ESG hiring quietly became real — here is what changed.
Five years of ESG as a marketing function are over. SEBI's BRSR rules, EU CBAM and capital-allocation pressure have rewired the role into a board-level seat in India and the GCC.
For most of the last decade, ESG hiring in India and the GCC was a communications exercise dressed up as a leadership one. The role typically reported to corporate affairs, the budget was modest, and the brief was a sustainability report.
Three forces ended that. SEBI's Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting framework moved disclosure from voluntary to mandatory for the top 1,000 listed Indian companies. The EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism made carbon a P&L line for any Indian or GCC exporter. And global LPs started screening Indian and Middle East fund managers on portfolio-level emissions, not just policy statements.
The role has migrated as a result. Chief Sustainability Officers in India now report to the CEO or the board in two-thirds of the mandates we run. The compensation has moved with the seat — CSO packages in the BFSI and industrial sectors have caught up to CHRO and CIO bands within three years.
The candidate pool is shallow and that matters. The seasoned operators who can hold a board conversation on scope-three emissions, translate a CBAM exposure into a capex plan, and engage with rating agencies on transition risk are perhaps two hundred people across India and the Gulf combined. Boards looking to hire one in 2026 are competing for the same names.
What works in this market is starting eighteen months before the formal vacancy, briefing the candidate pool actively, and building the role to include real authority — not just reporting authority. What does not work is treating the CSO hire as a tick-box appointment. The market sees through that immediately, and so do the candidates worth hiring.
