Environmental Manager

Environmental Managers oversee the interaction between humans and their natural surroundings. More specifically, you ensure that the contact is sustainable. As an Environmental Manager, you manage people much more than you do the actual environment, and environmentalism is really only a secondary motivation. Your main goal is to conserve natural resources so that they are always available to the human population as it grows.

As an Environmental Manager, you think in the long term: what will people need from their environments in the future, and what can be done now to make sure those needs can be met when the time comes? It’s all about keeping a collection of ecosystems thriving together with the ease and precision of a plate twirler at a carnival.

To achieve this balance, you work with companies or governments to implement programs and regulations aimed at global sustainability. By observing the social, cultural, and economic ties a country or organization has to the environment, you will be able to assess strategies paramount to conservation. Most of your initiatives will protect the quality of oceans, freshwater supplies, land, and air.

Within the field, there are many opportunities for you to specialize. You can work solely with corporations on compliance issues, and methods for reducing waste and shrinking their carbon footprints. Or you can find employment with federal, state, or local governments to implement public policies. In this role, you help preserve the environment for human consumption in response to ever-changing environmental conditions.

Because your role is first and foremost managerial in nature, any path you take will require superior skills in leadership, budgeting, and personnel administration.