Embracing green skills: Business

- From small businesses to global enterprises, all can play their part in the green transition and be the driving force of change. Many of the business leaders I speak to realize the planet is in peril. They want to know what they can do to support and accelerate the green economy. Let's start with your existing employees. Ask yourself, do I have a sense of how the green transition will impact their roles? Think how you can support green upscaling through investment of resources and time. This could include activities like offline and online training, delivered through bite-size courses and localized programs. Remember, employees also expect to see their employers walk the walk when it comes to being greener, from skills right through to better sustainability. Set the tone from the top, build it into your business strategy and planning, encourage green behaviors, and reward innovation. Measure and celebrate your green successes. Now let's turn to hiring. Reimagine both open and future roles by incorporating green skills. Remember, the vast majority of those skills are being used in jobs that aren't traditionally thought of as green. Hire as diversely as you can and seek out untapped green skilled candidates. Diversity of thought, experience, nationality, and culture can help your organization find solutions to the trickiest green problems. Finally, as a business, you can have a proud role to play in finding and funding those entrepreneurs who will create new green jobs, products, and services. Taking these steps, you will help raise green skill's intensity globally. You will have your workforce ready for the green transition. Your efforts can become a source of inspiration for other organizations to follow. Businesses of all sizes and shapes can have an outsize impact. It will benefit everyone in our society, and most importantly, our planet.