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Which are the companies fighting the good fight when it comes to sustainability, that have a large IT branch?

I know about Tesla Motors, and I know that many NGOs also have IT needs, but I've yet come across a proper list. Is there one available?

I'm looking forward to a more sustainable life by working in the proper industries.

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  • The first option; I would like to be a worker/supplier for that IT branch.
    – Sustainable Programmer
    Jan 13, 2015 at 11:26
  • I'm not sure such a list exists (I would also be interested in this list myself!) It's been my experience that most (smaller) NGOs have a rather small IT department and outsource much of their IT needs. Perhaps a good place to start is trying to find companies that make software for life-cycle analysis or traceability systems for organic or fair trade food?
    – THelper ♦
    Jan 13, 2015 at 13:20
  • I don't think such a list exists either. But it depends what you mean by "large". I work for an NGO that has an in-house IT team of 20 (out of 350 UK staff), and the larger NGOs are big organisations by anyone's standards.
    – aucuparia
    Jan 14, 2015 at 16:28
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    You may find that it's not as rewarding as you suspect. I worked at a mid sized non-profit (500-1000 employees depending on whether or not you count volunteers as 'employees') focused on sustainability, and the job was pretty much like any other IT job, except a lot more focus on revenue and cost cutting since money was tight... the actual sustainability took a back seat to keeping the organization alive by bringing in revenue (donations, membership, etc). IT sustainability projects had to show that could pay for themselves financially and weren't done just because it was more sustainable.
    – Johnny
    Jan 28, 2015 at 2:47
  • @Johnny I agree. I've heard it makes more sense to simply stay at your current job if cushy then donate to support sustainability NGOs
    – Danger14
    Feb 9, 2015 at 4:22

2 Answers 2

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+50

Perhaps not entirely what you are looking for, but it's the best I can think of. You can search for companies on the B(enefit) Corporation website. B Corp is an international label that certifies that a company

meet[s] rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency [source]

Their search engine has a few filtering options; country, state, city and industry. One of the industry categories is 'IT Software & Services/Web Design' with currently 91 companies listed.

However, you cannot search for sizes of companies or companies with large IT departments so it may still be difficult to find those.

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  • For someone who is in the US, I suppose this does bring quite a bit of relevant information. I think some really heavy digging is needed for a complete answer to this
    – Sustainable Programmer
    Jan 30, 2015 at 6:32
  • I am surprised there is only one IT firm in Germany, though.
    – Sustainable Programmer
    Jan 30, 2015 at 6:33
  • Companies have to contact B-Corp themselves to get assessed. I've only recently learned that this label exists myself so it may be that the label is not widely known in Germany yet.
    – THelper ♦
    Jan 30, 2015 at 8:40
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    If you are specifically interested in German companies; there are 2 large German companies who's names pop up sometimes in the context of sustainability; Siemens and Henkel. You can find them in this top 100 list and in this article for example. But I think the top100 list is a bit questionable. BTW SAP is a multi-national IT company who take sustainability very seriously.
    – THelper ♦
    Jan 30, 2015 at 9:03
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1) There's a special "sustainability" category on AngelList if you consider jobs in startups. IT jobs can be found there as well as non-IT. What's really nice is that you can figure out a company's mission simply by looking at its short description, eg:

The climate impact of everything made accessible to everyone.

or

The digital sourcing platform - faster, leaner and more responsible supply chains

etc.

2) As for B Corp mentioned earlier, they even provide job listings on a separate website. IT jobs are listed there as well as non-IT, but filters make it easier to find what you need.

3) You might also consider browsing indexes of ethical and sustainable alternatives and manually checking "career" webpages of those companies which attract your attention. Such indexes are the following: ethical, ethical consumer (especially their "technology" category), rank a brand ("telecom", "online", "electronics" categories, although many companies are not ranked yet).

4) UPD: I recently discovered Climate.Careers - a specialized job discovery platform connecting climate-impactful companies with mission-driven talent. You can filter jobs:

  • by impact areas (e.g. ecosystems & biodiversity, food & agriculture),
  • more specific by climate solutions (e.g. afforestation, vertical farming),
  • by role (ICT-related Engineering: Software, Data Analyst, Data Scientist, Design, Quality Assurance, Project Manager and so on);
  • and more parameters.

There's quite a lot of job opportunities listed there, including well-known companies such as Ecosia, Too Good To Go, Leap, but not limited to.

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