• 92% of students and entry-level hires seek an environmentally-friendly company (MonsterTRAK.com, 2007)
• 40% of MBA graduates rated corporate social responsibility as an “extremely” or “very” important company reputation measure (Hill & Knowlton, 2008)

Young people care deeply about sustainability. That’s why in September of 2009, 180 university and college students from across Canada assembled in Guelph, Canada. These outstanding people were selected from over 900 applicants to attend IMPACT! The Co-operators Youth Conference for Sustainability Leadership – an event designed to excite, empower and equip young people with the tools and knowledge they need to be catalysts for greater sustainability.  Before they set foot at the University of Guelph campus, they had already spent 25 hours during the summer researching the current sustainability practices in one organization of their choosing, as well as taking a sustainability e-learning course developed by The Natural Step. During the conference, students discussed current sustainability practices with each other and the experts from industry and academia who were guiding them. They critiqued current practices and developed new ideas to move organizations ahead.

To capture the students’ findings, the Research Network for Business Sustainability produced The New Normal: Sustainable Practices Your Future Employees Will Demand. The report presents many of the students’ ideas on issues from climate change and pollution to employees, community and consumers; to poverty and human rights. It is organized by sector, including: insurance and financial services, manufacturing, retail, municipal services, food systems, energy production, information and communications technologies, and hospitality and tourism. www.nbs.net/new_normal

Other conference outcomes are being measured one, three, six and twelve months after the conference. Regular blog posts provide updates on these outcomes and visit the IMPACT! Fund Page to find out about more about our grant recipients and their current projects.