Demand for workers with green skills is growing. Learning these skills can help you start or advance a career in sustainability.
While traditional green jobs are well established in industries such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, natural resource conservation, and waste management, employers seeking “green” skills are increasingly hiring for roles that are not typically considered when one thinks of sustainability careers, like technical sales rep or facilities manager.
- Hiring for green jobs outpaced overall hiring throughout 2023, according to LinkedIn’s State of the Labor Market April 2024, with employers seeking green skills in carbon emissions, carbon accounting, water quality, sustainability, and environmental compliance.
- What’s driving this growth? Increasing awareness of the climate crisis, employee and customer demand for change, and diversity, equity, and inclusion goals are driving companies to expand and embrace sustainability initiatives like Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
How do organizations approach sustainability?
Organizations, small to large, incorporate sustainability goals into their business practices. Larger organizations may approach sustainability through a core team of professionals dedicated to overall strategy, however, the responsibility is increasingly dispersed across departments and roles. Some professionals tasked with leading sustainable business initiatives take on this responsibility in addition to other duties.
Sustainable management integrates and manages a sustainability strategy that is material and beneficial to the organization. This can take many forms, including investing in fair trade products, reducing packaging materials, or ensuring humane working conditions at supplier factories. Sustainable management supports an organization’s long-term success and resilience through minimized risk, cost savings, increasing competitive advantage, and avoiding unseen costs. The triple bottom line framework and corporate social responsibility principles have become standard within strategic sustainability implementation and offer organizations a comprehensive approach to measure the impact and success of their goals.
Sustainability Manager was one of the fastest-growing green jobs between 2016 and 2021, according to the LinkedIn Global Green Skills 2022 report.
What skills does a sustainability manager need?
While certain concepts are central to sustainability, the specific tools and skills a sustainability manager may use in their job vary depending on the industry and their responsibilities. They must understand basic principles of finance and economics, marketing and communications, as well as how to assess and interpret social, ecological, and business-related information. They must also be able to solve complex business problems by practicing systems thinking, which involves analyzing whole systems by understanding how component parts interact and impact one another. Diplomatic communication and leadership skills are critical for the sustainability manager because they are typically in a position that requires leading teams, proposing initiatives, building awareness and generating buy-in and enthusiasm within the company.
Since sustainability professionals draw on knowledge and skills across many areas, including business, economics, and environmental science, they may have experience and education from a diverse range of fields and industries.
As a sustainability specialist or manager, you may be responsible for:
- Leading project management and implementation of initiatives
- Setting strategic and material sustainability performance goals
- Measuring, reporting, and optimizing the effectiveness of sustainability initiatives
- Sustainable supply chain, waste management, and minimization
- Marketing and communication
- Sustainable product innovation and development
- Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing
- Employee engagement and diversity, equity, and inclusion
According to the LinkedIn Global Green Skills 2022 report, the fastest-growing green skills are in ecosystem management, environmental policy, and sustainable procurement or supply chain. In fact, demand for sustainable procurement skills has experienced near triple-digit growth over the last three years, largely due to companies “taking action to reduce their environmental footprint throughout their supply chain (LinkedIn).”
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A Green Skills Gap on the Horizon
With the rise in organizations integrating sustainability goals into their business practice, LinkedIn predicts employer demand for sustainability skills will outpace availability of workers with those skills in five years. Notably, most jobs now requiring green skills are not traditional green jobs, a trend LinkedIn refers to as “green-skilling.” Sectors that are increasingly hiring talent with green skills include retail, consumer goods, design, recreation and travel, healthcare, and manufacturing. For example, “sustainable fashion was the fastest-growing green skill … with an average growth rate of 90.6 percent (LinkedIn).”
Sustainability Careers and Salaries
Sustainability roles within an organization may include entry-level positions, such as sustainability associate, specialist, or coordinator, to senior-level roles, such as chief sustainability officer and others, depending on the structure and size of the organization. As sustainability is increasingly integrated within organizations its responsibility is becoming dispersed and shared across positions. Job titles may depend more on whether you are part of the core sustainability team, or in a role that takes this on in addition to other duties.
Sustainability salaries vary and can be influenced by a number of factors including: industry, job responsibilities, work experience and education, location, and the size of the organization. According to Glassdoor, the pay range for a “sustainability specialist” is $62-108,000 per year, with a median of $82,000 per year. Top paying industries for “sustainability specialist” are information technology ($144k), construction, repair and maintenance ($85k), and management and consulting ($77k).
- LEED consultant ($88k)
- Sustainability Manager ($104k)
- Entry level sustainability consultant ($71k)
Source: (Glassdoor)
A “senior sustainability specialist”, according to Salary.com, pay range is $80-135,000 per year. As one progresses in their sustainability career from an entry-level specialist/associate to manager, director, and CSO positions, salary ranges increase. Senior-level leadership positions, such as chief sustainability executives, general and operations managers, environmental engineers, among others, can expect higher salaries. These positions may require several years of work experience and a master’s degree.
Interested in earning a degree or certificate in sustainability?
Graduates of the University of Wisconsin Sustainable Management bachelor’s, master’s and certificate programs have pursued sustainability careers across a wide range of industries.
Degrees:
Certificates:
- Climate Leadership-Graduate Certificate
- Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)-Graduate Certificate
- Environmental Sustainability-Undergraduate Certificate
- Sustainability and Well-being-Graduate Certificate
- Sustainable Enterprise-Undergraduate Certificate
To find out more about our sustainability programs, contact an enrollment adviser by calling 1-877-895-3276 or emailing learn@uwex.wisconsin.edu.