HIGHLIGHTS
- The New Year is time for reflection, leading to a new slate of candidates looking for socially responsible jobs
- New study finds 37% annual growth in CSR jobs
- Specific growth in positions combining environment and business
San Francisco, CA. January 15, 2008 – There are more corporate social responsibility (CSR) jobs than ever available to MBA candidates, according to a new, multi-year study by Net Impact and Ellen Weinreb CSR Recruiting. However, the growth in candidates’ interest exceeds the growth in positions available.
CSR Jobs Report 2007 was published today by San Francisco-based Net Impact, which works with MBA graduate students and professionals, and Berkeley-based Ellen Weinreb CSR Recruiting.
Using two of the leading sources for CSR-type jobs – Business for Social Responsibility’s (BSR) jobs page and CSR-Chicks, a listserve for CSR professionals based out of London – the study found a 37% increase per year in the number of CSR jobs posting over the past 3.5 years for a total of 1255 job postings. According to BSR’s President and CEO, Aron Cramer, “Our jobs board is viewed by our members as an indispensable resource for finding quality staff.”
Net Impact has seen a growing interest in MBAs looking for jobs in the CSR space. Since 2004, active membership has grown from 2,600 to nearly 5,000 in 2007. Members join Net Impact to access many career resources and to learn more about companies that are leaders in the CSR space. According to Karin Cooke, Net Impact’s Career Program Director, “An increasing number of MBA students hope to find a career that blends business acumen with positive contributions to society and the environment. As this report shows, the demand for CSR jobs is tremendous. We advise members to not only look for traditional CSR jobs, but also look for functionally mainstream positions within companies with strong CSR and environmental values.”
The New Year often encourages reflection and leads people to look for change and new directions. This report helps guide job seekers to look at new opportunities and remind employers about the benefit of highlighting their sustainability practices.
Three Sectors Cashing in on Green
Environmentally focused jobs are one of the fastest growing areas, especially in clean-technology, consumer products, and public relations.
Joel Makower, executive editor of GreenBiz.com, notes clean-technology companies are a specific area of job growth. He says, “There’s a groundswell of interest among MBAs and other job seekers in companies whose products and services are in such fields as renewable energy, alternative transportation, green building, and advanced materials.”
Ellen Weinreb refers to the rise in consumer products-related environment jobs as the “Wal-martization of sustainability.” She says, “Wal-Mart is raising the bar by encouraging its suppliers to ramp up their sustainability efforts, and the sustainability jobs follow.”
Other market sectors are also climbing on-board the green bandwagon in greater number. Major Public Relations companies – such as Edelman, Fleishman Hillard – are starting or expanding “sustainability practices” focused specifically on clients’ green strategies. Financial markets have also gone green, with an increasing number of companies focusing on emissions trading, green venture capital, and green banking.
Graduate Schools Building Green
Graduate schools recognize this combined need for both environment and business expertise in the marketplace. “We find the demand from employers for qualified students with career interests in both business and the environment is growing,” says Bryan Garcia, Program Director for the new Center for Business and the Environment at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. “It is vitally important that academic institutions work hard to meet this growing workforce demand to better prepare leaders for business and society while helping to solve the problems that matter.”
In addition to Yale, other graduate schools are ramping up their business and environment offerings such as the recently announced $10M gift from Dow Chemical Co. to UC Berkeley in California, to develop a Sustainable Products and Solutions Program.
Salary Information
According to CSR Jobs Report 2007, the average annual salary for someone working in a socially responsible job was $67,000, with most of those jobs based in London. Only 17% of jobs postings disclosed salary information. Says Weinreb, “As a recruiter, I only recommend disclosure of salary information when the salary is particularly low. For this reason, I think the $67,000 figure is lower than the true average.”
In addition to London, the other top geographical hubs are San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Boston. The companies with the most number of listings were Burbank, CA-based Walt Disney with 23 postings, Beaverton, OR-based Nike Inc. with 15 postings, and Seattle, WA-based Starbucks with 14 postings.