25/07/2023
How climate change is re-shaping the way Gen Z works
“Climate change gives me an insane amount of existential anxiety,” says Lillian Zhou. Many young people can probably relate to the 26-year-old Zhou’s worries about the climate – and her desire to work for a company that’s doing something about it.
Zhou grew up in the US state of Michigan, which has been experiencing milder winters coupled with fiercer storms. “These storms have led to flooding that endangers lives and destroys property as well as causes more run-off into our state’s many lakes,” says Zhou. She remembers when floods in 2014 made tap water unsafe for several counties on Lake Erie.
“It’s way too easy to spiral into despair when you read the news or watch Planet Earth documentaries,” she says. That’s why Zhou has turned to work as a way to channel her eco-anxiety in a positive direction. Since graduating from university in 2017, she’s worked in both the private and public sectors, and is currently in a year-long communications role with the solar energy non-profit GRID Alternatives.
“I combat this anxiety through my work,” says Zhou. “Knowing that I am working for an environmentally and socially oriented organisation, that I am working for something bigger than a paycheque – this is what brings me a sense of purpose.”
It’s not the same career path as Zhou’s parents – a nurse and an engineer – who immigrated from China, then stayed with the same employers for nearly their entire careers. Flexibility is a major driver of this shift. Zhou comments, “Nowadays, I think my generation places more emphasis on finding jobs that align with our personal beliefs, and are less afraid to move on if that alignment changes.”
Many young workers like Zhou – middle-class members of Generation Z, living in countries including the US and UK – are searching out similar professional paths that combine flexibility and a deep sense of purpose. Demand is surging for these kinds of climate-related jobs – making it crucial for employers, careers advisors and educational institutions to revamp their programming to be as climate-relevant as possible.
A massive concern
In a 2018 survey from global consulting firm Deloitte, 77% of Gen Z respondents said it was important to work at organisations whose values aligned with theirs. Social values matter deeply to this population, and the issue of climate change particularly – in the US, Gen Z (people in their teens to mid-20s) are much more concerned about climate change than older generations.
Similarly, in the UK, the health insurance company Bupa found in 2021 that 64% of surveyed 18-to-22-year-olds consider it important for employers to act on environmental issues, and 59% would remain longer with responsible employers. In Australia, young workers have left companies that aren’t doing enough to respond to climate change.
This explosion of interest in values-related work is also reshaping the educational landscape. In the US, increasing numbers of university students are seeking out environment-related careers, and there are ever more MBA programmes related to social impact and environment.
An early example came from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The school has offered a certificate programme in sustainability since 2011, and the number of students has mushroomed each year, according to Bethany Patten, the senior associate director of the Sustainability Initiative at the MIT Sloan School of Management. In the last three years, sustainability has become one of the top industries where students want to work.
Yet while young people may be generally interested in a climate-related career, they might not be aware of the specific career pathways – especially if the careers guidance in secondary schools and elsewhere is dated and not very climate-relevant.
“There’s just a mismatch between the future careers and skills and training that’s provided to the youth today,” believes Susannah Costley-White, 22. Costley-White is studying for a Master’s degree in climate change at King’s College London, while interning at Ashden, a climate charity advocating for every job to be a green job.
At Ashden, Costley-White is working on a campaign that, among other activities, is calling for “sustainability to be embedded as a statutory feature in careers guidance in UK schools by 2025”. She emphasises that the government needs to take responsibility for driving this type of change, so that there’s more alignment among the needs, interest, and skill levels related to green jobs.
