According to Hays recruitment and workforce solutions specialists your grandkids will have a secure future if they choose a career in sustainability.
There is a chronic shortage of green skills to meet net zero and decarbonisation targets.
While demand for green skills rises, the talent just isn’t upskilling fast enough to keep up with demand. This is across every sector – including the built environment industry.
The number of jobs requiring green skills has increased by 8 per cent every year since 2015, while green talent has grown by just 6 per cent in the same period, research from LinkedIn reveals.
Meanwhile, modelling from the Climate Council of Australia estimates that 28,000 additional green jobs will be created if 50 per cent of electricity is derived from renewable sources by 2030.
Chris Kent is the executive director of sustainability, energy and engineering at HAYS. He oversees recruiters who are hunting for talent across the green spectrum within six key areas of sustainability: buildings, infrastructure, renewables, water and waste, environmental, corporate and ESG.
“There’s skills shortages across many industries at the moment, and anything related to pursuit of net zero and reduction of climate change impacts is trending further behind, because these are new skills.”
He says that within the built environment sector there are myriad new roles in sustainability popping up every day. And while traditional skills and roles are still valid and important, upskilling is needed.
To remain competitive in this era of greenification, organisations need to invest in further education for their staff to be able to upskill and remain competitive.
Organisations also need to be competitive when it comes to salary offers, because the same job title can attract wildly different pay depending on the sector.
“If you search on Linkedin for a sustainability director, you’ll see that no three individuals have the same background and job skills.
“Every career journey in this space is quite different. There is no typical pathway – only one that only holds core values of improving our planet.”
The highest-paid and most in-demand green roles are unsurprisingly in the professional services.
Corporate ESG and sustainability roles don’t require hard technical skills like an ecologist or environmental scientist do. They need subject matter expertise, and more general soft skills needed to coordinate consultants and experts.
“A lot of change is coming from the investor side of things and access to finance. There’s no doubt that corporate responsibility within major organisations, particularly heavy polluters, is a growing role. Every top ASX-listed company has sustainability-related roles.
“This is an emerging sector with a lot of career opportunities that aren’t going anywhere. The timeframe for this, if you think about the global commitment to net zero, for a student in school it’s now a safe bet for them to build a long and successful career in the sustainability space.”