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The rise in responsible careers |
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1069 |
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The concept of a “responsible career” might sound fanciful in a global labour market under pressure from cuts and downturns. But despite the turbulent economy it seems the green jobs market is flourishing.
Worldwide salaries of “green collar workers” increased by 4 per cent during 2010, according to an industry study by Acre Resources, a sustainability recruitment specialist, and Acona, a corporate responsibility consultancy.
Sustainability has become so enmeshed with commercial interests that career choices which would once have required a senior manager to step off the career ladder can now lead to greater professional opportunities and a higher salary.
But “sustainability” can mean different things to different people. Broadly speaking it amounts to an attempt to reduce the impact of commercial activity on the environment and society.
Professor Judi Marshall at Lancaster University Management School has made a study of executives who changed career pathways in search of work that makes a more positive social impact.
She and her colleague Svenja Tams have published a paper on how growing concerns about the social and environmental impact of organisations have provoked debates about responsibility in managerial careers.
There is often, she says, a trigger that precipitates a change. One of the key questions that those thinking about making a change often ask is: do I bring all of myself to my work?
Bryn Parry was an illustrator living in Wiltshire in 2007 when he paid a hospital visit to men and women recovering from injuries suffered while serving in Iraq.
The experience was, as he puts it, “devastating” and led him and his wife Emma to set up the Help for Heroes charity. Originally begun as little more than a sponsored bike ride, the charity has since raised nearly £100m and has provided assistance for hundreds of men and women wounded in service.
With no prior experience, the couple found themselves at the helm of a large national charity. Unable to combine the demands of the charity with their former jobs, they were forced to sell their old illustration business.
But, he says, their reasoning has never waivered. “It quickly became an all-consuming passion and although I did feel sad when the business was sold, our lives had changed so much that we just ran with it.”
His lack of knowledge of how charities are run was less a hindrance than a new challenge: “We had 23 years running a small business so we had a background in marketing, sales and creativity and we’re used to improvising. These skills are a good basis for starting an organisation in this field.”
For those who want a career change that does not require such a complete change of circumstances, there are many professional roles within sustainability being advertised.
Just 10 years ago those interested in the area had very few places to look, says David White. An IT worker with an interest in the environment, Mr White could not find anywhere that listed possible green jobs for those with a technical background. In 2002 he filled that gap with his own company, Environment Job, an online jobs board.
Now, he says, he advertises exactly the sort of jobs he wanted. He has noticed a change in the nature of the posts, which reflects shifting interests within the sector.
Areas that rely on financial support from local authorities, such as cycle schemes, have suffered, while jobs in renewable energy have continued to grow as government subsidies flood in and companies look for ways to save money.
In the UK, more than three quarters of small and medium sized “cleantech” businesses say they plan to recruit in the next year, and sustainability recruitment specialist Allen & York believes half a million jobs in the renewable energy sector could be created by 2020 and 50,000 jobs in the waste industry.
More broadly, sustainability has been integrated into companies’ growth plans. Stefano Giolito was working in marketing at an international level for Unilever when he saw the chance in 2010 to switch his career and develop the firm’s growing sustainability team.
Despite having no specific experience within the area he recognised that his knowledge of disparate parts of the company would provide the requisite skills.
“I saw that Unilever was not just looking for a sustainability specialist but someone who understood the dynamics of the business, and these were requirements I met,” he says.
The sustainability team now contains a mixture of Unilever employees with a background in different areas of the business, plus newcomers with specific sustainability training.
What excites Mr Giolito about the role is the opportunity to drive Unilever’s business agenda by looking at new products from the point of view of sustainability.
One important subject is water. As the commodity becomes more scarce throughout the world, and thus more expensive, it will be increasingly important to create products that can be used with less water.
In response, the team helped to come up with a form of washing powder sold in emerging economies that required just one bucket of water to rinse clothes, rather than three or four. By creating the products now, the company hopes to provide customers with what they need before they realise they need it.
But this business sensibility can be grating to some in the industry.
Those who followed their morals into the sector can be discouraged by the attitude of those who did not, says David Bent at Forum for the Future, a sustainable development non-government organisation.
“I was at a sustainability event the other week and a company was talking about maximising commercial ``return``s from renewable energy. A member of the audience asked where the morals were. But the thing is, this is what victory looks like. If you want business to take sustainability seriously then you have to realise that not everyone is motivated by morals now that this issue has been mainstreamed.”
Forum for the Future works with corporate clients such as eBay and O2 to think up sustainable development plans that could help them.
Despite the recession, Mr Bent has found that companies are maintaining their interest in sustainability, even those suffering budget cuts.
Trained as an accountant, he moved to the company after realising that his former profession did not yield sufficient interest for him.
“At university I’d been heavily involved in what is now called sustainability, but what was then called development and green issues.
“I did think about having a career in that field but I didn’t think there would be a career path in it. This was in 1998 when the idea of corporate social responsibility was barely mentioned.”
Now, he says, there is such a plethora of masters courses in the sector that it is becoming harder for entrants to gain work without a formal qualification.
And although the business is significantly smaller than his previous employer, Mr Bent says the scale of the company and the industry suits him.
As others have found, within smaller businesses there are opportunities to take on more responsibility: “Sustainability is still a young, immature field, which means you can move faster,” he says.
For mid-career executives with a strong portfolio in marketing, accounting or other professions, the area might still seem small. But, he says, there is reason to believe that it will continue to grow.
“Sustainability will become embedded in all functions and across companies and I imagine that in the future every department will have a sustainability team member,” Mr Bent adds.
The potential for professionals who decide they want to bring all of themselves to their work is blossoming.
By Elaine Moore |
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