Three in five Brits would switch their job for a more sustainable one, survey reveals

Those working in finance and the built environment were more likely to consider a "greener" role

Conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Arriva, the survey was conducted last month and used to inform the insurance major’s latest ‘How We Live’ report, which was published this week. 3,245 people currently in work were among those polled.

Among those surveyed, 97% said they care about, or worry about, climate change to some extent. This concern is clearly impacting career choices.

In all of the sectors represented by those interviewed, more than half of the respondents said they would consider changing roles to either an organisation with better environmental sustainability credentials than their current employer, or to a role where there would be more of an opportunity to drive a positive environmental impact.

This attitude is more prevalent in some sectors than others. The sectors where people were more likely to consider a role change in the name of sustainability were finance and the built environment. Among survey respondents from these professions, 70% were open to considering a new, “greener” role.

Professions covered in the built environment sector were architecture, construction and engineering.

These findings will be of interest to anyone looking to communicate the business benefits of sustainability to their board.

Across all sectors, Aviva’s survey found that 75% of workers believe their employer has increased environmental ambitions and made progress to reduce the environmental impact of operations. The most common changes made by businesses were the introduction of reusable drinks cups and/or bottles; the use of video calls to reduce unnecessary commuting and business trips, and the removal of single-use plastic packaging and products.

However, Aviva General Insurance’s managing director for partnerships, Jon Marsh, said that the majority of people “want to do more to make a difference”.

Areas where businesses are implementing changes that employees can participate in include subsidising season tickets for public transport and offering electric vehicle (EV) leasing schemes. There were offered by the employers of 60% and 55% of the survey respondents respectively.

When these numbers are scaled up to represent the whole UK population, Aviva estimates that 19.5 million Brits can access subsidised public transport and 17.9 million can access an EV leasing scheme.

Sarah George