Sunday

3rd Dec 2023

Feature

'Not climate-friendly? We won't work for your company'

  • French students wrote a manifesto to pressure companies to become more climate-friendly (Photo: Koert Debeuf)

I meet them in a coffee bar in Brussels. Five students from the so-called 'grandes écoles', the French elite institutions for higher education.

They have started a remarkable initiative to push companies to become more climate-friendly.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

In September 2018 they wrote a manifesto for climate awakening in which they commit to use their power as future employees to change the companies that will want to hire them.

"We have two goals," Inès Malot, a student engineering at Mines ParisTech, says. "Changing the way our economy works and changing the courses at our schools."

"It is unacceptable to see how ecology and climate change are not part of our curriculum. This needs to change if we want to be prepared for the future," she continues.

More revolutionary, however, is how these students want to use their power as much wanted employees.

"We know that the big and small French companies need us", Benoît Galand, another student engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique explains.

"We ask them to answer our questions about their ecological footprint. If their answers are not convincing, I am not going to work for them."

That's also what A Wake Up Call On The Environment. A Student Manifesto says:

"We want to take advantage of our power as students by turning to employers that abide by the demands set out in this manifesto. We affirm that it is possible to live decently without drowning into either overconsumption or utter destitution; that the economic system must be aware of its dependence on environment in order to be sustainable; and that solving environmental issues is key to reducing inequalities and conflict risks."

Over the past 15 months, more than 32,000 students or recent graduates have signed the manifesto, mostly - but not only - in France.

"The initiative has spread to other countries, like Sweden, Italy, Spain or Germany", says Marion Artaud who studies business at the HEC business school in Paris, "and it is also starting in many other universities around Europe."

Companies under pressure

The initiators of the manifesto sent a questionnaire to 100 large companies. With their questions they want to determine how climate-friendly these companies are.

Almost half of the companies have already responded, among which BNP Paribas, Carrefour, Groupe Rocher, Total, Renault and Suez. These responses can be found on the website.

"We noticed that the companies who responded are doing their best to be seen as very ecological," Halgand says, "but what they do is mostly scratching the surface".

"Although it is good that companies support biking to work, much more is needed. What we want is fundamental change," he added.

On the question if these companies are then blacklisted for all signatories of the manifesto, he answers negatively.

"It is the individual choice of each student for which company she or he wants to work", Halgand stresses. "What we offer is information and a strategy for each student to push his future employer", he says.

Therefore, they offer on their site also a long list of questions that each future employee can ask his or her future employer during their job interview.

One of the exampled questions is: "Are you preparing changes in your sector in the middle or long term – let's say 10 years – because of the environmental problems?"

Another question is: "Is there a reflection in your company on the circular economy and the eco-concept in order to respond to the reduction of resources?"

The students around the table in Brussels are aware that these are tough questions, but they are convinced that they have the leverage to change these companies.

"There is a war on talent going on," Youssef Salib, another engineering student at the Polytechnique in Paris says.

"If we refuse to work for climate-unfriendly companies, they have a problem. That is the force of this initiative."

Timmermans warns on cost of inaction on climate

The Green Deal commissioner, Frans Timmermans, said the costs of inaction in climate policy are "tremendously high". However, it is still unclear if member states will unanimously agree on the EU's 2050 climate-neutrality goal at next week's summit.

Interview

Climate won't go back to normal in our time

It will take hundreds, maybe thousands of years before the climate goes back to normal. Meanwhile we must work to stabilise it at the new level and adapt, Sweden's leading climate researcher says.

Feature

Dutch case opens new era for climate-change litigation

Legal action related to climate change is set to grow considerably in the next few years - especially after a largely-overlooked ruling over Christmas by a Dutch court forced the government to reduce its emission by 25 percent by 2020.

Timmermans urges EU governments to tax carbon

The EU commissioner for the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, said on Thursday that member states have a responsibility to implement taxes on carbon to show that emissions have a cost.

Opinion

Dubai's COP28 — a view from the ground

Discussion of the biggest existential threat humanity has ever faced is barely mentioned on billboards or signage in Dubai — yet visitors are made aware quite quickly that t world rugby sevens tournament is imminent.

Latest News

  1. Israel's EU ambassador: 'No clean way to do this operation'
  2. Brussels denies having no 'concern' on Spain's amnesty law
  3. Dubai's COP28 — a view from the ground
  4. Germany moves to criminalise NGO search-and-rescue missions
  5. Israel recalls ambassador to Spain in new diplomatic spat
  6. Migrant return bill 'obstructed' as EU states mull new position
  7. Paris and Berlin key to including rape in gender-violence directive
  8. What are the big money debates at COP28 UN climate summit?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  3. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  4. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?
  5. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  6. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  3. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  4. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us