People-strategy professionals are largely underutilized as leaders in driving sustainability initiatives within their organizations. Few people associate human resource managers with sustainability; yet, HR departments hold the keys to culture creation, compensation, recruiting, training and development, DEI, and several other important strategic areas that can drastically influence pro-environmental behavior and triple-bottom-line decision-making.

My research asks, “How can HR help embed triple-bottom-line sustainability within organizations?” Forty-three interviews with people-strategy and sustainability professionals were conducted to identify key obstacles, opportunities, and best practices for people-strategy professionals to lead sustainability in their organizations. These findings were supplemented by data from a survey of global business leaders, and then confirmed during an on-site consultation with people- strategy and sustainability leaders at Microsoft in Seattle, Washington. The result of this research is a “How to Guide” for people-strategy professionals who want to help lead their organizations towards triple-bottom-line sustainability.