Are you thinking about adding "green skills" to your mobility team?

Rising gas prices have even more people paying attention to global political conflicts and sustainability issues. However, even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, employees (and their companies) had a high level of concern around environmental issues and sustainability challenges. As companies look for areas to have a greater impact, many have added "green talent." In fact, "green talent" in the workforce has grown almost 40% in the last seven years, per the findings of the LinkedIn Global Green Skills Report 2022. 

What is "green talent?" Well, that's easy — it's talent with "green skills!"

Obviously the next question is, what are "green skills?" Per this article from LinkedIn, green skills "are abilities or knowledge a worker can use to prevent, monitor, or clean up pollution, and optimize stewardship and conservation of the natural resources that companies use to produce goods and services. We included not only skills that people in traditional 'green' jobs have, but also skills that people in 'non-green' jobs use to do their jobs in a greener way (think sustainable fashion or sustainable investment)."

They identified approximately 800 core green skills and more than 300 green-related skills across 12 categories. According to the World Economic Forum, "Most green skills are being used in jobs you may not expect, for example, fleet managers, data scientists, health workers, construction managers and technical sales representatives."  

But there is a massive gap in the market where there are not enough workers with these kinds of "green skills." In her guest blog post for Green Building Advisor, social scientist Dr. Leyla Acaroglu shares that, "We are lagging behind the shift in skills needed to keep up with the demand for professionals equipped with capabilities that will help us transform our economy to be circular and sustainable." She emphasizes that investing in training and development around green skills should not be seen as a moral obligation but as a business imperative as the world’s economy is shifting away from fossil fuels and polluting activities, to green, renewable and regenerative practices.  

Maybe the first place to start is to develop or promote a green(er) mindset. With the same goal of ultimately getting the right talent to the right place at the right time, can mobility look at how this can be done in a more eco-friendly manner? Many industry-wide companies are developing teams to explore how they can be better stewards. Per Equus Software, "Rethinking corporate travel and move policies is a good place to start increasing and promoting more sustainable working practices. Mobility teams should consider if moves or trips are truly necessary, and assess how they fit with corporate carbon goals." Pushing partners to create "green" or "greener" services and solutions is an additional way to move the needle.

How can global mobility as a function play its part in a company’s sustainability efforts? Per the Global Green Skills Report 2022, "greening" the economy is a human capital issue where we need to zoom in on the skills that power these jobs — green skills — and form an action plan. If all jobs within a company can indirectly support the fight against climate change by tapping into new "green skills," have you started thinking about adding "green skills" to your mobility team? Is your team revisiting people, policies and processes to consider how it can support the transition to an inclusive net-zero economy?