What are “green jobs” and why do they matter?

A deeper conversation on creating a future that actually works

By Marlene Leiss

Today’s youth will inherit two generation-defining crises: mass unemployment and climate change. But right now, our education systems largely fail to prepare young people for the jobs of the 21st century, and the Covid-19 pandemic only compounds the issue. Add to that climate change, which will force the youth of today to live in a world of extremes, change and environmental crises that we struggle to imagine.

In the face of all this, how do we build a future that works? We brought together several experts — Ashoka Fellow Sue Riddlestone, Co-Founder and CEO of Bioregional , Denis Fernando of Friends of the Earth, Pip from NextNow Planet and Climate, and Bea Harrison, a young changemaker from Teach the Future — to discuss the urgent case for creating more green jobs.

What are green jobs? In a broad sense, this term includes all jobs in traditional and emerging sectors that preserve or restore the environment. We can incentivize more green job creation by focusing on the green skills we’ll all need to thrive today and in the future.

Here’s what we learned.

Green Jobs are not just ‘trendy’, they are an economic necessity

Friends of the Earth’s new report, An emergency plan on green jobs for young people, created in partnership with Transition Economics, quantifies the extent of the youth unemployment emergency and the climate crises in the UK.

As a result of the pandemic, the number of unemployed people aged 16–24 years could climb from 500,000 to almost 1 million. One year of unemployment could result in an economic loss of £42,000 — £133,000 over the next twenty years for 18 to 20-years-olds. Young people have a right to be worried, and so do business leaders.

“That really sets the context in which we are giving this urgency to green jobs needing to be the answer to the economic crises and the climate crises”, Denis stresses.

Creating green jobs will not only benefit individuals, but also create what Denis called “co-benefits”, contributing to the prosperity of the nation. For example, transitioning away from high-polluting industries and technologies could save the country — and others — billions in healthcare annually.

Surprisingly, the number of UK-based green businesses and the number of people employed in Britain’s low carbon jobs has been declining since 2014. For green jobs to make an impact, the government must invest accordingly and create 250,000 “green apprenticeships” — providing on-the-ground training from experts — over the next 5 years.

The next generation is unprepared and often anxious

When it comes to how the education system is preparing students for the future economy, Bea points out a lack of sufficiency and efficiency.

“I have not experienced one lesson where even the phrase ‘green economy’ is mentioned. I feel let down by the institutions who enforce the curriculum.”

Bea is a campaigner and coordinator at Teach the Future, a youth-led organization trying to improve education on the climate emergency and ecological crisis in the UK. Teach the Future is co-drafting the first ever education bill written by youth, called the ‘English Climate Education Act’. They hope to emphasize to government leaders how we need to shift the green economy to become central in education.

Bea also speaks to how many young people, including herself, suffer or have suffered from ‘eco-anxiety’ — a sense of fear and hopelessness brought on by the existential risk of environmental breakdown.

“But I strongly believe that a serious and robust green jobs plan will provide some comfort,” she adds.

A case for social entrepreneurs and micro-projects

Sue Riddlestone, Co-Founder and CEO at Bioregional, says that governments often struggle to prepare for and implement opportunities they see. “There is a big lack of certainty for governmental institutions, which is why projects get withdrawn and restarted. ” Urgent structural changes often get dismissed as a result.

But Sue also highlighted this inaction as an opportunity for small-scale entrepreneurs. “There is a gap in the market that can be filled by newcomers,” she says. When it comes to building sustainable homes, communities and businesses, social entrepreneurs are the answer.

Sue offers Bioregional as an example. In the early 1990s, her team applied for government grants to kickstart their venture — which later became a self-sustaining business. In the beginning, the biggest obstacle is overcoming the belief that you need someone’s permission to expand your venture. Many times you can just do things and look for funds — without permission, Sue says.

In fact, there are trillions of dollars every year to be spent by investors on net-zero ventures — by making the business case for a green venture, you’ll have a good shot at persuading financial companies to invest, Sue reasons.

Design to solve multiple problems at once

Ashoka’s Pip Wheaton, who co-authored the recent report Thinking differently — Ideas for Action on Planet & Climate, has interviewed dozens of Ashoka Fellows working in the field of Planet & Climate, looking for patterns and commonalities amongst their successful strategies for change. Multi-solving quickly emerged as a key design principle.

“Often for environmental solutions to work and gain traction, they need to solve multiple problems at once, by design,” she says. “We see time and time again that the most successful innovations are the ones where all the different problems that exist in a community are being tackled by a single intervention.”

Addressing youth unemployment should be a priority for any changemaker working on climate solutions — and at the very heart of the design process. The impact-first approach of social entrepreneurs means that they are more than willing to collaborate and share their ideas with policy makers.

“Unfortunately, this is sort of a blind spot for governments who don’t know how to find these entrepreneurs and engage them,” she says.

If entrepreneurs find solutions, we need government to understand why they work and how to help scale them. Bridge-building between different change agents is critical.

Calling all changemakers

For many government leaders, “an economy based on fossil fuels is all they’ve known, and they struggle to imagine anything different,” Denis says. The shift to having at least an intention to change is a rather recent phenomenon. To make it a reality, we need citizens to demand a green agenda.

To get involved, you don’t have to go far — start in your local community, and at school or in youth organizations if you’re a young person, Bea says. Possibilities are endless but time is running out.

Ashoka is now looking for changemakers who are focusing on green skills! If you are interested in participating in the Green Skills Innovation Challenge, please submit your application by the 4th of June, 11:59pm UK time.