It was a simple question, yet, for a moment, I didn’t know what to say.
I was at an event when a young interviewer asked, “What’s your field, Sir?”
“Sustainability?” I replied, hesitantly, as if I were unsure of my own identity.
Her eyes lit up. “That’s great to know, Dr. Modak! But within that, what’s your specialization?”
Now I was completely lost.
Sensing my confusion, she tried to help.
“I mean… areas like air pollution, water pollution, waste management?”
I did not know how to respond.
Just then, a senior colleague, noticing my predicament, came to my rescue.
“Sorry, Dr. Modak,” she said. “We’re not talking about the basics. How about frontier topics, circular economy, climate change, biodiversity? We saw you on an ESG panel recently, and didn’t you write that piece on trade barriers?”
Thankfully, my phone rang at that very moment.
“I’ll join you after this call,” I said, escaping gracefully.
While driving home, I asked questions to myself
Do you specialize to solve a problem deeply?
Or to build your identity in the society?
Or simply because a field fascinates you?
When I looked back after decades of work, I asked to myself: Did I specialize?
When Degrees Define You and When They Don’t
That question stayed with me. It’s a difficult one, because the answer depends on where you are in life and how you’ve travelled.
In your early years, your degree often defines your specialization. A bachelor’s in civil engineering. A master’s in environmental science and engineering. A doctorate in environmental engineering.
People hear your degree and infer your specialization.
But as the years pass, you realize that your degree no longer tells your story.
The Shifting Sands of “Specialization”
My doctoral work was on optimum siting of ambient air monitors. That was my first so called declared “specialization.” I could have continued working deeper and built AI driven air quality prediction systems, compositing with satellite imageries to develop early warning systems for real time traffic control in “smart” cities. But alas.
Over the next four decades, my focus evolved in several phases:
Phase 1 (Water): Water quality modelling and management ,five years immersed in Ganga Action Plan.
Phase 2 (Waste): Cleaner production and waste minimization , a decade of work with UNEP/UNIDO/APO programs.
Phase 3 (Systems): Environmental and social safeguards ,through my work with MDBs and IL&FS.
Phase 4 (Integration): Circular economy, ESG nexus, climate change and Sustainable finance where I find myself today.
The core area of Environmental Impact Assessment always stayed.
So, what is my specialization now? And when you have done a bit of all and in different roles as a Professor, Corporate consultant, Policy advisor to MDBs, Members of various committees of the Government, been Globally Travelling Trainer, Blogger and Writer and Entrepreneur. Well, finally you see yourself nowhere.
In contrast, I have met people who dedicated their entire careers to one domain, say, wastewater treatment and in that removal of Arsenic or biodiversity conservation and then focusing on Great Indian Bustard and made remarkable, measurable impact. That focus is admirable. They could have easily answered the question of the young interviewer that I couldn’t.
In contrast, I’ve journeyed across domains, each adding another layer of understanding each time. Perhaps I became a generalist, two feet deep in several areas rather than ten feet deep in one.
Is Sustainability a Field or a Way of Thinking?
My Professor friend once teased me:
“Dr Modak, you never specialized ,you’re a generalist who just knows too much about too many things!”
He wasn’t wrong.
But to work in sustainability, you must touch every piece of the puzzle – energy, water, waste, finance, biodiversity ,to understand how they all fit together. And learn how to play multiple roles. This is where you learn limits to implementation and of course how to scale the impact.
The Rise of the Sustainability “General Practitioner”
Look at medicine today.
There are ENT specialists, and then sub-specialists who focus only on vocal cords! Cardiologists who treat only valves or only rhythm disorders. Oncologists who dedicate their careers to just one type of cancer, breast, lung, or blood. The general practitioner, the GP, is slowly disappearing. Grandchildren of ChatGPT and the likes will be the GPs of the next generation. That’s not going to be good.
Should sustainability professionals become the new GPs of the planet?
Over time, I have realized that sustainability, much like medicine, cannot be left to either the generalist or the specialist alone.
You Need Both: The Specialist and the General Practitioner
We, the sustainability GPs, may not do the “surgery” ourselves, but we diagnose holistically, understand linkages, and connect the dots across disciplines.
You need the specialist ,the expert in occupational health and safety, the environmental modeller, the social impact assessor, the biodiversity ecologist, the financial engineer who structures green bonds.
Each brings depth, rigor, and precision.
But you also need the general practitioner, the sustainability GP – who can see the patient as a whole. Someone who diagnoses the linkages, knows which specialist to call, or form a team and, most importantly, checks whether the “treatment plan” of one expert contradicts another.
The sustainability GP must know enough to ask the right questions and have the humility to listen to the experts.
Because while the specialists go deep, the GP must connect the dots, balance perspectives, and ensure that the collective outcome remains sustainable.
If the circular economy team optimizes recycling but increases carbon emissions, or if the climate team designs offsets that ignore biodiversity, the GP must intervene ,not to overrule, but to realign.
This dance between depth and breadth, precision and perspective, is what sustainability truly demands.
True specialization in sustainability isn’t about topics ,it’s about process.
It’s all about identifying problems, building systemic understanding, appreciating first,, second, and third order linkages, and designing solutions that balance economic, social, and environmental nexus.
It’s about speaking a language stakeholders understand, and crafting roadmaps with Roles, Responsibilities, Resources (My 3Rs),and the often, forgotten Risks. (the 4th R that is critical one)
Perhaps that is the real specialization.
The Balance We Need
The world today doesn’t need just experts in silos, it needs integrators.
Professionals who can weave together air, water, energy, finance, and people into one coherent story.
The specialist gives depth.
The generalist gives direction.
Sustainability happens when they work together ,one curing – the other caring.
If you are building your career in sustainability, remember:
Start broad, then go deep. Explore the full canvas before choosing your brushstroke. Understand how water links to energy, how waste links to climate, and how finance ties it all together.
Build T shaped skills. Be broad enough to understand many fields, but deep enough to contribute meaningfully in one.
Learn to speak many languages. Not French or German, but the languages of engineers, financiers, communities, and policymakers. Look for multiple roles.
Work with humility and curiosity. The best sustainability professionals never stop learning, from the field, from failures, and from other disciplines.
Find your “why.” Whether your passion is clean energy, biodiversity, or social equity, discover the common thread that connects your work to purpose.
First the MBBS, Then the MD
In medicine, you don’t begin as a heart surgeon or an oncologist. You are just not allowed.
You start with your MBBS, the grounding in anatomy, physiology, and general medicine. Only later do you choose to specialize, perhaps in cardiology, oncology, or neurology.
Sustainability careers are no different.
You must first become the MBBS of sustainability, the general practitioner who understands how the body of the planet works. Learn the basics: air, water, waste, energy, biodiversity, finance, and governance. Understand how the organs talk to each other because they always do.
Once you have built that foundation, then choose your MD, your area of depth. It could be climate finance, circular economy, biodiversity restoration, or ESG analytics.
But even as you specialize, remember what every good doctor knows:
the MD never forgets their MBBS.
Some of us, of course, go on to become the MD in Medicine, the physicians who stay broad, who treat the whole person rather than just a part. Sustainability has room for them too, the integrators who look at the entire system, not just a segment of it.
So, before you decide what kind of specialist you want to be, ask yourself:
have you learned enough to diagnose the whole patient? and dont ever ask me what is your specialization Dr Modak
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Image source : https://www.miamijewishhealth.org/blog/memory-matters/mental-confusion-whats-normal-whats-not/
You have touched upon a dillema which everyone of us faces. It reflects your deep understanding and maturity in the field. However, there is is a third breed of so called sustainability professional which can be compared to jhola chaap doctors, no formal education or experience in the field, however,claim to know everything under the sun.
Great piece sir
Regards
Each time you excel yourself. What I think is that the specialist is like a solo singer whereas the so called generalist is guide of an orchestra. I also think that there is a greater need of team work of various specialists than their specialisation. Working in a team is a skill learnt through practice.