Durham University Careers & Enterprise maintains an impartial stance regarding employers, ensuring our commitment to offering unbiased guidance and support. We are dedicated to helping students explore a diverse range of career opportunities, including those aligned with social and environmental goals.
We provide insights into how organisations are advancing sustainability practices. We have introduced a set of questions relating to sustainability credentials. Any recruiter wishing to post a vacancy on our CareersConnect platform is prompted to answer the following:
We organise a range of events and activities to provide students and graduates insights into the career opportunities in the environment and sustainability sectors.
Sustainability Careers Week, which took place in January 2024, brought together a diverse range of employers on campus. Highlights included a masterclass on Sustainability in Film & TV, discussions on environmental and sustainability practices within the construction industry, a session on Exploring the Intersection: Health, Sustainability and Consulting with EY, and a presentation by Durham University's Senior Energy Manager Tom Bray, who leads the Energy and Sustainability team and spoke about the University's decarbonisation strategy and efforts to develop sustainability across the University community, promoting careers in sustainability and the public sector.
Careers for Good Week 2025 will blend events, activities, and online resources to increase students’ understanding of career opportunities within the sustainability, public sector, and charity sectors. This rebranded initiative, evolving from our previous Sustainability, Public Sector, and Charities weeks, will highlight careers that make a tangible difference. Building on last year's success and continuing our collaboration with the Energy and Sustainability team, the week will feature presentations by graduate employers showcasing the diverse career opportunities available across various industries. Through these presentations and events, students will gain valuable insights to make informed career choices and pursue opportunities that contribute to a sustainable future and promote positive environmental and social change. Find out more about the Careers for Good week on the Careers & Enterprise Hub (students only), including access to resources and opportunities.
If you are an employer and would like to get involved in our activities and events, please see our Information for Employers pages.
Careers & Enterprise facilitates internship opportunities and work-based projects with regional and national organisations across different sectors. In 2023 we were awarded “highly commended” in the County Durham Environment Awards, in the ‘greener business’ category for the Sustainability Development Internship Programme. This programme was delivered in partnership with the Energy and Sustainability team at Durham University.
Students can find out more about different types of work experience and work-based learning opportunities on the Careers & Enterprise Hub.
If you are an employer and have an opportunity you would like to advertise, please see our Information for Employers pages.
The Durham University Venture Lab, part of Careers & Enterprise, offers a range of support services to students and graduates who wish to develop innovation and entrepreneurial skills. We support students looking to start their own ventures, and have a strong focus on sustainability and “innovation for good”.
To support this, we have developed the Game Changer Innovation Programme, which engages students in design thinking challenges based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Game Changer offers students the opportunity to:
Game Changer has been endorsed as “SDG Good Practice” by the United Nations, featuring as one of 21 case studies in their Success Stories Publication in 2022.
Through our entrepreneurship programme we encourage students to consider how their startup ideas can contribute to sustainable outcomes and positive societal change. We support students through the Social Impact Fund and the Blueprint Startup Challenge, offering the chance to win grants to support the growth of their business ideas.
We have had a number of startup success stories including:
The Venture Lab also supports the Enactus Durham team – a student society dedicated to delivering social enterprise projects for the benefit of communities both in Durham and across the globe. The team have won the Enactus National Competition two years in a row, in 2023 and 2024, and have represented the University on the World Stage in Utrecht and Kazakhstan. Their projects include:
We have a range of resources to support students and graduates to understand career opportunities related to social or environmental goals. We've highlighted some of our relevant DU Career Sector Fact Sheets below, which provide information on relevant organisations, career pathways, employment and work experience opportunities. Students and graduates can access these through our e-learning platform.
The list below is not exhaustive but will provide a starting point to explore opportunities across the diverse range of careers within sustainability and the environment:
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