How can we equip the workforce with the sustainability skills to transform our world?

I have spent this Climate Week in New York joining discussions on topics associated with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. These discussions have raised a range of emotions in me, from fear as to how fast things are moving in the wrong direction and the negative impact for life on our planet to optimism that the sense of urgency I am seeing, and the great minds committed to driving transformation for a more sustainable world will make an impact. 

What is abundantly clear is that climate change is happening at a more rapid rate than we anticipated. What’s more, the negative impacts of climate change have been highlighted by recent extreme weather events, including the devastating floods in Pakistan and the severe drought in Europe. Naturally, stakeholders expect governments and organizations to rapidly accelerate their sustainability strategies in response to this existential threat, as well as the other social and environmental challenges we face as a planet.

Many organizations have announced targets to hit net zero emissions by a specific date – often 2050. In practice, however, many still lack the detailed strategies that will enable them to achieve their goals with a true reduction in emissions resulting from their business practices. What’s more, their success at achieving these targets (and other ESG objectives) depends on them being able to access vital sustainability skills – skills that are currently in very short supply.

To deliver on their sustainability strategies, both now and in the future, organizations must be able to draw on a diverse workforce that is equipped with a broad range of skills – both technical and knowledge-related.

LinkedIn’s Global Green Skills Report 2022 underlines the scale of the problem. The report reveals that we are a long way off having sufficient green talent, green skills and green jobs to deliver the green transition. In fact, while job postings that require green skills have grown 8% annually over the past five years, the share of green talent in the global workforce has only grown by roughly 6% annually over the same period. Employers are seeking skills in a wide range of areas, from sustainable fashion through to surface water management, occupational safety and health, and sustainable business strategies.

Plugging the sustainability skills gap

Given the general sustainability skills shortage, it’s clear that employers cannot rely solely on external recruitment to plug their knowledge gaps. So, how can your organization equip your people with the skills and knowledge that will allow them to deliver on ambitious sustainability targets?

Based on EY’s own experiences, I would make the following recommendations:

1.      Create a learning curriculum dedicated to the development of sustainability skills.

Sustainability skills should be core to the learning and development program offered to people at every level within your organization. They should have the opportunity to develop a general awareness of sustainability issues, as well as an understanding of the science relating to climate change. In many cases, they will also need knowledge and skills relating to the specific risks and opportunities that the sustainability agenda presents to your particular organization and how they can apply this knowledge to making a difference in their own role and behaviors.

To meet their targets, organizations will need a workforce that has both technical skills and general management skills relating to sustainability.

To develop an effective curriculum, it is essential to know your workforce. What level of upskilling and reskilling is required? Which particular topics should the curriculum focus on? It may be necessary to make certain training mandatory for some target groups within your organization. You may also want to suggest that some people study for qualifications in sustainability with external institutions, such as business schools.

At EY, we have developed our own sustainability academy with a broad curriculum covering the fundamentals of sustainability, as well as in-depth learning modules on specific topics including sustainable business, sustainable finance and the circular economy. When people complete a learning module, they earn an ‘eco badge’ that showcases their knowledge and incentivizes them to complete another. We have also collaborated with Hult International Business School to offer a free, fully funded Masters in Sustainability to all our people.

2.      Take a different approach to developing technical skills compared with management skills.

To meet their targets, organizations will need a workforce that has both technical skills and general management skills relating to sustainability. Since the technical skills required tend to be very specific to the industry that the organization operates in, they are best approached on the basis of ‘industry first, business role second’.

From our experience of working with engineers, EY has found that the technical sustainability skills that engineers require can vary considerably depending on the industry they work in – for example, they will need different skills depending on whether they work in aviation, construction or nuclear energy. Even in a function like finance – where a CFO and a financial manager will typically have common skills across industries – there are benefits from having an ‘industry first’ approach to the development of sustainability skills.

People love solving problems and the sustainability agenda presents many problems for organizations to solve.

In contrast, there is much greater commonality across industries and roles when it comes to sustainability-related leadership and management skills. We have developed the EY Skills Foundry to support our clients to develop baseline sustainability skills within their workforce. Currently we are working with a large government department in the UK to deliver these skills to their people.

3.      Set sustainability-related challenges as a way to encourage skills development.

People love solving problems and the sustainability agenda presents many problems for organizations to solve. By setting sustainability-related challenges, organizations can tap into their people’s innate desire to come up with new solutions. These might be solutions for reducing energy usage or wastewater, or solutions for new products and services that generate revenue for the organization while improving lives.

EY created the Better Working World Data Challenge to encourage students, young professionals and EY people with an interest in data science to solve the world’s toughest sustainability problems. This year the challenge centered on using data, artificial intelligence and machine learning to preserve biodiversity – specifically the occurrence of frogs.  The approaches that they used to measure frog populations can be expanded to help organizations understand the impact they have on the biodiversity in their area of operation.  I had the opportunity to serve as a judge for this challenge and I was inspired by the dedication and deep thinking the teams put into this important topic.

Rising to the challenge

To deliver on their sustainability strategies, both now and in the future, organizations must be able to draw on a diverse workforce that is equipped with a broad range of skills – both technical and knowledge-related. They also need to cultivate sustainability leaders so they have the right leaders, with the right qualifications, to drive change.

Upskilling an entire workforce at a rapid rate will naturally seem a daunting prospect. But I know from my own experiences that it is entirely possible to achieve. If your organization is like EY, you will find that your people are motivated to learn more about climate change and how they can play a role in being a part of the solution. I also know that harnessing this passion is the best, and possibly only way organizations will be able to meet the challenging goals they’ve set themselves and unite to build a more sustainable world.