What are green skills?

- Closely linked to the future of work is the future of our planet and the need for a green transition. That transition can fuel new green jobs and give us the chance to meet the urgent climate challenge. But to fully realize those jobs, we need more and more people armed with green skills. Green skills are those that enable the environmental sustainability of economic activities. Skills that contribute to reducing pollution or conserving natural resources. According to LinkedIn data, the world does not have enough green talent skills or jobs to transition fully to a green world yet. So advocacy and adoption are critical. Not all jobs of the future may need to be 100% green, but they should skew as much as possible in that direction. Firstly, there are green skills that can be adopted to make an existing job more sustainable. For example, it could be a fashion manufacturer sourcing more eco-friendly materials. It could a fleet manager leveraging hybrid and fully electric vehicles, or a sales representative creatively reducing their travel footprint by leveraging remote selling. Secondly, there are green skills which can be learned to help workers pursue a new role in emerging green sectors, sectors like green energy, sustainability, and environmental remediation. These may involve offline and online learning to upskill. It may also include specialist training or qualification in very specific green skills. At LinkedIn, our unique view of labor markets and data means we can track the growth of green skills and monitor progress in greening the economy. We call this the Green Skills Intensity Index. Using this, we can follow which countries, sectors, and roles are using green skills and how. This helps our members, organizations, and policy makers better understand the green transition, the green skills required, and grasp economic opportunities that lie ahead. For example, we can see that globally, green skilled workers were hired at a faster rate than non-green skilled workers over the past five years. And in that time, the share of green talent has risen from 9.6 to 13.3%. It's encouraging, but much more room to grow in terms of both talent and skills. So now you know a little bit more about what green skills are, what role they play, and how they help create economic opportunities. Why not start today by thinking about the green skills you could acquire in your existing or new role to start making an impact.