Decoding Green Skills
A new mindset and abilities for a greener future
Since I worked in a “green” industry a few years back, I have often been asked: what skills are required to successfully enter or transition into these new, emerging fields?
Before we dive into the details of green skills, I thought of clarifying what I mean by “green jobs.” What exactly is this “green revolution”? Does it just involve planting trees?
Green jobs: beyond planting trees
In the not-so-distant future, green jobs are predicted to be the future of work. Everything will need to transition into a greener business model — one that prioritises long-term sustainability of the planet and people, beyond just profit. It is estimated that the green economy could create more than 8.4 million jobs for youth by 2030.
So, what do we mean by green economy? I would like to define them based on three criteria:
- Supporting energy and natural resource efficiency
- Reducing waste and pollution
- Protecting and conserving ecosystems
When we think of green jobs, we often focus on industries created by new green technologies, such as solar battery research or electric vehicles development. Or we consider the less glamorous, but equally important, fields like waste management and recycling. These are the clear-cut examples — industries whose core business models directly align with one of the three green criteria.
But it is crucial to remember that eventually, every business will need to transition into a green business. Take, for example, the mining industry, which is inherently extractive. We cannot mine natural resources forever, so the challenge becomes: how can we reduce dependency on mining so the business can remain profitable longer? It is starting to become not only an environmental decision — but an economic one.
Consumer goods industry offer another case in point. The current goal may be to sell as many products as possible. But looking 40–50 years ahead, will there still be resources left to sell? Will there be enough virgin plastic for packaging? Likely not — fun fact: known oil-deposits will run out by 2052. If we continue with short-term thinking, we may run out of resources entirely.
The bottom line is that every business needs to shift towards greener operations. If you work at a tech company, the question might be as simple as: how can we reduce the energy needed to run our servers? That, too, is a green job, because it is about increasing energy efficiency (yes, criteria no.1). In the consumer goods industry, the challenge could be managing post-consumer waste — not just collecting and recycling (which helps reduce virgin material use), but innovating packaging to use less material while maintaining quality, and developing reuse and refill systems. All of this falls under the category of green jobs.
There are also generalist roles growing alongside the green sector, like in technology, public policy, finance, and reporting. Technology has always been a driver of transformation, and green industries are no exception. Calculating carbon emissions, for example, would be nearly impossible without the right tech tools. Then there is carbon accounting and green financing — a growing field for finance professionals. How do we shift from measuring only monetary value to evaluating the full cycle of a business, including its impact on biodiversity? Public policy plays a crucial role here, too. We need all advocacy efforts to move political thinking away from GDP as the only measure of success, towards a more inclusive wealth index.
Inclusive wealth index is an index based on the sum of a country’s natural, human, social, and physical (including manufactured and financial) capital, and goes beyond conventional forms of wealth measurement such as gross domestic product (GDP).
Green skills: the wizardry to transform businesses
I have talked at length about green jobs, with the hope of convincing you, my readers, that green jobs are indeed our future. No matter how much we delay, future generations will eventually bear the consequences of our mistakes. So, why not make a change now, while we still can?
Reports indicate that between 2022 and 2023, the percentage of professionals with skills to tackle the climate crisis rose by 12.3%. However, job postings requiring at least one green skill grew nearly twice as fast, increasing by 22.4% during the same period. Clearly, there’s a mismatch — there are more green jobs than there are green-skilled workers.
Hence, there is demand, and there is a future. So, what are these green skills?
According to the UN Industrial Development Organization:
Green skills are the knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes needed to live in, develop and support a sustainable and resource-efficient society.
Simply put, they are the skills needed to work in a green job. I like how Pavlova (2017) breaks them down into three levels and below is the simplified version that I created:
- Foundational Level: It starts with the right mindset and behaviour towards sustainability. Without a genuine concern for nature and biodiversity, working in this field will feel like an uphill battle. Unless we deeply care, progress in the green transition will be slow, which would not be enough to counter the rapid approach to the 1.5°C threshold. So, look around — how much more destruction do we need before we start caring?
- Operational Level: These are the upgraded skills necessary to transform traditional industries. Skills like sustainability reporting, for instance, allow businesses to make data-driven decisions — just as they do with financial data today. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is another crucial skill that provides a comprehensive view of a business’s environmental impact, enabling more informed decision-making.
- Specialist Level: The cherry on top — skills emerging from new industries specifically dedicated to fighting climate change. These include innovating in green technologies like EV batteries, maintaining solar PV grid, or even developing machinery to recycle hard-to-recycle materials. These are the skills that will accelerate the green transformation.
Ready to jump on the bandwagon of green transformation?
I will admit, I am selfishly asking more people to join the green transformation. But we genuinely need more young, mid-career, and even seasoned professionals to lead the way toward a greener future. This future affects all of us. Even if we are not directly impacted yet (though we have all felt the hotter weather and erratic rainy seasons), our children and grandchildren certainly will be.
I always like to remind us: if not now, when? If not us, who?
I hope this little piece helps demystify green transformation, green jobs, and green skills. It is not as complicated as it seems. We just need the heart to care about others — whether human, animal, or nature — and the rest will follow.
