Earlier this year in the King’s Speech, the new Government unveiled plans for Skills England, its new arm’s length body that will bring together key partners to meet the skills needs of the next decade. This is important as it demonstrates
how the Government recognises upskilling as being at the core of improving the lives of people across the country, and ultimately driving UK economic growth, now and in the future.
Tackling climate change creates both threats and opportunities for global economies. As a result, it needs to sit at the heart of the Government’s proposed national upskilling programme to inform a just transition to a net zero economy, so no one is left behind. This means making provisions so people working in sectors that will be negatively affected by a transition to net zero are able to adapt.
To optimise the business opportunities of climate change, organisations need to embrace technological innovation. They must also support their various stakeholders by providing Green Skills and knowledge, empowering them to deliver sustainable outcomes
for their business and the planet. This call to action is being championed at COP29 this year by IEMA’s international #GreenSkillsAtCOP campaign,
which is urging leaders to prioritise the development of Green Skills across workforces globally to fight the impacts of climate change.
Green Skills are the knowledge and abilities that support sustainable practices, such as energy management, waste reduction, and environmental compliance. They are essential for helping industries meet environmental goals, drive innovation, and adapt
to the increasing focus on sustainability. With the growing global emphasis on reducing environmental impact, Green Skills are crucial for both workforce adaptability and future competitiveness.
Before you can fight the impacts of climate change, it’s necessary first to understand why it is happening, what has caused it, and how it impacts each of us in our everyday lives - that connection to each of us individually must be made and understood.
Initially, developing a basic level of green knowledge and skills does this. Secondly, you need to carry out a mapping process to establish how this relates to your business, its functions, and the services provided. Your workforce then needs to be
empowered and mobilised, so employees understand they are agents of change and can play an important role in mitigating the impacts of climate change.
As a recognised leader for climate action, we have proposed five key elements to effectively embed Green Skills and knowledge within your organisation, and to realise the added value they bring to your business and stakeholder communities.
1-Leadership
To fight climate change at an enterprise level, it’s first necessary to build a culture of Climate Leadership which must be led by the C-suite. It must also be underpinned by the building of core Environmental Sustainability / Green skills and knowledge
throughout an organisation.
2- Map out the process
Start by mapping specific environmental knowledge and skills (or identifying the skills gap) required to enable the delivery of sustainable outcomes through relevant roles across your organisation. This will make it clear how adopting environmental and
sustainability thinking delivers benefits in day-to-day tasks across all functions. Through the scale-up of Green Skills your organisation can realise commercial benefits in the form of improved brand reputation, attracting the best talent, and cost
savings as well by winning new business.
3- Tailoring Green skills learning to high environmental impact functions
The mapping process will provide a clear indication of which functions within your organisation generate the greatest environmental impact and where improved skills will lead to meaningful changes. Across all sectors, Scope 3.1 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, generated through the purchase of goods and services, typically account for the largest portion of an organisation’s carbon footprint. To meet science-based
emission reduction targets, it is imperative that organisations work in collaboration with their supply chain partners to propagate the Green Skills that are essential to make progress in their sustainability journeys. This is achieved through empowering
and upskilling Procurement and Supplier Management teams and providing more tailored,
specialist guidance to individual suppliers, particularly SMEs.
4- Embedding Green skills and knowledge in business-as-usual
By embedding environmental sustainability knowledge in the regular activities of a business, employees are empowered to add value by making environmentally positive choices in the solutions they design and deliver. Be that through embedding circularity
principles throughout a product or service’s life cycle, or by minimising GHG emissions resulting from energy and water hungry digital technologies such as AI. This knowledge will help organisations to reduce the environmental footprint of the
services they deliver at an individual contract level. This aligns with the UK Government’s Procurement Policy Note 01/24, which is increasingly being used to place the delivery of sustainable outcomes at the heart of how the government procures
contracts.
5- Learning styles
It is important to acknowledge that all individuals do not learn in the same way. Developing Green Skills via different training methods is therefore key. This could include everything from traditional in person workshops, to gamified e-learning options
based on nudge theory. Other issues to consider include the length of learning sessions and whether training meets WCAG 2.0 AA accessibility requirements.
The power of Green skills for a sustainable future
In order for a just transition to a net zero economy to take place, it is first necessary to build widespread environmental sustainability knowledge. This key requirement has finally been legitimised by IEMA’s campaign to prioritise the development
of Green Skills across workforces globally. Most, if not all, jobs in the future will require some level of environmental awareness and knowledge if organisations are to successfully realise the opportunities that will be created from the transition
to a net zero economy.
Developing Green Skills and following the steps outlined in this post will help your business get ahead in its own sustainability journey. The skills will not just help the planet and the economy, but also the organisation as well as on an individual
level. Green Skills are not just good for the planet, they are good for business too.