In your personal life, you bring a keep cup to takeaways, segregate your waste and keep your showers to under two minutes. In your working life, how can you ensure the company you work for makes similar efforts at a corporate level?
It’s something Aisling Mooney Eddy, director of talent at A&L Goodbody, reckons is of significant concern to many career seekers.
“Sustainability has become increasingly important to those starting their careers with us,” says Eddy. “Candidates are often interested in initiatives such as our approach to the environment, our community programmes, learning and development, and what we do from an equality, inclusion and diversity perspective.”
Being a law firm, pro bono legal advice is of particular interest, she adds, and nearly three-quarters of A&L Goodbody’s lawyers get involved in such work.
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There are shorthand ways for jobseekers to figure out if a prospective employer has sustainability values that align with their own. One indicator is if the employer offers to pay for staff training in micro credentials in sustainable subjects. Also known as MicroCreds, these are bite-sized courses in a variety of topics undertaken at third level, in person, online or on a hybrid basis. That makes them ultra-accessible and, because they are industry driven, practically applicable in the workplace.
Examples available on microcreds.ie include an introduction to sustainable enterprise at UCC, climate leadership development at TCD and UCD’s green care: policy and practice.
Asking about the organisation’s own credentials helps too. “As an overarching accreditation, the Business Working Responsibly Mark covers all aspects of sustainability. We first achieved the mark nine years ago, the first Irish law firm to do so, and we have been accredited ever since,” says Sinead Smith, head of responsible business at A&L Goodbody.
“We are a signatory of the Low Carbon Pledge and this year signed up to the Science Based Targets initiative. We have committed to reducing our carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2030. Similarly, we are also a signatory of the Elevate Pledge, where we are committed to being a more inclusive workplace. Under the Elevate Pledge, we record and report the diversity of our people, we develop tangible actions and report on the impact of those actions.”
Seeking out employers whose sustainability values align with his own is a journey UCD Innovation Academy’s education innovation lead, Tom Macagno, undertook himself. He started off in product management and moved into the area of sustainability, undertaking a PhD in how to transition organisations to sustainability.
That led him to work for a construction and engineering company as head of sustainability, before moving into the education sector, where he now helps others following a similar trajectory. He works with students, either on individual or group projects, on master’s and graduate diploma programmes.
“It’s about coaching the students and helping them to navigate their own organisation, or the organisation they have been paired up with,” he explains.
He advises anyone considering a prospective employer’s sustainability ethos to also look at informal indicators, such as their performance on websites such as Glass Door, or their postings on LinkedIn. If possible, talk to people who already work there, he suggests.
Be aware that organisations are “disincentivised” from revealing their lack of interest in sustainability, he cautions, so watch out for greenwashing.
“Look at how much they have truly – not just in words – but truly integrated it into their business strategy. Is it reflected in all their products and services? That’s the biggest tell,” he advises.
Candidates are definitely more attracted to organisations with strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials, especially younger people, says Chris Collins, country president Ireland at Schneider Electric.
“We’ve seen this first-hand with the recent influx of graduates, apprentices and younger people with vocational qualifications. Working for organisations that are committed to sustainability is high on their agenda, along with access to training, good career prospects that offer advancement, and achieving a work-life balance.”
Collins believes it’s not just important to work with an organisation whose values align with your own, “it’s essential, if you want to have a rewarding career,” he says.
While Schneider is seen primarily as an engineering and technology company, it is in fact a sustainability practitioner, focused on helping its customers decarbonise their operations in line with climate regulations, and indeed their own ESG objectives, he points out.
“We provide a combination of electrical systems, software and specialist consultancy to help organisations become more energy efficient. Since 2018 we’ve helped customers avoid 553 million tonnes of CO2, which is quite staggering, and we’re using our own technology to become carbon neutral in operations by 2025,” says Collins.
The company is currently investing in new smart factories across Ireland and the UK, powered by 100 per cent electricity and renewables. “This hasn’t gone unnoticed and we’re very proud to be ranked number one in Time magazine’s and Statista’s World’s Most Sustainable Companies for 2024 list,” he adds.
“As such, we have created a culture that is designed to give employees the sustainable working environment they’re looking for, at an organisation at the cutting edge of sustainable technologies for industrial applications and the built environment.”
