Cultivating Green Skills: Preparing Tomorrow’s Sustainable Workforce
By Ariesha Mais
Student, Bachelor of Creative and Professional Writing
As we continue to find new ways to implement climate solutions and sustainability practices into our workforce, green skills have never been more relevant. But what exactly are green skills, and how can they be cultivated in a learning environment?
What are green skills?
The Conference Board of Canada defines green skills as a wide range of skills integral to developing and promoting sustainability. There are three categories of workplace green skills:
Green knowledge and values are about understanding and being able to apply environmental principles and sustainable values to essential services. These services include sewage management and water and electricity supply. Green knowledge and values can come from various bodies of knowledge, including Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing.
Monitoring and Compliance Skills are required to hold organizations accountable when it comes to maintaining sustainability initiatives. These include assessing organizations’ adherence to eco-friendly criteria and ensuring compliance with legal standards are being followed.
Technical and Operational skills are associated with developing technology and managing projects. In the context of green jobs, they relate to the ability to perform these tasks in an environmentally friendly way. Technical skills include designing, building, and assessing technology. Operational skills include project life-cycle management, waste reduction, and the ability to collaborate with external partners.
Why green skills are essential now
Green job postings are rapidly increasing alongside the global focus on reducing the use of fossil fuels and other initiatives for fighting climate change. However, the number of workers with the required green skills for these jobs is still fairly small. According to LinkedIn’s 2024 Global Green Skills Report, global demand for workers with green skills rose 11.6% from 2023 to 2024, while supply rose only 5.6%. That said, candidates with green skills are being hired “at a global rate 54.6% above the economy-wide hiring rate” (LinkedIn 2024).
Canada’s hiring demand for green skills is especially high in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia. The number of green job postings compared to other jobs was highest in Ontario and British Columbia because of their aggressive pursuit of green initiatives, particularly in renewable energy and urban planning.
Green skills can be applied to almost any job in some capacity. “The top 10 occupations with the highest hiring demand for green skills account for just 10 percent of the overall demand” (Conference Board of Canada, 2024).
The role of post-secondary institutions
Post-secondary institutions play an essential role in equipping workers with green skills to meet the demand. While diploma and certificate programs primarily focus on technical and operational skills, and degree programs focus on green knowledge and values, all programs have the ability to teach valuable green skills and create qualified candidates.
Post-secondary institutions are well-positioned to adjust their programs to foster green skill learning. Possible adjustments include adding industry-specific green skills training to existing programs, promoting cross-departmental collaboration for sustainability projects, prioritizing industry partnerships for work-integrated learning, and establishing feedback loops with students, alumni, and partners to ensure training remains up-to-date.
Fostering green skills at Humber
At the launch of the new sustainability vision, alongside the announcement of the 2029 net-zero goal, Humber announced that sustainability mindsets will be integrated into all curricula by 2030.
Humber aims to empower students through the three Es:
Educate: Providing access to climate education and instilling sustainability mindsets. Humber currently implements green skills learning for students entering fields such as architectural technology, horticulture, international development, and industrial, interior, and landscape design, and is working to embed green skills across all programs.
Enable: Teaching green practices by creating a sustainable campus experience. Humber will be improving its food strategy, its waste management systems, and its sustainable transit partnerships and will continue to ensure campus landscapes support biodiversity. Humber will maintain its FairTrade campus designation and is currently developing a procurement strategy for sustainable purchasing practices.
Engage: Providing hands-on experience in climate action skills and equipping Humber community with the tools to live sustainably. Humber will secure climate action partnerships to involve students and staff. Students can strengthen their green skills through the Sustainability Ambassadors volunteer program. Additionally, Humber’s Sustainably Champions group provides opportunities for students and faculty to learn how to integrate sustainability practices into their teaching and learning.
Humber currently has over 500 sustainability-related courses and six sustainability-related programs. In Spring 2025, an open course on climate action was launched to provide all students the opportunity to learn about sustainability, equity and Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing. Humber measures its progress through the ASSHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS). The polytechnic received a STARS Gold in its last two ratings (2022 and 2019), and aims to achieve STARS Platinum by 2029.