Going Green
Tuesday was my first day back from annual leave and I attended the County Durham Environment and Climate Change Partnership Emergency Summit at the Durham Leadership Centre.
The event brought together the three workstreams which make up the Environment and Climate Change Partnership — Climate Emergency, Ecological Emergency and Place, Health & Communities.
It was an inspiring morning with a range of thought-provoking presentations and discussions around how to spread climate action messages into communities.
It is a challenge. Most people have a general knowledge of climate change and its devastating impacts and are prepared to take action. However, it is difficult to make this a priority when you are struggling with the cost of living and are faced with the appalling dilemma of ‘food or fuel’.
One of the presentations on Tuesday showed an image of an emaciated polar bear. Yes, this is terrible to see and the reality of what is happening in the polar regions will have an impact on us all, but the daily struggle for those living in poverty is a disparate world.
Following the Summit, I did some further reading and learnt about green and brown skills.
Green skills are the skills and knowledge that allow us to contribute to environmentally friendly and sustainable practices. These skills involve understanding and addressing environmental challenges, such as climate change and sustainable development, across different industries.
Green skills include things like operation management: know-how related to change in organisational structure required to support green activities and an integrated view of an organisation through life-cycle management and lean production. There are also ‘soft’ green skills — ‘skills for the future’ — including empathy, resilience, and creativity. Competencies which you might not automatically associate with a role in transportation.
Brown skills are skills we may already have but with a bit of modification and development can unlock many doors in the climate conscious sector. For example, electric vehicles are a relatively recent development that continues to grow — someone with knowledge in car mechanics could plan on upskilling to learn more about hybrid and electric engineering, allowing them to progress in their roles and contribute to the future of transportation.
My youngest son has recently been job searching and I have noted that many of the Person Specifications now require the applicant to consider climate awareness and sustainability.
Green skills contribute to a green and sustainable economy, helping businesses become more climate friendly and to contribute towards net zero so it is little wonder that they will look to recruit individuals who will support this and can adapt to climate change.
This greening of the economy will inevitably change the skills required and the tasks involved in many existing occupations.
Something else for young people to think about as they consider their future.
