Top 10 Reasons Companies Bring in Interim Sustainability Managers

At a Glance

The challenge:
Sustainability demands are rising faster than internal capacity.

The solution:
Interim sustainability managers bring senior expertise and leadership on short notice, helping companies stay compliant, maintain progress, and strengthen internal teams.

Top reasons:

1. Meet urgent regulatory deadlines.
2. Maintain progress during leadership gaps or restructuring.
3. Access specialized ESG, climate, or reporting expertise.
4. Strengthen data quality and reporting credibility.
5. Reduce compliance and reputational risks.
6. Align leadership and stakeholder priorities.
7. Build internal capability without long-term dependency.
8. Manage transformation with limited resources.
9. Gain an external, objective perspective.
10. Embed sustainability into core business operations.

The impact:
They deliver immediate progress and lasting value, moving sustainability from projects to practice.

Introduction: The Shift Toward Interim Expertise

While sustainability expectations rise, internal capacity often hasn’t caught up. Across the Netherlands, companies face growing regulatory pressure, investor scrutiny, and climate targets that demand action now, not next year.

That urgency is why more organizations are turning to interim sustainability managers. These professionals step in when companies need immediate expertise and leadership, whether to meet regulatory deadlines, manage transitions, or accelerate strategy.

But this isn’t about quick fixes. The best interim sustainability managers act as trusted partners, helping companies navigate complexity, strengthen internal capability, and embed sustainability where it matters most: in core business operations.

Here are the top 10 reasons forward-thinking companies are bringing in interim sustainability managers today.

1. To Meet Urgent Regulatory Deadlines

With the EUDR and CSDDD taking effect, many companies need immediate support to manage compliance.

Interim sustainability managers can be operational within days rather than months. They arrive with established methodologies, frameworks, and cross-industry experience that eliminates the learning curve permanent hires require. This speed advantage becomes critical when your organization faces imminent audits, stakeholder scrutiny, or market pressures that demand credible sustainability responses now.

An interim sustainability manager can:

• Quickly assess regulatory gaps.
• Coordinate supplier due diligence.
• Establish systems for traceability and risk management.

The strategic advantage extends beyond meeting deadlines. By maintaining compliance momentum, you preserve stakeholder trust and avoid the costly disruption of failed audits or delayed reporting that can undermine years of sustainability investment.

2. To Maintain Momentum During Leadership Transitions

Sustainability doesn’t stop for parental leave, restructuring, or unexpected departures. Yet losing key talent can slow or stall progress.

Bringing in an interim sustainability consultant keeps initiatives moving. Interim sustainability managers maintain both project delivery and organizational credibility during transitions. They preserve relationships with key stakeholders, keep initiatives on track, and ensure that sustainability remains prominently positioned in leadership conversations. For many businesses, this continuity is what prevents months of lost progress.

They also create stronger foundations for permanent hires. By documenting processes, clarifying priorities, and establishing governance structures, interim managers ensure their successors inherit well-functioning systems rather than crisis situations.

3. To Access Specialized Expertise Fast

The sustainability field is expanding rapidly, from ESG data and carbon accounting to biodiversity and supply chain due diligence. But finding these skills in-house can take months.

Interim sustainability managers provide specialized, senior-level expertise on demand. They can step in with the exact knowledge needed, whether it’s for emissions modeling, double materiality assessments, climate transition plans, or implementing ESG software.

By working with interim managers on defined projects, you gain clarity about what expertise your organization actually needs versus what job descriptions suggest. This insight dramatically improves permanent recruitment outcomes.

Many companies discover their needs differ significantly from initial assumptions. An organization expecting to hire a reporting specialist might realize their strategic gap lies in stakeholder engagement or transformational leadership, insights that only emerge through actual project delivery with experienced professionals.the role quickly, not necessarily with the best fit. Senior-led collectives outperform because they combine speed with real expertise and credibility.

4. To Strengthen ESG Reporting and Data Quality

Data quality remains one of the biggest weak spots for companies preparing for sustainability disclosures. Interim managers bring a systems-thinking approach, integrating ESG data collection, verification, and reporting processes with finance and audit standards.

They help businesses shift from “reporting what’s easy” to reporting what matters, ensuring credibility and readiness for future assurance requirements.

5. To Reduce Compliance and Reputational Risks

ESG failures generate consequences that extend far beyond regulatory fines. Non-compliance damages stakeholder trust, constrains access to capital, eliminates supplier opportunities with sustainability requirements, and creates reputational harm that persists for years.

Expert interim oversight establishes robust compliance frameworks that anticipate regulatory evolution rather than simply meeting minimum requirements. This proactive approach protects against the cascading costs of compliance failures while positioning your organization favorably with investors and clients who value sustainability leadership.

The risk mitigation value becomes particularly clear when regulations tighten unexpectedly or enforcement intensifies. Organizations with strong systems (often built with interim expert support) adapt quickly, while competitors scramble to achieve basic compliance under crisis conditions.

6. To Align Leadership and Stakeholders

Even the best sustainability plans can struggle without leadership alignment. Interim sustainability managers often act as translators, connecting sustainability goals with financial, operational, and strategic priorities.

They can bring proven track records of advising boards, managing high-stakes stakeholder relationships, and delivering presentations that move decision-makers. This credibility accelerates sustainability integration into core business strategy rather than leaving it isolated as a compliance function.

They can:

• Facilitate board-level buy-in.
• Improve collaboration between sustainability and finance.
• Reframe ESG as a business enabler, not a cost center.

This alignment is often what turns fragmented efforts into organization-wide momentum.

7. To Build Internal Capability Without Long-Term Dependency

Organizations need immediate sustainability results, but they also require long-term internal strength. Traditional consultants often create dependency by positioning themselves as the sole source of specialized knowledge. Whereas, an effective interim sustainability manager prioritizes knowledge transfer alongside project delivery.

They coach internal teams, document processes thoroughly, and design systems that function independently after their departure. This approach builds lasting organizational capability and repeatable systems and frameworks rather than temporary solutions.

At The Overview Effect, this capability-building focus defines our engagement model. Senior-led collectives ensure interim experts invest in strengthening your team, not creating ongoing dependency. The strategic advantage compounds over time as internal staff become more capable with each interim engagement.

8. To Manage Transformation with Limited Resources

Hiring a permanent sustainability director can take six months and a significant budget. Interim roles offer a cost-efficient way to access senior-level expertise when you need it most. Interim managers with proven transformation experience bring methodologies tested across multiple organizations and industries. They recognize early warning signs of stalling initiatives, know how to navigate internal politics, and understand which interventions accelerate adoption versus which create resistance.

The higher success rates for complex initiatives justify the investment. Failed transformations carry enormous opportunity costs: wasted resources, damaged credibility, and demoralized teams. Experienced interim leaders reduce these risks while accelerating time-to-impact for strategic sustainability initiatives.

They deliver immediate value without long-term overhead, helping companies stay agile and responsive, which is particularly valuable for SMEs or scale-ups facing investor or client ESG expectations.

9. To Provide an External, Objective Perspective

Internal teams develop assumptions and blind spots that constrain innovation. “How we’ve always approached sustainability” becomes an invisible barrier to progress, particularly in organizations where ESG emerged as a compliance function rather than a strategic opportunity.

External interim sustainability managers bring cross-industry best practices, alternative frameworks, and challenging questions that internal teams may hesitate to raise. They can advocate for bold approaches without the political constraints that limit permanent staff.

The strategic advantage lies in accelerated innovation. By exposing your organization to proven methodologies from other sectors and companies, interim managers help you leapfrog competitors still trapped in conventional approaches. This outside perspective often identifies efficiency opportunities and strategic positioning advantages that internal teams overlook.

10. To Embed Sustainability in Core Business Operations

The most mature companies now recognize that sustainability touches every part of their business. It influences how they source materials, evaluate suppliers, manage risks, and even shape investment decisions. Interim sustainability managers help translate this understanding into practice. They work across departments (from procurement and operations to finance and HR) to integrate sustainability into everyday workflows, decision frameworks, and performance metrics.

By connecting climate and ESG goals to business fundamentals like cost efficiency, innovation, and resilience, they turn sustainability from a reporting exercise into a driver of long-term value. This systems-thinking approach helps organizations strengthen governance, future-proof supply chains, and build credibility with investors and customers alike.

That’s how interim sustainability managers create change that lasts, by embedding sustainability into the core of how business gets done.

Why This Model Works

Recruitment agencies can fill roles quickly, but they rarely guarantee senior, context-aware expertise.

At The Overview Effect, we take a different approach:

• Curated, human, and hands-on: Every engagement is tailored to your context, culture, and complexity.
  
• Systems-thinking lens: Our experts see connections across operations, governance, and behavior.
  
• An extension of your team: Interim managers work alongside you, not as outsiders, but as embedded partners.
  
• Capability, not dependency: We focus on building internal strength so progress lasts long after our involvement ends.

This approach means you access strategic insight, embedded support, and long-term thinking and not just temporary labor. Our experts don’t simply fill seats; they move your sustainability agenda forward while strengthening your team’s capacity to maintain momentum after the engagement concludes.

Conclusion: Senior Support That Moves Sustainability Forward

Sustainability has become one of the most complex and fast-moving priorities in business. Regulations evolve faster than hiring cycles, and stakeholders expect measurable results. In that environment, waiting to build the perfect internal team isn’t realistic.

An interim sustainability manager offers a solution that balances urgency with depth, bringing the experience, structure, and credibility needed to move initiatives forward while strengthening internal foundations. They help companies navigate regulatory and reputational pressures while building the systems, leadership alignment, and culture needed for long-term transformation.

At The Overview Effect, we go beyond placement. Our curated network of senior sustainability experts combines human insight with a systems-thinking lens to help organizations lead confidently through change. We embed where we’re needed most, adapt to your culture, and focus on building capability that lasts long after our role ends.

If your organization needs to accelerate sustainability progress without compromising quality or control, now is the time to bring in interim support that delivers measurable impact and lasting value.

Contact us today to take the next step toward embedding sustainability at the heart of your business.

FAQs: Interim Sustainability Managers