How to be earth-conscious in your job search

Searching for a job applying and going through the interview process can be a little complicated - and it's even harder when you want to try and ensure you're limiting your carbon footprint while you do it. But with Earth Day just around the corner it's more important than ever that there's some foolproof tips to ensuring you're being as planet-conscious as you can be while you strive to get that new job.

Check out our list of simple easy things that you can do to keep Mother Earth in your mind while you get on your grind!

Don't print out your resume

This is one of the easiest ways to try and minimise your personal impact on the environment during your job hunt. Save the paper save the ozone release save the ink and save yourself some money too! 

If you're walking around trying to doorknock or visit local shops to find open positions see if you can get the staff to give you an appropriate email and the name of a manager to send it to. They'll probably appreciate not having a bunch of paper lying around and you'll look proactive and professional.

Sometimes employers will print your resume out themselves. If you would like to remain conscious you can always leave a request at the end of your interview confirmation email asking that they don't print it for the sake of the environment. You've done as much as you can in this case.

Many people especially in creative industries have turned to using online-only portfolios as their resumes - building complete websites with a few different pages to showcase their talents and skills. This can be especially useful as a photographer artist or coder so you can show off your stuff in real time! If you're worried about your employer not having it on hand in the interview you can bring a laptop or tablet along with the page pre-loaded ready to show.

Research your potential employers

As a jobseeker you have a lot of power in the job hunting sphere - and the best power that you have is the one of choice! You can choose who you work for and what you do for them. And one of the best ways to use that choice is to look into what the businesses you're applying for are doing to support the causes you stand for too.

The benefits are many: not only are you going to feel more comfortable and fulfilled working for a company whose values align with your own but you're also more likely to be employed with them if your values align with theirs! Mentioning the reasons why you want to work with a company specifically and talking about their culture and their values is a great way to tell the recruiter reading your cover letter that you researched the place you're applying for.

Use an earth-friendly search engine

If you're going to be spending a lot of time searching online (like if you're researching the company you're applying for!) you might as well make it work for you.

It might not seem like a lot, but Google has stated that doing a search on their engine uses about 0.2 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2). And if you think about how many times people on the planet use it... Yikes! Luckily, there are some alternatives to use during your job search and the rest of your internet life which can actually help offset this output:

1. Ekoru - when we think about meadows and reforestation, we don't really think about the ocean, but Ekoru does! They're reforesting the ocean floor so that coral, fish, plankton and other living beings down there have food to eat; plus, seagrass meadows are 40x more effective at processing atmospheric carbon than regular land forests.
2. Ecosia - these guys plant a tree every 45 searches on average, in over 9000 different places in the world, using 80% of their advertising revenue to do so. They're hoping to help capture about 25% of the carbon in the atmosphere.
3. Ocean Hero - removing over 13 million plastic bottles from the ocean seems like an impossible task, but Ocean Hero have already done that and more! By their metrics, every 5 searches helps remove one more bottle, which is then recycled into reusable plastics.