At Concord, our talented students typically favour careers in subjects like medicine, law, engineering or finance. Not many are aware, however, that ‘green’ career choices go beyond conservation, ecology or climate science - and that whatever they choose to be, they could have also a career in sustainability.

On Saturday 23rd November Concord held its first Careers in Sustainability Conference. The day consisted of keynote speeches and smaller breakout rooms designed to appeal to students interested in a range of careers. It was a fantastic opportunity to not only listen to experts, but to also ask them questions.

Most of the 30 contributors to the event were from a group of Concord alumni in a variety of occupations who have recently started meeting up in London to talk about sustainability issues.

The group’s founder, Energy Systems postgraduate at the University of Oxford, Anastasiia Rudkovska, explained:

“As a group we discovered the many different ways in which we are all working to make a positive impact on our respective environments. Among alumni, we have medics, lawyers, architects, financiers, business owners, scientists, policy makers, all with a focus on sustainability. After discussing how we might work together to do more, we agreed that inspiring young people to put sustainability at the heart of their future careers should be one of our strategic priorities. We then put this into motion by establishing a collaboration with Concord to bring a sustainable careers conference to current students.”

Concord’s Assistant Principal for Student Futures, Diane van Dongen, added:

“Almost every major company now has a sustainability strategy, often connected to the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) frameworks for stakeholders. Considering all the organisational roles needed just to manage and report on these three pillars, you are already expanding the number of careers than can have a positive impact on sustainability. When you think about it, almost any vocational choice has the potential to have a positive impact on sustainability, so it was clear to us that an event dedicated to that cause could involve every single one of our students.”

Topics covered included (amongst others) wind & nuclear power, product design, tea production, climate science, sustainable data storage, organisational decarbonisation, sustainable finance, renewable energy trading, sustainable synthetic biology, the LEAF laboratory scheme for medics through to local government nature & habitat recovery schemes.

The alumni contributors included Faizul Shari, ‘Green Hero UK/Ire (Sustainability Leader)’ from Nike. Faizul talked to students about how Nike implements sustainability practices and the importance of being true to their values, commenting that “you don’t need to change who you are to change the world”. Helen Povey, a  former Concord staff member is now a senior geologist in the wind industry and shared her experiences of changing careers and the importance of resilience. Ying Seow, a friend of Concord alumni Christos Gkodsis and Bernadine Tay, is leader of the sustainability strategy for the Restoration and Renewal Programme at the Houses of Parliament. She explained how the Programme is implementing strategies to not only reduce the buildings’ carbon footprint but also foster long term resilience and sustainable growth.

Ying commented afterwards:

“What an inspiring Saturday at Concord College where we shared our journeys into sustainability…Together, we reflected on our 18-year-old selves and the moments that sparked our passion for building a sustainable future.

From a love of the great outdoors to ambitions in renewable energy, our keynote speakers reminded us that the path to sustainability isn’t always straightforward—but the shared goal is clear: to make a meaningful difference... Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this!”

Emma Ma, one of Concord’s students added: 

“This (event) opened my eyes to the many possibilities in life that I hadn’t considered before…the conference was truly inspiring as it bought so many new ideas to me.”

Diane van Dongen concluded:

“Our students were exposed to a world of opportunities in a very short space of time. As they return to working towards their exams, I hope this day will remain with them into the future. If they feel that they nothing can be done about climate change, they may remember that they absolutely can help, whatever they choose to be. While most of us can only make a small difference, collectively we have the potential to achieve a lot, and maybe one or two of our students will go on to achieve something really amazing for the good of the climate. We hope so!”