“Green jobs” is the hot topic of the day, and now more than ever, companies are embracing the sentiment, if not the practice, of sustainability. But, when it comes to career options, green business can mean many different things—sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR), cleantech, socially responsible investing, green building, carbon markets and finance, renewable energy industry jobs, green marketing, or corporate-NGO partnership engagements, to name a few.
Are there really any jobs out there? Absolutely. But the catch is: these openings can be hard to find. Few job search boards aggregate socially and environmentally responsible business jobs in all of these different areas of sustainability, and often sustainability is not easily searchable in a job’s title or descriptive keywords.
Here are my ten favorite green business job search resources:
1. Net Impact (www.netimpact.org). Any professional interested in sustainable business should join the global Net Impact organization as a full member. Members have access to a job board focused exclusively on social and environmental impact careers, as well as access to the global member directory (great for networking), the “Issues in Depth” educational series, and regular career newsletters. If your city has a local professional chapter of Net Impact, join that, too.
2. Sustainability Recruiting Blog (www.sustainabilityrecruiting.com/blog/). Recruiter Ellen Weinreb sifts through many different sources for the best new CSR and sustainable business job openings, and posts one to her blog each day.
3. GreenBiz (www.greenbiz.com). GreenBiz is the preeminent source of green business news and commentary, along with its affiliated sites ClimateBiz.com, GreenerBuildings.com, GreenerComputing.com and GreenerDesign.com. GreenBiz’s annual “State of Green Business Report” is an excellent resource, as is its job board.
4. Green Dream Jobs (www.greendreamjobs.com). This job board is easy to search by skill level (eg, “Senior Level”) or by keyword (eg, “MBA”).
5. Justmeans (www.justmeans.com) . This social networking site includes an active job board for social impact job openings, many with environmental and cleantech organizations.
6. Green Drinks (www.greendrinks.org). Many cities have regular happy hours events called “Green Drinks”—a great way to network with environmentally-oriented professionals in your area.
7. LinkedIn Groups. The “Green Jobs & Career Network Group,” “Acre Sustainability Recruitment Network,” “Sustainability Career Group,” and “Renewables Job Market” groups on LinkedIn are just a few of the groups posting green business job openings, and anyone can join for free.
8. BSR’s CSR Jobs Board (www.bsr.org/resources/jobs/). BSR (Business for Social Responsibility) posts mid- and senior-level CSR and sustainability positions on its site.
9. CSR Chicks (groups.yahoo.com/group/csr-chicks/) and CSR Jobs (groups.yahoo.com/group/csr-jobs/). These two Yahoo! groups are good sources for CSR jobs in the UK and other parts of Europe (despite the name, men and women alike are invited to join).
10. Simply Hired Job Search Agent (www.simplyhired.com). Simply Hired is a meta-search engine which will crawl other job boards and send you daily email summaries with any matches. A carefully crafted search agent (ie, “sustainability and MBA” or “renewable energy California”) can yield great results from places you might not otherwise look.
Guest Expert:Katie Kross is the author of the book, Profession and Purpose: A Resource Guide for MBA Careers in Sustainability (Greenleaf Publishing, 2009), available at Amazon.com and BetterWorldBooks.com.
