New Pond, Same Old Mistakes – Swimming Upstream Towards A Future in Sustainability
LONDON, UK—Business students get a bad rap.
Every headline these days seems to be about Big Pharma ‘forum shopping’ to get lighter sentences on giving people cancer, or your favorite fast fashion retailer operating child labor sweatshops, or any of the MBB/Big Four firm bribing government officials in the developing world – in other words, business students growing up and out of the classroom, changing the world for the worse.
These aren’t exactly charitable summaries of what multinational corporations have accomplished as a whole, or even of whatever those articles are referring to. Still, as a business student exploring some of the firms and industries that seem to keep making headlines for the wrong reasons, I think it’s important to recognize how my career ambitions can come face to face with the problems I care about solving.
Sometimes at their head.
This is a discussion I’ve had with lots of different people in and out of Stern, which makes things weird because most of the business students I’ve met have been a combination of smart, ambitious, interesting, creative, and impact-driven kids. We may not be (planning on) doing it immediately into our careers, but many care about using their skills to solve big problems and leave this place better than they found it.
So are the headlines we see just a few bad apples or is there something systemic going on? Up close, how much value do students really put on working in impact-driven careers? And if it’s so many of us students and professionals that seem to care about going through “business” to solve big problems, why aren’t there more of us directly planning on doing that?
Indeed, when asked about how his hope for a more sustainable future intersects with his immediate career aspirations, Jayden Chan, member of Beta Alpha Psi’s Global Experiences Committee, flatly tells me “it doesn’t.”
At least in Jayden’s case, he seeks to avoid what he considers “empty idealism” – impact-driven efforts that, for whatever reason, fail to meaningfully deliver the results they seek, wasting away their employees’ time and career progression.
“Impact would be a nice ingredient, but early on can’t really be the whole pie.”
I can’t exactly find fault in this mindset. Anecdotally, the reason I and many other business students came to these degree/career paths was some combination of an interest in market dynamics and a practical hope to set ourselves up financially. So with greentech firms struggling to make ends meet, increasing ‘backlash’ against ESG fund formation, and what corporate social impact there is called out for increasingly sophisticated greenwashing, it can be hard to not feel that social impact is fleeting, fake, and a risky area to start out your career.
Downstream, other students just feel lost in the push to make a difference.
“I really don’t think there’s many firms that are actively and actually working for social impact. I’m just hoping to set myself up so I can then donate some of that off.”
“I do like the idea of working in sustainability, but I just can’t say when that’ll be.”
“It’s an upstream battle; everyone’s just in it for their own paychecks. No firm is going to hire you to make the world better.”
Each asked to be left anonymous, fearing their statements would make it out to some employer they’re in the process of applying for and throw out their chances of getting an offer back.
What all this tells me is that as business students move through career exploration, networking sessions, and other recruiting hoops to set ourselves somehow, some-when towards our own personal definitions of career success, the idea of social impact as a focus is either scratched out, forgotten, or left for sometime down the line. Social and environmental causes are something to be pushed for after you’ve “made it” and have the “luxury to help out.”
Of course, others are more hopeful. Social Impact Fellow Aviral Shrivastava gives me his insights. This past semester, he pushed for installing piezoelectric tiles at Stern, allowing for green energy to be generated purely from going through the entrance/exit gates of our hallowed Tisch Hall.
“Chasing success is common, but creating social impact is rarer. But to be a successful leader, I think it’s important—and increasingly possible—to do both.”
He’s proud of coupling principles of business innovation with sustainable implications, showing that these decisions aren’t so binary as some may think.
Moreover, Aviral finds that studying abroad this semester has been an opportunity to examine old issues in a new light and continue to stay informed. Learning, working, and traveling from NYU London has exposed him to experiences that make the path towards impact feel more feasible — not just as a hazy dream but in terms of tangible career paths, corporate objectives, and personal goals.
“Each country navigates sustainability differently. In Denmark, I saw the sea-based windmills from the country’s push for sustainable energy. Here in London, public transport and electric vehicles—even besides the big companies—are also much more common than back in the US. Really makes you think about what we back home are doing wrong, and what we can do better.”
Back in the New York campus, the (robustly funded!) Stern Center for Sustainable Business designed the Return on Sustainable Investment (ROSI) framework to help companies navigate exactly that. Since 2018, CSB has funded 32 projects with grants of up to $15,000, advancing research and practice in the sustainability sphere while fulfilling real business needs. Moreover, our wide-ranging NYU and ICC club systems have opportunities for students to learn and get involved in corporate sustainability across different industries. Those curious should be exploring more; opportunities are available.
These developments coincide with more and more firms recognizing the push for social and environmental outcomes through their own initiatives. Every year since 2005, Google has organized for the Google Summer of Code, partnering with nonprofits, startups, and government initiatives to crowdsource programming-for-impact initiatives from developers worldwide. In finance, Macquarie Asset Management has innovated through the Green Investment Group, contributing to the avoidance of almost 250 megatons of carbon dioxide emissions and development of 90+ gigawatts of green energy. Big Four firm PwC has had a long-standing practice dedicated to nonprofit and community engagement, operating an externship program I myself have participated in and learned a lot from. These examples just scratch the surface of how leading firms are both uncovering paths towards social impact and encouraging students to get involved.
When told about initiatives like these, Jayden seems practical but and hopeful.
“To make real change, you need more than just activism. Good point for businesses that acknowledge this; it helps make things more practical for students who care.”
It is a good point. If both big businesses and the students aiming to break in want to meaningfully impact the world, each one of us has responsibilities, choices. and increasingly pressing ‘trade-offs’ to have to make.
“Realistically,” Jayden ends, “being hopeful is our best shot.”
Written by Simon Sy, Writer, Fall 2024 - London, UK
