Demand for sustainability skills is far outpacing supply in Canada, with the greatest areas of need often falling outside of what would traditionally be labelled the “green sector.”
“Almost half are eager to incorporate sustainability into their current role, and that’s where we see a lot of opportunity, because we believe sustainability has to be cross functional, and operationalized throughout the business,” said Emma Grande, the director of ESG strategy and engagements at Salesforce. “The good news is that there’s a lot of interest from the employee base. There’s a lot of passion there, so I think Canadian employers will want to tap into that.
Ms. Grande adds that many organizations target carbon neutrality – often referred to as “net zero” – by a certain date. “There is a huge demand [for skills] around net zero, because it’s so data intensive” she said. “In particular carbon accounting is a skill set that’s highly in demand, and it includes things like forecasting, scenario analysis, sensitivity analysis, dealing with huge data sets.
“Every university is adding sustainability programs; in fact, every faculty within every university is adding sustainability programs,” he said. “You see a lot of different programs and degrees [related to sustainability] coming up, whether it’s in engineering or finance or business.” “Even though your job might not be an environmental job, environmental competencies are required in more and more roles,” said Kevin Nilsen, president and CEO of ECO Canada. “Even customer service representatives or sales managers will have to have more green literacy skills in order to perform their jobs.”