Graduates with Majors in Environmental Studies either its
environmental Sciences or Environmental Engineering study a variety of tops
during their studies enabling them to choose from a multiple options of
professions. During studies, environmental studies graduates are gain complex
skills in biology, chemistry, geology, physics, engineering, so that they can
solve problems through interpretation of research. During working on
environmental issues your creativity will be tapped as you design environmental
research models.
Ultimately the career of a person depends on the interests, skills and values that they can bring and for environmental studies graduates passion for sustainability, nature conservation, ecology, global warming, climate change, water, air and ocean pollution etc. will be helpful.
Below are some careers where environmental studies graduates can work
Environmental Management Representative:
All kinds of organization (manufacturing industries,
construction companies etc.) hire environmentalist to represent them at all
level. Environmentalist have to
Develop Environmental Policy for the Organization
Develop and manage Environmental Management System
Keep track of all environmental issues
Manage and reduce environmental impact organizations activities
or services
Guide management on all environmental topic
Train the work force
Continuously improve the Environmental performance of
organization
The title of job/designation may vary depending on
organizations, it could be:
As Environmental Consultant you can either work
as a freelancer or in some environmental consulting firm.an Environmental
Consultant should have basic awareness of all environmental issues in all
sectors. Service of Environmental Consultants are mostly acquired when projects
are in their initial planning stages. As Environmental Consultant you are
supposed to:
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Help organization obtain Environmental
Approvals/NOCs
Conduct environmental assessment that can help
organizations to mitigation not only current but also future impact on soil,
water, air, wild life in the area.
Identify area alternatives for project if a
project has some serious issues in proposed area
In this job Environmentalist can discover/improve their research, writing and presentation skills.
Compliance officer
As
compliance officer, environmentalist have to take care of all legal/standard requirement
that an organization have to fulfill. As Compliance officer, you will be
looking after:
Ensure that all legal requirements are being met
Ensure that all customer requirements are being met
Develop internal environmental policies or standard
As an auditor you will have to conduct audit of whatever you are assigned to do so (depend of audit scope).
Ethical Trade Executive
Here you are supposed to conduct audits based
on Ethical Trade initiative requirements.
Standard auditor
Conducts audit of:
ISO standards
Customer standards
Legal requirements
Third party standards
Educator
As environmental studies graduates gain
skills, so they can serve as educator as well. with daily facing Environmental
issues, it has become necessary to awareness about environmental issues and importance
of environmental conservation. Initially environmental studies was a subject at
university level but now it has become part of college and school level
education as well.
So to teach these subject, subject specialists are required and here environmentalists can do their part.
Environmental Lawyer
To be an environmental lawyer, one has to have degree in Environmental law. As environmental lawyer, you will focus on cases based on Environmental issues. Here you will have to do research and present scientific evidence. You can also work with government to develop environmental policies and plans.
Sustainability Coordinator
As sustainability coordinator you will be assessing the impact of organization and provide remediation measures. You will also participate in organizations planning process. You will prepare a sustainability report and communicate it at different levels. You will develop proposal with cost benefit analysis for environment conservation.
Environment, Health and Safety coordinator:
In this position you will be working to ensure that work
environment is safe and healthy for the workers. You will be
Conducting risk assessments
Planning control measures
Training workers on EHS
Your post might vary from organization
to organization e.g. EHS/SHE/HSE office/manager/ director etc.
Except all of above, environmentalist can also work on below
jobs;
Remediation Office
Environmental Engineer
Green Building Engineer
Water specialist
Green Energy Specialist
ETP (Effluent Treatment Plant) operator/manager
Monitor officer
Fund raiser for NGO
Communication officer
Natural resource conservation officer
Recycling specialist
Waste management officer
Scientist (water/air quality)
Toxicologist
Supply chain analyst
Standard Analyst
Environmental Technician
Restoration Manager
Occupational health and safety specialist
Hydrologist
Environmental Journalist
Some of these jobs might require extra degrees, courses or certifications. E.g. to an ISO auditor one will have to be ISO certified (ISO 14001 EMS, 45001 OHS MS, ISO 50001 EnMS).