Careers In Sustainability

The following contribution is based on my background of 12 years working as a Career Development Manager at the University of Sydney including the establishment of the Careers and Employer Relations office in the Univerity's Business School, together with my role heading the federally funded National Responsible Business Practice Project based at St James Ethics Centre (establishing the UN Global Compact, Australian Network, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and a series of national resources for small to medium enterprises).  

• The downloadable presentation CAREERS AND SUSTAINABILITY includes slides and exercises on:

  • definitions
  • choosing an ethical employer
  • drivers - climate change, global mega-forces
  • sustainability and inter-disciplinarity
  • career areas and job forecasts
  • resources, job samples and useful links. 
  
  
  
• Student resource: HOW TO CHOOSE AN ETHICAL EMPLOYER asks students to consider-
  
  Will the level of care an organisation exercises with regard to its impact on the environment, its employees, the community, and the future influence your decision to work with it? How can you judge employers on these issues?
  
  -  and provides suggested references to enable informed career decision making on these issues. 
  
  
• Suggested Reading: 

  THE ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY LEARNING AND TEACHING ACADEMIC STANDARDS (LTAS) PROJECT aims to develop Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) for the environment and sustainability field – documenting what students need to know and be able to do to upon graduation: http://environmentltas.gradschool.edu.au/

  During its consultative phase the project has noted the following attributes expected from graduates in the environment and sustainability were of the highest priorities: 
  
  • transdisciplinarity,
  • practical experience,
  • science, knowledge,
  • systems thinking,
  • synthesizing information,
  • legislation, tools.

  Download the project's draft Threshold Learning Outcomes for Environment and Sustainability below.

Materials

• Careers and Sustainability
• How to Choose an Ethical Employer
• Threshold Learning Outcomes for Environment and Sustainability

These resources can be downloaded by members of Learning and Teaching Sustainability. Consider registering to be part of this community of practice