Sustainable Development Policy Analyst

Say you’re stuck in the woods for a week without credit cards, grocery stores, or any other means of finding and buying supplies. What you’ve got is what you’ve got. If you want to survive, therefore, you’ll need to develop a well-thought-out plan for maintaining your supply of food, water, and firewood. If you don’t, you’ll run out, ending up hungry, cold, and tired.

That’s the basic premise behind sustainability: You’ve got to conserve your resources today so that you still have some tomorrow.

A Sustainable Development Policy Analyst is an advocate of that philosophy, and it’s their job to promote it to Policymakers by advising them on laws and regulations that help or hinder the sustainability of individuals, communities, companies, and governments.

Concerned with all types of sustainability — social (that is, equity, diversity, and quality of life), economic (that is, capital, efficiency, and profit), and environmental (that is, resource management, energy efficiency, and waste reduction) — as a Sustainable Development Policy Analyst you’re paid by Legislators, government agencies, lobbying firms, and nonprofit organizations to analyze proposed legislation through a sustainability lens. On a daily basis, that means reading bills, policies, and initiatives; analyzing their impact through a combination of research and fieldwork; and sharing your critiques, commendations, and recommendations via written reports and oral presentations.

Because your ultimate goal as a Sustainable Development Policy Analyst is producing knowledge that educates Lawmakers about sustainable policies — and creating arguments that persuade them to actually propose and pass such policies — you’re basically a walking, talking “wake-up” call for the modern world, charged with making sure future generations have thriving communities, healthy economies, and abundant resources.