As we move full steam ahead into 2022, there continues to be an increase in the demand for green jobs. This focus on a green economy can, in part, be attributed to 2021 meetings including the World Economic Forum’s Sustainable Impact Development Summit, the UN General Assembly, and COP26, where discussions were focused on making a concerted shift toward a green economy around the globe. However, this push to raise standards and improve efforts to reduce climate impact cannot be reached without relying on people who have green skills. This demand is causing a dramatic increase in the rise of green jobs.
But what is “green talent?” An individual with green skills has the knowledge to prevent, monitor, or clean up pollution, as well as the capacity to optimize stewardship and conservation of the natural resources that companies use to produce goods and services. In fact, GreenBiz has recognized more than 600 green skills, and identified more than 400 green job titles that require utilizing those skills.
In December, GreenBiz noted they expect demand to create millions of new jobs worldwide by 2030. However this isn’t totally new. There has been a rising demand in the field for the past few years. Since 2017, jobs requiring green skills have been steadily increasing as government agencies and companies started to realize that they needed to step up their commitments and actions in order to achieve climate and sustainability goals.
Companies continue to understand that there is value in making meaningful sustainable changes — these efforts are good for the environment and they can also be a boost to business. Last fall, Inc. examined the variety of ways climate change is bad for business — on top of the obvious threat to civilization — extreme weather can cause damage to facilities, disrupts transportation options, and can impact employees' ability to get work. Climate change is also causing increased costs for parts, materials, and services, as well as massive increases in insurance fees.
These issues are finally prodding some companies that have been slower to see the value in investing in sustainable practices to act. And as more companies start taking these steps, they require guidance on what steps will be beneficial. In order to meet their needs, companies are increasingly shifting their focus toward green skills over a university degree in the field. An example: financial investors have started bringing on climate scientists because, despite their formal training in finance, they understand a great deal about how to assess the climate benefits of an investment project.
Making a real difference comes down to realizing that a net-zero, green economy is going to take change from every industry and those with the green skills necessary to make these changes happen are going to be leading the way.