What Are Essential Skills For The Greener World Of The Future?

A new term is entering the lexicon of young people in universities and colleges. It is “green skills.” They are comprised of technical, scientific, operational, and monitoring skills to support the transition to a sustainable and resource-efficient global economy.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has as one of its goals the development of such green skills. UNIDO programs support:

• the development of new technologies and their deployment
• the application of new ways of thinking
• platforms for innovation
• knowledge and technology transfer
• business sector cooperation
• investment promotion

Its end goals are to foster:

• sustainable supply chains
• limit climate change impacts
• end hunger

This week UNIDO hosted its third PAGE Green Industry Summer School in Vienna, Austria, providing hands-on policy exercises and knowledge sharing to attendees with an emphasis on green skills for green industry and a circular economy. Attendees have learned about cutting-edge practices for green manufacturing and the implementation of circular economy practices for remanufacturing and repair.

On July 17, 2024, the Students Organizing for Sustainability International (SOS International) published a green skills and green jobs report. One of the co-founders of SOS International, Zamzam Ibrahim, told University World News, “Academic programmes, research and curricula in higher education must reflect the realities of the current global ecological crisis and the requirements of a green economy.”

The SOS report identifies the needed green skills including problem-solving, innovative and interdisciplinary thinking, and digital skills necessary to fill green jobs such as urban planning, work in renewable energy, marine science, forestry, medicine, environmental engineering, sustainable supply chain management and implementation of circular economic practices.

Quinn Runkle, Director of Education at SOS describes what students are asking for in a green skills curriculum stating:

“They would like to see a balance of hard and soft skills…and much more focus on social aspects of sustainability and social justice.”

Jobs should go beyond eliminating greenhouse gas emissions, waste and pollution to address “the restoration of degraded ecosystems, improve human health, and support adaptation to the effects of climate change.”

Is post-secondary education focused on any of the above? The answer, for the most part, is “No.” Curriculum in most universities today is not focused on green skills. Most don’t teach the practical skills needed for a green economic and sustainable future. The gap between what is being offered and what is needed remains large.

The exceptions are schools like Cornell University whose SC Johnson College of Business is one of 840 programs worldwide promoting Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). Their mandate is to raise the profile of sustainability education in business curricula.

The state of the green job market at present isn’t necessarily aligned with what students are stating should be business priorities. Not enough companies are making green skills expertise a priority in their hiring. Not enough are investing in the green transition.

States Carolin Lemke, Co-President of Oikos International, a student advocacy group committed to bringing sustainability into business education, “Overall, green jobs are generally underfunded and undervalued compared to traditional corporate roles.”

This speaks to greenwashing, a business practice that appears to be in vogue for many companies that talk the sustainability and green talk but don’t walk the walk. No one is better at doing this than fossil fuel companies. In today’s, The Globe and Mail, a prominent Canadian business-oriented newspaper, an article in The Report on Business, states that Canada’s oil sands producers in reporting second-quarter financial results could not include environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting because a recent federal law has made it illegal to exaggerate environmental claims in their public statements.

Instead of having staff with green skills, they have lawyers who are arguing over the wording of the legislation that is aimed at getting the oil and gas companies to walk the environmental sustainability walk rather than use greenwashing when talking about what they are doing.

Scott Stauth, President of Canadian Natural Resources (CNRL) an oil sands producer, when asked about environmental objectives put out a release that states:

“We regret that we are unable to provide an environment and climate update at this time” citing the new greenwashing legislation as the cause.

It goes on, “This legislation does not change our commitment to the environment and to ensuring safe, reliable operations, only the way in which we are publicly communicating these aspects of our business. As we receive additional guidance, we intend to resume environmental and climate-related disclosure.”

I guess weasel words such as these are to replace the greenwashing previously produced by companies like CNRL in describing their environmental sustainability programs. Shame on CNRL and others in the oil sands and fossil fuel world expressing a similar lack of substance. The anthropogenic climate change we are experiencing today is largely a result of humanity’s global fossil fuel addiction that provides these companies with their profits while robbing future generations of a healthy, sustainable environment.

We need more green-skills programs in post-secondary education and more green-skills graduates applying for business jobs regardless of the job titles. With these skills, as they become part of the workforce, they can begin to infuse companies with new ways of thinking and a groundswell of demand for more environmental consciousness applied to their business operations.