They see themselves as young and climate conscious. Nevertheless, Eduard Ingen Housz (37) and Sarah Kleijn (30) work at Tata Steel, which has recently received a lot of attention due to its emissions and the harmful impact on the environment. His application to the fossil company was a conscious choice, says product and data analyst Ingen Housz. “Take the energy transition: society cannot do without steel. But innovation is needed. I want to contribute to solving problems, that’s why I’m here.”
Employees of the Amsterdam Greenpeace headquarters were surprised when Ingen Housz and Kleijn showed up unexpectedly three weeks ago with about one hundred and fifty other young Tata Steel employees. With their visit they responded to the action that the environmental club had announced against the steel factory, two days later at the factory complex in IJmuiden. The young employees made their point clear: we also want a sustainable future, so talk to us instead of turning against us.
Now, two and a half weeks later, Ingen Housz and Kleijn are giving a tour of the Tata Steel complex in IJmuiden in a minibus. Ore mountains, steel coils and large installations pass by. At the oxygen steel factory, Kleijn explains that sustainability plays an important role in her daily work. She is now leading a construction project in the factory, in which the degraded walls of a several meters deep pit are reinforced. Old iron is collected here, which is later melted down into new steel in the factory. By increasing the use of ‘scrap’, as old iron has been known at Tata for decades, the production of steel can be made more circular.
Contributing to a sustainable future through her work alone was not enough for Kleijn. She also wanted to raise the theme of social responsibility in other places in the company, partly because of the increased attention to emissions from Tata Steel (it is responsible for 7 percent of the total annual CO2emissions in the Netherlands). Like Ingen Housz, she applied for a place on the company’s Young Board, set up last year to ask critical questions internally. The club advises, solicited and unsolicited, on sustainability, diversity and other matters that play a role in the workplace. Sometimes this happens during an informal conversation, but the six members also regularly join a meeting of the board of directors – in which they do not have voting rights.
Read also: Curious, the Tata employees watch in groups as the activists enter their factory
Less attraction
Young employees have been actively agitating in recent years to influence the course of their companies when it comes to climate, nature, working conditions and human rights. Millennials and Generation Z in particular want to see more of their personal values reflected in their work, it appeared this spring a survey among more than four thousand respondents from, among others, former Unilever CEO Paul Polman. If a company does not take this into account, it can lead to lower productivity and less attractiveness for talented young employees.
Expressing concern or demanding change can be done through an informal youth board, such as at Tata, but also, for example, through a movement from below. This happened, for example, in 2019 at hotel website Booking.com, with its head office in Amsterdam. The American Kelly Mullins (32) started a petition at the time after she saw one colleague after another with a burnout. At the same time, she immersed herself in the climate crisis, which really fueled her activism. She realized how difficult it was to reconcile lower emissions with Booking’s revenue model, which benefits from as much wanderlust as possible. Mullins was inspired by the Canadian writer and political activist Naomi Klein: “She wrote that people in every workplace should organize themselves to think about how their company can reduce emissions.”
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Mullins did. She signed up for the weekly passion talks, where Booking employees can share their ideas with colleagues. Mullins outlined to dozens of colleagues how she sees the company taking an “alternative path” and contributing to sustainable travel. The session culminated in a climate group, Booking Employees for Climate Action, which later joined a global climate protest.
In addition, the group wrote a vision document, with concrete steps for the company to reduce its own ecological footprint. Mullins: “For example, we wanted more transparency about the impact that climate change could have on business operations and made suggestions, such as promoting train traffic instead of air travel. We also proposed a different remuneration system for top layers, based on the achievement of sustainability targets.”
Coking plants
At the Tata Steel complex, the minibus with Kleijn and Ingen Housz drives past the infamous coking plants, the most polluting parts of Tata Steel. Here coal is converted into coke, which is still needed for the production of steel. The company wants to eventually replace the installations with factories that run on hydrogen, but considers it necessary to keep the coking plants open until at least 2030 for continuity. Organizations such as Greenpeace believe that this part of the factory should be closed as soon as possible, given the toxic emissions and many leaks.
A company that shows insufficient progress in the field of climate, human rights or diversity will notice this in its personnel policy
Ingen Housz agrees with his employer: “You always want more, faster, harder, but you don’t change the world in a day.” At Tata, incidents regularly occur due to human error that lead to extra emissions. This could be, for example, the fall of a barrel of oil, or the disruption of the production process by pressing the wrong button. The number of such incidents must be reduced, he believes. They also discussed this theme with the board. Don’t just pay attention to immediate workplace safety risks – such as preventing employees from burning themselves on hot ovens. But they also realize that an incident can lead to the emission of hazardous substances.
Remarkably enough, the youth council at Tata was created at the request of the board of directors. To make a good impression as a company, to show that young people are being listened to ‘really’? Ingen Housz and Kleijn reject this suggestion. “We are really listened to and we are free to put forward our own topics,” says Ingen Housz. “The board also puts us in touch with other parts of the organization where we can get started with ideas.” There are no concrete results yet, but the Young Board has only been active for a short time.
Vacancies
Another concern among the Tata youth is the appeal of the company to employees. The company has about five to six hundred vacancies that are difficult to fill. Of course, the labor market is tight, but the image of the steel company also plays a negative role, say the young people.
This is in line with Paul Polman’s findings: a company that shows insufficient progress in the field of climate, human rights or diversity notices this in its personnel policy. More than half of the 4,000 people surveyed in Polman’s research said they would consider leaving if the company’s vision is no longer compatible with their personal values. The former Unilever CEO calls it that conscious quittingvote with your feet.
Lobke Meijerink recognizes the battle for talented workers and that young job seekers sometimes have different social needs than some companies can offer. At recruitment agency YER, she guides young people who are just entering the labor market. She sees how their needs have changed in recent years. “In addition to a good salary, the content of work is increasingly important to them. Students sometimes already have a very clear picture of where they do and do not want to work, and why.”
When Meijerink and her colleagues talk to such a young person, they look for his motives and how they fit in with an employer. The applicant can have a lot of impact, especially at organizations that score below average on sustainability, and which therefore do not like a candidate at first. “But if you don’t want it, then we will of course look for something else.”
Students sometimes already have a very clear picture of where they do and do not want to work, and why
Lobby Meijerink recruitment agency YER
Meijerink informs companies for which YER is looking for talent about the needs of young people. “We recommend that the work be aligned with that. They must be able to express their ideas; for example, give room for pitches. This does not always have to be about climate or diversity, it can also be general ideas. By giving them that space, they stay longer and do not leave quickly out of dissatisfaction.”
Employee participation
Kelly Mullins recently left Booking, but certainly doesn’t see herself as conscious quitter. After being elected to the works council in 2020, she hoped to force a response from the board to her vision document. It didn’t come to that. Large-scale layoffs at Booking without a social plan consumed all the time and attention of the employee council, and her own activism in the workplace also burned out Mullins. By writing poems, including about burnouts in business and activism in the workplace, she recovered. In those poems she emphasizes the flip side of that activism: it can be a slow and sometimes debilitating process that can kill you if you’re not careful.
The plans of the Booking climate group “probably did not reach the board”. Mullins did speak to Booking’s sustainability team. She also experienced company politics: managers of the department found it difficult, a club that suddenly came to interfere with policy they were already working on. “While we were on the same side: we mainly wanted to accelerate the sustainability policy.”
Mullins remains enthusiastic about the opportunities for employees in the Netherlands to express ideas and wishes. “You have works councils and active trade unions here – very different from, say, America. And there are companies here with a major influence on the climate: Shell, Booking, large banks. In fact, works councils from various sectors, climate activists and trade unions should come up with ideas for change at the same time.”
The Tata Young Board has in any case approached Greenpeace. After the action in IJmuiden, an appointment was made for a follow-up interview next week. In the meantime, Ingen Housz and Kleijn have visited organizations of local residents, such as Frisse Wind, who have criticized the company’s emissions in recent years. “We will not agree on everything, but talking does have a binding effect,” says Ingen Housz. “I look forward to our meeting with Greenpeace.”
Then he laughingly refers to the earlier visit to the environmental club. “We know where to find them, they have already experienced that.”