KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 — According to the Deloitte Global 2023 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, Malaysian Generation-Zs (Gen-Zs) and millennials have higher than global levels of climate anxiety.
Seven in 10 Malaysian Gen-Zs and millennials (71 per cent) have felt worry or anxious about climate change in the last month, the survey found.
In comparison, 60 per cent of Gen-Zs and 57 per cent of millennials globally feel similarly.
Following that, 66 per cent of Malaysian Gen-Zs and 64 per cent of Malaysian millennials are willing to pay more for environmentally sustainable products or services.
“The ability to drive change on social issues has the potential to make or break the recruitment and retention of these generations.
“More than half of overall respondents say they research a brand’s environmental impact and policies before accepting a job, nearly four in 10 have rejected work assignments due to ethical concerns, and more than one-third have turned down employers that do not align with their values,” said the report accompanying the survey’s findings.
The report noted that both generations want employers to provide training and support to pivot towards more sustainable decisions and to help transition the economy towards low-carbon practices.
Six in 10 Malaysian Gen-Zs (63 per cent) and millennials (64 per cent) believe that they have already been provided with skills for the transition towards a low-carbon economy while more than half (51 per cent of Malaysian Gen-Zs and 52 per cent of Malaysian millennials) said they have put pressure on their employer to take action on climate change.
In relation to that, six in 10 Malaysian respondents (61 per cent of Malaysian Gen-Zs and 63 per cent of Malaysian millennials) expressed the belief that their employer has deprioritised climate strategies due to external factors such as the pandemic and inflation over the last few years.
Malaysian respondents felt that their organisations could invest more resources in the following options to combat climate change: working more closely with the government to advance sustainability initiatives (33 per cent of Malaysian Gen-Zs and 31 per cent of Malaysian millennials), providing employee subsidies for sustainable choices (30 per cent of Malaysian Gen-Zs and 35 per cent of Malaysian millennials), renovating office locations to be greener (27 per cent of Malaysian Gen-Zs and 23 per cent of Malaysian millennials), greening local communities (26 per cent of Malaysian Gen-Zs and 29 per cent of Malaysian millennials), and banning single-use plastics at work (23 per cent of Malaysian Gen-Zs and 29 per cent of Malaysian millennials).
The online survey had 303 Malaysian respondents, 201 of which were from Gen-Z while 102 were millennials. The gender of respondents was split equally between male and female.
In total, the survey received responses from 14,483 Gen-Zs and 8,373 millennials from 44 countries.
