What does it really take to build a career in corporate sustainability and sustainable finance in 2025?

In this episode, Maria Maisuradze, Founder of ED4S, sits down with Nawar Alsaadi, Co-Founder of Kanata Q, for a candid, no-nonsense conversation about the realities behind ESG roles—beyond the buzzwords and glossy reports.

Drawing on experiences across startups, NGOs, and institutional environments, Nawar shares how sustainability careers rarely follow a straight line—and why that's often a strength rather than a weakness. Together, Maria and Nawar unpack whether a "typical" sustainability career path even exists, where professionals are entering the field from today, and how motivations shape success. From ESG idealists driven by impact, to ESG capitalists focused on value creation, to the increasingly influential ESG agnostic. each mindset plays a role in shaping the field.

The conversation dives into the day-to-day reality of sustainability roles: building a credible business case, setting meaningful KPIs, managing reporting pressures, driving internal buy-in, and balancing ambition with organizational constraints. Maria and Nawar also explore how the ESG space is evolving in 2025; from a compliance-heavy focus toward strategic value creation and decision-making.

Finally, they offer practical advice for those looking to break into sustainability—or for professionals already in the field seeking clarity, resilience, and long-term impact as sustainability leaders within their organizations.

In this episode, Maria Maisuradze is joined by a leading voice in global sustainability and governance, Pyarali Jamal.

Pyarali has been in sustainability space for over 22 years. He is a member of ICAEW Sustainability Committee, advisor to Ivey Business School, and Smith School of Business. His career bridges finance, regulation, and ESG strategy.

We begin with Pyarali's personal journey: how he transitioned from traditional finance into sustainability long before ESG became mainstream, and what convinced him that ESG performance would shift from a CSR afterthought to a core financial and governance imperative.

We break down the current state of European mandatory ESG disclosures in 2025, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the ongoing Omnibus debates. He explains what these rules actually mean for companies and why they often feel misaligned with the profit-driven focus many organizations maintain. From there, we explore outcomes-based ESG data—what it is, why it matters, and how it helps boards and executive teams make more strategic decisions. He offers practical examples of how outcomes-focused metrics differ from traditional reporting and discusses the challenges companies face in gathering decision-useful data.

We also examine how lenders and investors are beginning to integrate ESG data into due diligence, investment valuations, and long-term risk assessments. While transition plans are still uneven across markets, he highlights why they are rapidly becoming essential for both large companies and SMEs.

Finally, we discuss what boards and senior management teams must do to equip their organizations to collect, manage, and apply ESG data effectively; from building internal capability to embedding sustainability insights into core operations.

A concise, insightful look at how ESG data is reshaping corporate strategy, regulation, and financial decision-making in real time.

ED4S provides employee sustainability training solutions, to learn more about suite of our educational resources, please visit https://www.ed4s.org/