Insights

A sustainable future: green-collar careers

Corporate sustainability has become a non-negotiable element of employee attraction and retention. Marilyn Waite says sustainability is not a one-person job and explains how everyone in an organisation has a part to play

A 2021 Net Impact report, which summarised a survey of more than 1,600 respondents from 65 different nationalities, found that more than half of employees have considered leaving their job due to the poor social and environmental impact of their company.

Increasingly, as millennials and Gen Z come to dominate the workforce, there’s an expectation that the companies they work for should align with positive social and environmental impact. And this demographic expects action rather than just words.

For the bulk of the global workforce that is millennial and younger, ‘green-washing’ just won’t cut it. So, what does work? Green-collar jobs are one answer; anyone working in the green economy – working with clean energy or in the circular economy, for example – has a green-collar job. But sustainability impact opportunities are not limited to traditional green roles.

As companies increase their efforts to improve their sustainability credentials due to risk management, regulatory compliance, customer demand and innovation, new roles such as that of the chief sustainability officer have emerged. Nevertheless, sustainability is not a one-person or even one-team job; everyone in the organisation has a part to play. One way of doing this is by applying my SURF framework.

Essential elements to consider

The ‘s’ in SURF stands for supply chain considerations that address sustainability criteria. Staff can ask: are suppliers applying environmental, social and good governance practices? Are our suppliers using non-polluting inputs? Are they respecting human rights? Do they practice equity and inclusion? It’s relatively easy for many companies to focus on the sustainability of their four walls, but companies often overlook the same considerations for the whole supply chain.

The ‘u’ in SURF stands for user. The user may be known as a customer, consumer or client. The core question here is: is the user enabled to use the product or service in a socially and environmentally sustainable way? For example, is the user provided with a means to reuse or recycle a product?

The ‘r’ stands for relations or relationships – both internal and external. Do stakeholders, including investors, lenders, employees, customers and the community, have a say in decisions that impact them? Is the organisation inclusive and transparent?

And, finally, the ‘f’ stands for future, and is about the responsibility that we – both humans and organisations – have to future generations. Sustainability is all about planning for the future – without it, there will be no planet to hand over to our collective offspring.

Bringing influence to bear

Applying the SURF framework to a place of work helps you understand both whether the employer is acting sustainably and also the types of roles required to help the employer improve its environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. The SURF framework may be something employees wish to apply before taking up a role with any organisation. But whether or not one opts for a career that is directly a ‘green job’ or an ‘impact career,’ it’s important to remember that employees have influence.

More than a quarter of people live in a country where the working population is shrinking rather than growing, meaning that organisations globally are struggling to fill job vacancies. This, in turn, has resulted in employees having more clout than they ever did before.

Employers are hearing that employees want their work to be meaningful, do no harm and preferably leave a positive trace behind for humanity. Workers want their employers to be socially and environmentally responsible – and if they’re not, they will vote with their feet. A 2023 survey of 4,000 US and UK employees by Paul Polman found that at least one third of respondents resigned from their jobs because they felt their companies’ efforts to tackle environmental and social challenges were insufficient.

Organisations that want to hire and retain the best talent simply can’t afford to ignore sustainability. Change is happening already; the world of work is becoming more sustainable, in part thanks to pressure from employees. The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) – the idea that businesses have a responsibility to improve society instead of just focusing on their own bottom line – has morphed into ESG, which expands the idea of social responsibility to the environment and business practice itself.

Many companies are building ESG into their organisational structure, creating policies and practices that benefit local communities and the environment. Virtually all the world’s largest companies now issue a sustainability report and set objectives that are often in line with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.

Of course, you don’t have to be an employee to have a sustainable career. The SURF framework can be used to build a beneficial foundation for your own set-up as an entrepreneur or freelancer. There’s still a lot of work to do to make good on sustainability goals and, by focusing on building sustainability into our own careers, together we can make that change happen.

Marilyn Waite is the author of Sustainability at Work: Careers That Make a Difference. She has worked across four continents in low carbon energy, climate modelling and investment and currently leads the Climate Finance Fund, as well as teaching ESG strategies at Sciences Po and other universities across the globe. Find out more at marilynwaite.com and climatefinance.fund.