The number-one characteristic raised by CEOs, board chairmen and other sustainability change agents was the need to know the business. Because sustainability requires such a broad range of skills, many sustainability change agents come from outside the core business. Our respondents stressed that the most effective change agents knew the business inside-out.

"You cannot do it without a skilled champion. And I say skilled in a couple of senses. One, they've got to be skilled in integrating with the management teams, the operation teams, the finance teams - because they're the biggest cynics. Two, they've got to be skilled in sustainability. We've got a font of knowledge here in [our Head of Sustainability] and you cannot put an unskilled person in that role. When somebody comes and says 'I think we should, I don't know, paint everything green,' he says that's not going to work, he knows it's not going to work." (Chairman)

"It's really understanding the business, and thinking about what keeps the CEO up at night and what gets the CEO excited. I would sometimes imagine "What is hitting his inbox today? What's the language he uses? What are the kinds of things short term and long term is he thinking about? I would just think about that and then I tied the sustainability conversations to those topics, if I could. I just think it's important to frame it, in terms of the business issues that are real for them. That provides more credibility." (Change Agent)