Students Drawn to Companies Fighting Climate Change

It is virtually common knowledge that “going green” has a host of benefits for the companies that employ the practice. Improving corporate environmental practices has been known to increase brand value and strengthen the public’s trust. Doing business in a sustainable manner also exempts companies from numerous fines and fees and occasionally qualifies them for certain tax credits.
As this positive trend continues the idea branches out into other sectors previously unaffected. Traditionally, businesses were able to attract recent business school graduates using salary as the main incentive. This practice is rapidly undergoing extinction. Today’s students are growing increasingly-likely to gravitate toward companies that realize the threat of climate change and utilize sustainable practices.
According to a recent global study, recruiting top talent is quickly becoming more dependent on factors other than salary alone. The study was conducted by Yale University, in collaboration with the World Business council for Sustainable Development and the Global Network for Advanced Management, and it surveyed over 3,700 students at 29 of the world’s top business schools.
What might be very surprising is the fact that the results showed that 44 per cent of business school students are willing to accept a lower wage to work for an organization with admirable environmental practices. Additionally, 19 per cent said they refuse to work for a company with poor standards – regardless of pay.
Today’s business students want to work for companies that have committed and responsible leadership in the search for solutions to environmental issues. 92 percent of students stated that they believe climate change is already happening, and 64 percent said that they do not think modern corporations are doing enough to address the problem.
Those beliefs are not the only factor behind the recent push for more aggressive action in preventing climate change. 71 percent of business students believe that environmentally-friendly companies see improved market competitiveness. An overwhelming majority (80 per cent) consider environmental action extremely profitable, providing economic growth and job creation.
Overall, business school students desire to work for companies that do not delegate sustainability to a separate department – they want sustainability to be incorporated throughout the company as a whole. 86 percent agree that the reporting of financial and sustainability metrics should be integrated. Many also believe that both the positive and negative impacts of an organization’s activities should be measured and analyzed.
The companies that will be most successful at attracting new talent will have aggressive approaches to thwarting climate change and address issues through industry-wide collaboration. A resounding 90 per cent of the surveyed students claimed that board-level action on environmental and sustainability issues should be instigated.
As time goes on, this trend is predicted to have relatively steady growth according to the Yale study. Today’s business students want to work for companies with transparent and progressive environmental standards – this means more than using recycled coffee cups in the break room. In order to attract the top talent, businesses will have to take action and stay competitive with the responsibility they take for preventing climate change.