Only one in four UK workers believe they will need new skills as a result of climate change
Business in the Community (BITC) has published new research which found that only one in four working-age adults in the UK believe that their job will require new skills as a result of climate change. These skills could be in roles directly involved in decarbonisation such as energy efficiency and waste management or those indirectly enabling a Just Transition, such as business procurement, human resources, and financial processes.
This research comes as a recent LinkedIn report shows that by 2050, there will be twice as many jobs requiring green skills as there will be people who are qualified to fill them.[2] However, BITC’s research found that six in 10 working-age adults in the UK believe that they will not need to acquire any new skills as a result of climate change, while two in 10 working-age adults believe that their jobs will be adversely affected by actions taken to tackle climate change.
The research, conducted by YouGov, accompanies BITC’s Green Skills Lab Blueprint, a framework to create workforce action plans around green skills, enabling employers to build the culture and competencies to achieve a net zero, resilient future.[3]
The research also found that six in 10 business leaders reported that their organisation has not assessed the operational risks and opportunities of climate change. In addition, only a third of SME business leaders are assessing these risks and opportunities, compared to seven in 10 large business leaders.
As part of its Green Skills Lab, BITC worked with large and SME-sized employers to accelerate the Just Transition to a net zero, climate resilient future by supporting them to:
- Consider how future roles will differ from current ones, who is most likely to be impacted, and how they can develop the skills and capabilities they will need.
- Explore how they can support employees as their roles change.
- Identify barriers to action and engage stakeholders to help shape the policy and practices that will enable business action at pace and scale.[4]
Gudrun Cartwright, Climate Action Director at Business in the Community, said:
“Climate change is one of the world’s biggest collective issues, and all employers have a part to play in ensuring a swift transition to a net zero, resilient economy, where people and nature thrive. Ensuring that people, in both the current and future workforce, have the skills needed to thrive, is essential if this transition is to be a ‘just’ one. The global demand for green skills, and the number of job postings requiring green skills, has consistently increased in recent years, going beyond roles that might traditionally have been seen as sustainability focused.
“Through our Green Skills Labs, we have been working with businesses to gather insights and best practice on how employers can design, communicate, and embed green skills into their organisational culture and strategy, so that they are better equipped to tackle the challenges and opportunities that climate change poses for their organisations. It is brilliant to see the great work that these businesses are doing to incorporate green skills into their business plan, so that no one gets left behind. It is essential that other companies follow their lead if they want to get ahead of the curve and ensure that they are fit for purpose in a net zero world with increasing disruption from the impacts of a less stable climate.”
Examples of businesses taking action:
WJ Group
The Issue
Approximately 30% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to construction and infrastructure. WJ Group’s commitment to its sustainability strategy – covering the environment, people, and communities – is reflected in its long-standing effort to reduce emissions produced through its operations and supply chain. The business aims to be net zero Scope 1 & 2 by 2032, completing the journey by 2040 and has developed a plan, working together with its suppliers and partners to achieve this goal.
As part of its net zero plan, the business identified a range of green competencies and skills required to achieve the highest energy efficiency and carbon reduction levels. To make progress, the business realised it needed to take targeted action next. With manufacturing, R&D and operations work to enable innovations with electric vehicle transitions and increasing advances with zero carbon materials using biogenic alternatives to hydrocarbon-based products.
What the company did
WJ Group’s ongoing net zero mission is integrated with delivering social impact and recognises the importance of caring for people in the process. Collaborating with its workforce, supply chain, local authorities and engaging with communities helps achieve its vision for a Just Transition.
Reducing emissions is a top priority for the organisation. WJ Group works towards achieving this by pursuing innovation in its products and implementing processes, aligning its Greenhouse Gas Management System to a series of standards, such as ISO 14064 and PAS 2080.
Maintaining these standards ensures transparency and aligns to both the sector and wider global goals. Product and engineering innovation give WJ Group clarity on the specific technical skills needed, within electric vehicle maintenance and resource management, along with a broad range of essential competencies that can drive an efficient green transition. Simultaneously, employees are assigned different or new responsibilities to meet targets in their respective working areas, supporting the organisations environmental performance overall.
Acknowledging the need for these green skills within the workforce, WJ Group carries out continuous maturity assessments to understand its employees’ capacity and skills to perform, according to standards and certifications. To fill skills gaps, the business offers upskilling opportunities to engineers and general staff and is helping all employees develop carbon literacy to understand their impact on WJ Group’s road to net zero.
The next step is shaping a complete inclusive training piece in collaboration with its diverse stakeholder community to ensure those most at risk are upskilled and continue working and simplifying jargon and definitions, whilst taking advantage of the power of storytelling to capture and communicate the opportunities.
British Land
The issue
Supporting social mobility is a priority at British Land. During the Green Skills Lab, the organisation wanted to ensure that its social impact strategy supported communities within and close to its assets to allow access to the range of employment opportunities created by a transition towards a net zero economy.
What the company did
With 20 years of experience working on environmental and social progress, British Land has established social impact partnerships, which it plans to build on. The organisation supports meaningful education partnerships to promote social mobility and support people at all stages to grow skills. Programmes to upskill people to support curriculum learning, grow a local talent pool, raise awareness of careers and support young people at risk. The organisation also develops employment partnerships which support people local to their assets to access training and job opportunities. This helps secure the talent that the business, its suppliers, customers and communities need to thrive.
Examples of existing partnerships include Broadgate Connect, British Land’s employment and training partnership with East London Business Alliance (ELBA), which has supported hundreds of jobseekers, giving them access to jobs within the company, and with partners and service providers, covering relevant and necessary roles. The organisation is also a long-term supporter of the National Literacy Trust, with literacy partnerships focused on young people in both primary and secondary education.
British Land saw an opportunity to adapt its existing approach to education and employment programmes to further support the development of green skills and access to green opportunities. It mapped the essential skills supported by its partnership and identified opportunities to add a green skills element to several projects. The green skills element identified varied between projects, from the provision of resources focused on green jobs, to the development of tasks which required specific green skills thinking, to real life reflections from people currently working in green roles.
The organisation is also undertaking mapping at site and corporate level to link the green skills projects it supports with the future needs of British Land and its customers. Beyond this, British Land has been building awareness of green skills and the need for a Just Transition internally, most notably as part of its company conference which is attended by all employees.
Over the next 12 months, partnerships across education and employment will be delivered with green skills elements. The organisation will also pilot a partnership primarily focused on green skills. Learnings from these partnerships will be used to further develop British Land’s social impact strategy to support local people to take advantage of the green skills gap and to further support decarbonisation.
CITB
The Issue
The CITB recognises the climate emergency and the necessity of taking action to limit future global greenhouse gas emissions and harmful environmental changes. In 2022, the organisation conducted a materiality assessment and engagement process, hearing from key stakeholders about their desire to work together to achieve net zero and reduce environmental impact. Today, the organisation’s ambition is to achieve net zero across its entire business operation, as soon as possible, eliminating all Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030, and Scope 3 emissions by 2040.
The CITB understands that the transition to a sustainable future and meeting its own net zero emission targets requires a workforce with the awareness, knowledge and skills to bring about positive and impactful results. The organisation is investing in its employee learning and development offering so that all colleagues have the knowledge of ‘what’ and ‘how’ they can deliver their work to best support their environmental goals. Through this enablement, it is anticipated that all its products and services will have environmental considerations at the core of its development and ultimately benefit the wider construction industry.
What the company did
To enhance green capabilities within the workforce, the organisation divided its Green Workforce Plan into three levels: basic, essential, and technical skills. This approach has helped it to assess its teams’ and colleagues’ maturity according to the organisation’s needs, leading to new opportunities and actions that can be developed in both the short and long-term.
To assess the state of each of the three skill levels, with a particular focus on essential skills, the leads of the Green Workforce Plan conducted interviews with colleagues from Green Champions to Learning and Development and Standards Managers and reviewed training uptake. It also engaged with the Department for Education (DfE), its sponsor body, to understand the civil service’s approach to carbon literacy training and whether it was an approach the company should take.
Following this work, the CITB is gaining greater clarity on what is required to upskill its workforce and shape its Green Workforce Plan, in order to implement it in the coming years. Some of the actions include:
- Basic Knowledge: Internally promote existing resources and learning tools through an Environmental Communications Plan, raise awareness of key terms and definitions, and consider whether to become an accredited Carbon Literate Organisation.
- Technical Skills: Establish a Green Skill matrix for each team (utilising IEMA/Deloitte Greening the Workforce report where possible).
- Essential Skills: Review its internal Behavioural Competencies Framework to identify opportunities for improvement taking into consideration other frameworks such as the Skills Builder Partnership’s universal framework to develop progression pathways.
The CITB is committed to offering learning and development opportunities to all colleagues, while being transparent with regular internal updates on progress. The organisation hopes to raise more awareness of the actions that employees can take in their jobs and personal lives to help the environment.
SUEZ
The issue
In a changing economy and within a challenging and complex sector, SUEZ has moved beyond being a waste collection and disposal business to being an energy and materials recovery business. New technologies, such as anaerobic digestion, and facilities and processes for circular solutions require renewed skills and a new mindset for emerging innovations that are focused more than ever on material quality and circular solutions to products, packaging and materials. SUEZ’s workforce encompasses a mix of blue and white-collar jobs. Few jobs look the same as they did five years ago, and many won’t be the same five years from now, and communicating the specific green skills relevant to each role (existing, transforming and new) is required, as an organisation at the heart of the environmental services sector and at the heart of the UK’s decarbonisation efforts.
What the company did
Diversifying services is an essential component of business transformation in preparation for managing climate action. SUEZ is reaping the benefits from these adjustments, winning new contracts, extending existing contracts, and attracting high calibre new recruits to support its widening portfolio of technologies, services and sites. As such, a high corporate priority is ensuring that their skills supply matches the demand. Operating across departments (including operations, support, innovation and research) has been fundamental in understanding which skills are required and when to expand services and solutions successfully.
Early on SUEZ’s team had an awareness that they must go backwards in order to go forwards, given the size and reach of the company. In working towards creating a baseline for their workforce’s current skills composition, they are carrying out an extensive assessment of all job descriptions and using existing internal platforms to collect data on skills not stated in job descriptions, but considered equally valuable, such as languages, leadership capabilities and teamworking.
SUEZ’s internal mobility and skill transferability protocols have been a key focus during the programme, with colleagues sharing learnings from previous site developments to improve scalability and others being empowered to try new roles, with the option to return to their previous jobs after six months. These agile internal systems and ways of working will be furthered in achieving their green workforce demands over the next five years, as the business continues to grow and diversify.
The significance of transparency in achieving SUEZ’s ambition is underpinned by communication and education across the business. Staff activities are guided by weekly, monthly and quarterly tracked KPIs, based on their triple-bottom-line principles of People, Planet and Profit, making it clear that every positive behaviour that contributes to the 3Ps can and will be rewarded. Ambitions to advance a Just Transition through complementary behaviour change are being set and encouraged by design through this system and there is an active programme of empowerment and development (including mentoring, coaching, training and recruitment) to build equality across the business in terms of gender, ethnicity and other protected characteristics.
ENDS
Notes to editor
- All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 5091 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 26th March – 17th April 2024. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+).
- LinkedIn: linkedIn-global-climate-talent-stocktake-sept-2024.pdf
- Read more in BITC’s Green Skills Lab Blueprint here.
- Find out more about BITC’s Green Skills Labs here.
For further information, please contact Polly Dacam, Press Officer, on 020 7566 6638.