It’s heartening to know that business school students are waking up to the realities of climate change and how they can influence organizations they want to join.
44% of management students across the globe are willing to accept a lower salary to work for a company with better environmental practices. And 70% to 94% believe firms should integrate environmental sustainability into business operations according to the findings of ‘Rising Leaders on Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change,’ a global survey of business students conducted by Yale University in collaboration with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM). The data was collected from participants across 29 business schools in 25 countries, representing approximately 17,600 students globally. These B-Schools comprised
27 member schools of GNAM, including IIM Bangalore, London School of Economics and 25 other international institutes.
The survey revealed that 64% of the students don’t think businesses are making sufficient efforts to address environmental challenges and 84% of them would opt for a company following good environmental practices. Firms could adopt simple initiatives like conservation of energy, use of less plastic and e-waste disposal, they felt.
The findings come from responses collected from September 13 to October 18.While 19% of the students said they wouldn’t accept an offer from a company with no green concerns, regardless of how the high salary is, 71% said governments and companies have equal responsibility to check environmental damage. The highest number of respondents was from Asia Pacific. Edward Snyder, dean, Yale School of Management, said: “Today’s business schools are being called to act from the very people we are training as leaders. It is incumbent upon us to prepare our students for the world not of the last generation, but the next.”
“We often talk about a transformational change in society when we speak about climate action. That transformation will affect business as well as the institutions,” said Peter Bakker, president and CEO, WBCSD.
