How "green" is your mobility program?

Younger people – Millennials and adults in Generation Z – stood out in a new Pew Research Center survey particularly for their high levels of engagement with the issue of climate change. They are more concerned, more interested and talking more about sustainability issues. As we continue to see the mobility volume of Millenials and Gen Z increase, are our mobility programs going to need to have taken into account important sustainability factors? Will they be attracted to companies that have designed and are actively managing to reduce the carbon footprint that a relocation or global assignment creates on this planet?

Back in March, we posted on some of the various ways the global mobility industry was focusing on sustainability. We shared some research and considered some of the initiatives from various mobility supply chain partners.  Now Sean Collins, through Talent Mobility Search News, continues this important discussion in his article, The Global Mobility "Green Move". Sean wonders whether a company could create an advantage by having a program that offers more environmentally sensitive relocations and assignments, where suppliers deploy alternative behaviors to achieve carbon reductions. In a program like this, employees would have the ability to choose a "greener" methodology for getting to and settled into their new location. Sean then considers typical mobility elements like pre-departure services, household goods shipments, and destination services. In a more virtual enabled world, you can imagine that there are many solutions that leverage newer technologies and bring the location to you as opposed to you to the location.

Without a doubt, the pandemic pushed us in new directions that often led to insights related to the improved impact on the earth. Insight Publishing shared information from research that the COVID-19 pandemic elevated consumers focus on sustainability and willingness to pay out of their own pockets – or even take a pay cut – for a sustainable future. The research was from a new IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) survey of over 14,000 consumers in nine countries. The survey showed that people are increasingly very concerned about the global climate crisis, and they are wanting their employers to offer "greener" options.   We are seeing that air pollution levels will return right back to pre-pandemic levels, if we just head back towards the old normal. Creating "greener move" options would push back against falling right back to where things were previously. This may be one of those situations where, "if you build it, they will come". (#fieldofdreams)