At the Green Cities Florida Conference last week, a 21 year old Finance Major asked how to get a green job when he graduated. He really didn’t know what sustainability was and hadn’t read anything on climate change, sustainability, etc. Our advice to him was:
- READ
- For his last year of school, include a course that addresses the environment or sustainability in business
- Start at entry level in a company that has a reputation for sustainability, corporate social responsibility, or environmental action—read corporate sustainability reports online to assess a company’s commitment and progress (one of the best Sustainability Reports is Interface, Inc.) and a job that requires his strengths (see “Strengths Finder 2.0” by Thomas Rath)
- With initial success, begin to integrate sustainability into his daily job and explore using 10% of his time to work sustainability in some way to more broadly benefit his company.
Your job should be a green job
Although we need to grow CleanTech, Green, and Renewable Energy jobs radically (i.e., engineers, scientists, technicians), it strikes me all our jobs should be approached as green jobs. Business provides the most potential for sustainability progress in the short term. I understand this doesn’t help those of you that are unemployed now and I am sorry for that. However, if everyone viewed their job through a green or sustainability lens and took action, we would ramp up sustainability results significantly.
What if everybody did that?
When my kids were little, we read over and over again a book called “What If Everybody Did That”? This picture book had scenes answering the question with the before and after of ‘What if everybody did that?’. A good example was a pristine park that was then covered with litter. What if everybody integrated sustainability into their current jobs? Your company might not be willing to take on sustainability yet, but you can in some shape or form in the job you do now. Even if your company is doing some sustainability work, or working at recycling or working at meeting regulations, you can do augment work on sustainability. Think of the possible outcomes:
- You accomplish some sustainability results for your job. You made a contribution. You might even be considered a more valuable and/or motivated employee.
- Based on your example, other employees start thinking and acting on sustainability in their jobs. They make contributions. They feel better about themselves and the company.
- You realize you can make more of a contribution through a green team and enlist other employees to volunteer to take on a project focused on reducing energy use or reducing waste, etc. Your boss says you can use 10% of your work time or says you have to make up the time—either way you are contributing to progress on sustainability.
- Your company takes note that employees consider sustainability important and begin to integrate sustainability into their vision, strategy, goals, and actions. Who are they going to look to for leadership and commitment to sustainability?
Is sustainability part of your life?
If you aren’t working your own sustainability at home, do. You’ll start out doing the common things, but the more you learn, the more you will live consciously with your lens on sustainability. You’ll find you notice the water you are using, the packaging you are throwing out, the gas you are burning while idling your car, etc. Sustainability truly requires living consciously and that is a good thing for all of us in this modern world of disconnectedness. Then, you can ‘Magnify Your Impact’ (www.netimpact.org) by using your developing sustainability lens on your job and within your company.
Enlarge your green action frame to include your company
We tend to let boxes or frames define our view. Look outside the frame you have personally for green to your job. What changes can you make to reduce the impact that your job has on the environment, e.g., reduce waste, reduce energy use, reduce water use, reduce use of chemicals, etc. How could you redesign your job to be more sustainable?
As importantly, with 10% of your time (we call it The 10% Initiative), what sustainability work for your company could you contribute to or lead? Can you lead a green team to reduce cafeteria waste, can you help the recycling effort of your firm, can you develop a cost analysis and recommendation for motion sensors for lighting or the newer, energy-efficient light bulbs, can you do a site survey of where lights really don’t need to be on or don’t need to be on 24 hours/day, etc.? Make it a private crusade or a green team of fellow employee volunteers. Whether in relation to your job or as part of a green team, work sustainability actions initially that:
- Have short term results, cost savings in 6 months to 1 year, with minimal investment
Are visible to as broad a group as possible
Don’t promote the effort. Let the results speak for themselves
Learn about sustainability related to business
It is important that you learn about sustainability. Give yourself a foundation through the many books available. If you would like recommendations of some of the best books to start or augment your knowledge base, please let us know. We will be doing a series of blogs on The Natural Step, science-based framework for sustainability. It is the most elegant and powerful framework for understanding, applying and directing action on sustainability whether for you personally or your company.
Looking forward
Next blog will feature a Dell Case Study of Deb Albers, a role model, who made 10% of her time count for significant, measurable sustainability results.
Let us know what sustainability results you achieve on your job or more broadly with your team. Be a 10%er!
By Debbie Deland, Director of The 10% Initiative. She works with Green Cities Florida, the Chamber of Commerce, and NetImpact.
Tags: Green Jobs
I enjoyed this blog, but am not sure it addressed the real dilemma for many new graduates and job hunters; where to find job listings for businesses that are sustainable, apply green practices, or are looking to go green. I am in the same boat as the young graduate; with the exception of being much more well-informed on the topic. I have always had an interest in the environment, took a course on greening the hospitality industry, try to be as eco-conscious as possible in my personal life and home, and most importantly am interested in working for a company that shares these same values.
The dilemma: I graduated with a BS in Hotel Management and am not interested, nor qualified to work for a wind farm, biodiesel company, etc. I want to be part of hospitality company willing to make the changes necessary to run a successful business, while keeping the Earth and their impact in mind. There are a growing number of companies like this, but it is a struggle to find job listings with them. Many do not advertise or are more interested in long-term experience with their type of business, rather than your knowledge and interests in their green efforts.
I would love feedback on this if anyone has any suggestions at finding these types of jobs/companies.
Amalia,
Really appreciate your comment. There are a number of ways to find companies that are into Green in the hospitality industries. It is great that you have a BS in Hotel Management. Here in Orlando, I think you would find opportunities to start with the kind of company you are looking for, but that holds true for San Diego, Vegas, Phoenix, and, of course other cities with hotels galore.
In any job search, the most important part is targeting the company, which I think you have already concluded. Target several hotels in the geography you want to live and research the heck out of them. I don’t think it is as easy as finding a job listing just waiting for you. Know your target companies and start to network. Approach their personnel departments and see if it is good to have a resume on file, see what openings they are filing, understand what they hire BSs into.
A few great sources for finding green hoteliers:
designated green lodgers in FL http://www.dep.state.fl.us/greenlodging/lodges.htm
http://www.greenlodgingnews.com/
http://www.greenhotels.com/
designated green lodgers in CA http://www.travel.dgs.ca.gov/Lodging/GreenDirectory.htm
These sites are just a few. There are several sites that provide green company profiles and best green companies, etc. Scandic hotels in Scandanavia is a real leader in green. You can read about them in the Book The Natural Step for Business. The list I thought was terrific because it showed ratings of companies across several corporate responsiblity indices is at Net Impact. Since I am a member, I am not sure whether you have to be a member to get to the ratings, but just this report would be worth the membership fee in Net Impact, not to mention all the other learning resources it gives a recent grad. Go to: http://www.netimpact.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=879.
Once you have developed a list of possible companies, then review their web sites to see what they are doing related to sustainability, are there real results, are they publishing a corporate responsibility Report (if so, read), and if not, send them an email that you couldn’t consider working for their company due to their lack of commitment or progress on sustainability.
I am not a scientist or engineer either, although I have managed and led many of them through my career to deliver major new product offers, process redesigns, improvements, and new systems. I don’t expect to find a ‘green’ job. The best green companies don’t have green jobs (except in the very technical realms), they are integrating sustainability into every business unit and every job. Look for an entry level position where you think you can add further value to that hotel by using a sustainability lens.
I am an avid reader, which dates me. I encourage you to delve deeply into sustainability books and green lodging. There is so much available on what hotels can do to reduce their carbon footprint, help to restore the environment and be socially responsbile. You need to be knowledgeable if not in overall sustainability, at least what sustainability is for hotels and what actions are producing results.
Hope this is helpful,
Debbie Deland