustainability is a relatively new field with numerous job opportunities in social sciences, humanities, and sciences. The role of professionals in this field is to promote environmental protection, profitability, and social sustainability. However, there are different definitions of environmental and social sustainability because of various reasons including the emergence of this sector as a new field and the varying roles of its professionals. The feedback from colleagues in the Discussion Boards for this unit demonstrated the varying definitions of environmental and social sustainability. The definitions from these responses considered the field from various perspectives including environmental protection, financial sustainability, social responsibility, and organizational management. This demonstrates that existing definitions of this field are dependent on the individual's perspective or view of this profession given its diverse nature.

Upon reflection of feedback from colleagues on this issue, the operational definition is that environmental and social sustainability is the use of formal and informal structures, systems, procedures, and relationships to support the ability of existing and future generations to meet their needs in an efficient and effective way. In this case, efficient and effective way means that these generations meet their needs in a healthy and less harmful manner. This operational definition addresses the three major aspects of the various responsibilities of professionals in the field regardless of their specific career paths. Efficient and effective means utilized in this field help in environmental protection, social responsibility and financial profitability by current and future generations. The suitability of this operational definition is that it covers every perspective that an individual can utilize in consideration of this field.

Employment Outlook

As previously mentioned, there are numerous job or employment opportunities in the field of environmental and social sustainability. These varying job opportunities are attributable to the diverse nature of this field. Actually, employment opportunities in environmental and social sustainability relate to humanities, social sciences, and science (Sustainable Degrees, n.d.). Professionals in this field are exposed to different career paths and options whose main goal is to promote social responsibility, environmental protection, and profitability. Generally, professionals in this field have unique roles that focus on combination of economics, environment, and social and cultural issues.

Even though environmental and social sustainability is mostly linked to environmental protection and conservation, this field has social and economic impacts. Therefore, professionals in this field can operate in various disciplines relating to social sustainability, environmental protection, and financial profitability. Businesses in the modern world are increasingly focusing on sustainability strategies because of the intersection between people, profits, and the planet. Practitioners in this field are rarely confined to a specific area of expertise since draw upon varying disciplines to develop solutions that meet social, economic, and environmental needs (Knowles, 2014). From an organizational point-of-view, practitioners in environmental and social sustainability help organizations to accomplish their business goals through ensuring their business practices are environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable. Moreover, practitioners and professionals can be engineers, consultants, business managers, and scientists.

According to Hamilton (2012), employment opportunities in environmental and social sustainability are available in management, science, and engineering occupations. Management occupations in this involve creating and implementing sustainability plans of an organization. Professionals in these management occupations also work to ensure an organization complies with health, environmental, and safety regulations. Some of the job opportunities in management occupations in environmental and social sustainability include chief executives, general and operations managers, industrial production managers, and transportation, storage and distribution managers.

On the contrary, science occupations in this field entail designing technical solutions for lessening waste and reducing costs. Professionals in these science occupations help in creating strategies to enhance safety and lessen the risk of disease and injury for an organization's workers.

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The other roles these professionals can play include advisors to sustainability managers, consultancy, technical experts, and scientific research and development relating to environmental protection and social sustainability. Some of the scientific occupations in this field include atmospheric scientists, chemists and material scientists, environmental scientists, conservation scientists, natural sciences managers, microbiology, and soil and plant scientists.

Engineering occupations in environmental and social sustainability field are relatively similar to science occupations in the sense that they create technical solutions for decreasing waste and reducing costs. However, engineers in this discipline can work in various organizations including government agencies, manufacturers, and consulting companies as well as laboratories and offices. The various examples of available engineering occupations in this profession include chemical engineers, industrial engineers, environmental engineers, and civil engineers in sustainability.

In addition to these three categories, there are other occupations in the discipline of environmental and social sustainability including business operation specialists, specialists in occupational health and safety, compliance officers, human resources specialists, and accountants and auditors.

Professional Mission Statement

Mission statement is a term that refers to the core purpose and function of an individual, organization, or company that usually remains unchanged for a long period of time. Generally, a mission statement defines the norms, culture, ethics, and goals of an individual, organization or company. This statement is used to govern activities carried out by the individual or entity since it defines focus and purpose. The process of developing my personal mission statement relative to my field, environmental and social sustainability, incorporated several important steps. The first step in this process entailed identifying personal core values through creating a list of individual attributes and priorities. Secondly, I identified my area of competence and successes in school while studying in order to determine common themes and patterns that contribute to my success. The next step involved identifying goals based on priorities, core values, and patterns of success. During this process, I prepared a list of things I would like to achieve on short-term and long-term basis. These four steps culminated in writing a personal mission statement based on understanding of self.

My mission statement is to help human systems (organizations) realize enhanced bottom line through adopting suitable practices and policies that are three-dimensional i.e. focus on people, profits, and the planet. This mission statement is important because organizations in the modern business environment need to promote social responsibility, environmental protection, and profitability in order to be successful. Moreover, the mission statement will enable me to use knowledge in social sciences and humanities to promote and enhance successful management of organizations.

Professional Vision Statement

A vision statement is a clear description of what an individual or organization would like to achieve in the long-term. At the individual level, a vision statement can be considered as a dream or desired end state, which helps in guiding current and future actions taken by the individual. As compared to mission statement or goal, a vision rarely changes even when circumstances change. The process of creating my personal vision statement started with identifying personal qualities and core values. Secondly, I visualize myself and my life from a middle- to long-term perspective by examining who I want to become in the future. Third, I drew a picture of myself and my surroundings at different times in my life such as 5, 10, 15, and 20 years from now. These three steps culminated in developing my vision statement that reflects who I would like to become or achieve in the long-term.

My vision statement is to help create a world where every individual is realizing their full potential by meeting his/her in manner that doesn't compromise the quality of life or hinder others from achieving their goals. In this case, my vision is to help create an environment where everyone can utilize his/her individual genius towards realizing his/her goals without interfering with others' capability to do so. My vision statement is important because it reflects the link between my personal qualities and area of competence with the desired goal in life.

Goals for the Next 6 Months

The next 6 months will play a crucial role in my professional growth and development in environmental and social sustainability. Actually, this period will act as a foundational step towards identifying my area of practice and developing appropriate measures for growth. My first goal for the next 6 months that is related to optimizing my participation in this discipline is creating a career development plan. I will develop….....

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