Box 1.1 Diversity in the Environment Sector
There is an urgent challenge in the sector that in most developed nations, there is significant under‐representation in the environment sector of minority groups and women in terms of engagement with nature as well as in employment.
A headline from the UK body Natural England (2019) in its national survey ‘Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment’ noted:
Children from black, Asian and other minority ethnic backgrounds are less likely to spend time outdoors than children from white backgrounds… 57% of children with black, Asian and minority ethnic family backgrounds spend time outdoors at least once a week, compared with 73% of children from white family backgrounds The majority of children (72%) had visited urban greenspaces in the last month while just over a third had visited the countryside (36%) and 17% visited a coastal location. The results for young people show a similar pattern: the majority of visits taken by 16‐ to 24‐year‐olds were to urban greenspaces (62% of visits), with smaller proportions to the countryside (28%) or coast (11%).
The think tank Policy Exchange (2017) also researched diversity in different occupations. They found in their research that, of the 202 occupations, farmers were the least diverse and environment professionals were ranked 201.
In a key 2014 US report by Dorceta Taylor (2015), commissioned by Green 2.0, ‘The State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations’ she highlights:
The current state of racial diversity in environmental organizations is troubling, and lags far behind gender diversity… Environmental jobs are still being advertised and environmental organizations recruit new employees in ways that introduce unconscious biases and facilitate the replication of the current workforce… Moreover, environmental organizations do not use the internship pipeline effectively to find ethnic minority workers
This challenge is being met by many organisations and individuals who campaign and have activities in the area. These include
Green 2.0
Black2Nature
www.yearofgreenaction.org/green‐actions/black2nature
Bird Girl
Diversity Joint Venture for Conservation Careers (DJV)
www.diversityinconservationjobs.org/about
Center for Diversity & the Environment
Student Conservation Association ‐ Career Discovery Internship Program
SACNAS – Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science
Women for Wildlife
Changing Patterns in ‘Hot Topics’ and Funding
If your aim is to develop a long‐term career in the environment sector, there are significant challenges in the fact that the areas of work that attract funding, and therefore offer more jobs, shift from year to year. Government funding priorities can have an immediate impact on the sector, such as announcements on support for areas such as wind power and solar. The classic way to respond to this is to become a generalist, with skills that enable you to shift across areas, but ultimately if your aim is to be, for example, a fisheries or ecology professional you need to develop your skills to enable you to develop a career in the area and to ride out any periods of recession in your sector. In the early 1990s when I graduated, there were few jobs being created in fisheries, but there was still ‘movement’ in the sector which enabled me to get a job and get on the career ladder.
The media hot topic of plastic pollution has increased the profile of water pollution, life cycle analysis, materials production, waste minimisation and management and recycling, but it has had minimal effect on global green jobs. However, the need for solar and wind energy, for multiple reasons including energy production diversity, lower energy costs, climate change response and non‐renewable resource limitations, has led to a rapid increase in global employment. The drivers for green jobs growth are many and varied. As noted earlier, a sensible approach is to develop skill sets which enable you to respond to sectoral changes but stick to the main core of the roles which led you to work in the green sector in the beginning.
However, there are a number of sectors displaying increasing investment and global jobs growth which are worth exploring if you want to develop a green career.
Fastest Growing Sectors
Renewable Energy
The renewable energy sector has experienced significant global growth in recent decades. As noted by Deloitte in their 2018 Deloitte Insight ‘Global Renewable Energy Trends’ article, renewables are becoming a ‘preferred’ energy choice globally. Deloitte’s report notes seven ‘enabling trends’ and ‘demand trends’ driving this process:
Enabling trends: price and performance parity, balancing the grid and new technology and innovation
Demand trends: smart cities, community energy, new emerging markets and growing corporate energy buying
Renewable energy offers a very good opportunity for jobs to migrate across to the green sector from traditional heavy industry roles. The sector has roles in areas, including manufacturing, site installation and engineering design, as well as research, environmental management, and impact assessment. This ‘role transferability’ makes it an attractive choice for governments globally, as the transition process for jobs, skills and infrastructure is streamlined, compared to implementing very ‘different’ new technologies. This book has a chapter on Renewables and Energy.
Fastest Growing Sectors
Environmental Consultancies
There has been a rapid growth in consultancies, especially global environmental and engineering consultancy firms, who have diversified their areas of work. Many have grown significantly through mergers and acquisitions. These mergers continue as key players in the sector seek to secure their positions as ‘super consultancies’.
The
