Should I Work for a Non-Green Company?
A common thinking is that if you want to be green you should only work for a green company. I am not convinced that this is the best philosophy if you care about making the world a better place.
If nobody green works at a non-green company then it may never improve
If all the people who care about improving the world avoid non-green companies then the following may happen:
- All the non-green companies are staffed with people who don’t care about going green
- As a result, there may be no internal push for the company going green
- If the company does decide to go green (for financial gain) then they may go about it the wrong way – because nobody in the company cares or knows what being green means
If you care, try to change them
If you want a company to improve then you have two options:
- Protest in some form – letters, boycott, etc.
- Change them from within
I have a sneaking suspicion that companies are far more receptive of one of their own managers saying “hey, I think we should stop wasting all this energy” than someone sending in a letter. Also, more importantly, that manager (you!) can take ownership of the change and help it get done and get done right.
Comments
Comment from Colin
Time August 22, 2009 at 9:50 am
‘Green company’ includes companies that are either directly trying to better the situation (such as researching green technologies) and also companies that are actively trying to reduce their destructive effect on the world (and succeeding!).
At my previous company there were several people who all got together and started harassing senior management to get the company to be more socially responsible. They succeeded and are now responsible for a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) program that includes:
- Recycling paper, cans and plastics
- Reducing the amount of printed material used in training
- Getting involved with local charity projects to do charitable work (not strictly green but definitely worthwhile)
So, thanks to these people sticking their neck out they have made a positive change 
On your point about engineers working for green companies – you’ve got to be a little pragmatic here. You need to think about whether your skills would be best suited towards helping the green companies or helping to change existing ones.
If, for example, you specialised in energy efficiency then you might have a better effect on the world if you go work for a company that produces energy from non-renewable resources. Even when it becomes more viable for renewable resources to be used as our primary power source we will still have these old sources for a while until they are totally phased out. So, in the mean time you could do your bit by ensuring that these sources are as efficient and clean as possible whilst they are still around.
It is also worth bearing in mind that a fair number of these companies (e.g. Shell) are working on their own schemes to try and come up with alternatives (otherwise they go bust when oil/gas/coal run out). Go work for one of these companies and you could help them on this front.
Comment from Sofi
Time August 21, 2009 at 11:51 pm
What are you defining as a ‘green company’? A company that researches ‘green’ technologies or a company that recycles a lot or anywhere in between? I was told at a career fair that ‘changing from within’ is a pretty naive belief but I’ve not done that much research into that tbh.
I just think that an engineer or something would do better for the environment if they put their expertise to use in a job that is actively trying to advance ‘green’ technologies than working for, say, a company that makes it’s money by selling people energy supplies that are non-renewable and destroying the environment, no matter how much green-washing they choose to do.