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:

1. All the non-green companies are staffed with people who don’t care about going green
2. As a result, there may be no internal push for the company going green
3. 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:

1. Protest in some form – letters, boycott, etc.
2. 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.