28 April 2026
A new report from the Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals (ISEP) shows that health and safety (H&S) professionals are strongly aligned with sustainability in principle, but many organisations may lack the technical depth required to fully embed it into operational practice.
Based on 1,765 respondents to ISEP’s Green Skills for Health and Safety Assessment questionnaire, the new report: Closing the sustainability confidence gap for health and safety professionals offers a detailed view of how the H&S profession is adapting as sustainability becomes increasingly central to risk management, governance and business resilience.
ISEP CEO Sarah Mukherjee MBE said: “The results point to a health and safety profession undergoing structural change. Sustainability is no longer a parallel discipline; it is becoming integrated into how organisations define, manage and report risk.
“However, this transition is uneven – many H&S practitioners demonstrate strong confidence in areas aligned with established compliance, behavioural leadership and operational systems, but have lower confidence in the technically specialised areas of sustainability."
The report found that the confidence of H&S professionals is comparatively high where sustainability aligns closely with traditional health and safety responsibilities.
> 69% of respondents rated themselves as highly confident (ratings 4 or 5 out of 5) in complying with Environmental Management Systems and sustainability best practice.
> 62% reported they were highly confident in leading by example and inspiring others with sustainable behaviours.
Yet confidence gaps emerge in more technically specialised and data-focused domains.
> Only 25% reported high confidence in using software for mapping and modelling sustainability data.
> Only 24% expressed high confidence with carbon accounting and reporting. With 47% reporting low confidence (rating 1 or 2).
Ms Mukherjee continued: “People working in the health and safety sector are really motivated to make sustainability a core part of their work. Whilst they are getting more familiar with concepts like carbon accounting and resource optimisation, it's clear they feel that they don't have the skills or training to apply these concepts in the most productive and efficient way for their organisations."
For employers and organisational leaders, the findings highlight a critical need to close the gap between commitment and capability.
Dr Stephen Asbury FISEP, author for Taylor & Francis and the former HSE Manager with BTR plc and GKN plc, said: “I recognised early in my career that the environment and sustainability were intrinsically linked to occupational health and safety. My earliest thought was that the substances we extract from inside our plants under Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) legislation to keep workers safe, become environmental issues outside our plants.
“I led on securing Environmental Permitting authorisations at several UK plants, but seeing my own technical gaps – exactly as revealed by this report – decided that I must broaden my competency in the sustainability arena.”
To maximise impact, organisations should focus on building sustainability knowledge and systems thinking within H&S teams, while also ensuring access to specialist expertise where deeper technical input is required. This may include closer collaboration with sustainability and ESG functions, or augmenting teams with dedicated environmental professionals.
Ms Mukherjee said: “Sustainability capability should not be treated as a simple extension of existing roles.
“Health and safety professionals bring critical expertise in risk management, operational systems and behavioural leadership. Sustainability specialists bring technical expertise in carbon accounting, environmental data and climate strategy.
“Organisations that enable collaboration between these disciplines – rather than expecting one profession to absorb the responsibilities of the other – are likely to be better positioned to deliver credible and effective sustainability outcomes.”
ISEP’s assessment model provides tailored insights into capability gaps, supporting structured development across knowledge, technical skills, behaviours and competencies. The organisation will repeat the assessment in 2026 to track how capability is evolving in response to increasing regulatory pressure and organisational focus.
Sustainability can no longer be viewed as an adjacent discipline. H&S practitioners possess behavioural commitment but may need more practical training to build that literacy in areas such as carbon accounting, climate risk or sustainability reporting frameworks, and work to better understand how environmental data and organisational risk management intersect. The goal is not to replace sustainability specialists, but to be able to collaborate with them effectively and integrate sustainability considerations into operational decision-making.
Employers must recognise that expanding remits without structured capability development risks entrenching the confidence gap. With nearly half of respondents reporting low confidence in areas such as carbon accounting and digital modelling, expecting seamless integration without targeted support may exacerbate role strain.
Leveraging existing strengths in compliance systems, behavioural leadership and operational control provides a strong foundation for engaging with the sustainability agenda. Rather than positioning sustainability as entirely new territory, organisations may achieve greater progress by integrating sustainability objectives within established risk management, governance and operational frameworks. In this model. H&S professionals play a central role in implementation and organisational culture, while technical sustainability expertise supports analytical and reporting functions.
