Sponsored by
Executive summary
A green edge:
Green skills for
the future
"A green edge: green skills for the future" is an Economist Impact report, sponsored by Kyocera Document Solutions. The report accompanies a barometer that assesses the environment for green-skills development and adoption in six cities via a survey of 300 executives. Expert interviews and an extensive literature review supplemented the survey findings in developing this paper and the barometer.
95.7%
of surveyed executives consider green skills to become significantly more important in the next five years.
The term “green skills” encompasses an array of competencies meant to drive a shift towards a more sustainable world. They range from technical to intellectual, from scientific to humanistic.
In the face of rapid urbanisation and escalating environmental challenges, the adoption of green skills has emerged as a pivotal factor in steering cities towards sustainable development. While cities are not the only places where green skills are taking root, they are among the most important venues for their development.
Every skill as a green skill
All types of green skills—leadership, urban design, energy, financial, procurement, waste management and communication—have become more important for the survey respondents over the past five years as companies sharpen their focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns. This is tracking with anticipated greater importance of green skills overall in the coming five years.
Given how central the energy transition is to alleviate the climate crisis, it is unsurprising that survey respondents see it gaining prominence relative to other green skills. Eighty-five percent of respondents say that energy skills are much more important now compared with five years ago, nearly ten percentage points higher than the next-highest-rated skill, urban design.
Despite the lack of a uniform definition, the intensifying effects of climate change and an urgent need for a clean-energy transition make green-skills adoption essential.
More than 80% of surveyed business leaders recognise the benefits of green skills in increasing resilience against extreme weather events.
The culture prevalent in an organisation is paramount in creating an environment where green skills are not just valued, but receive the requisite time, attention and funding to truly take root in the organisation. A lack of endorsement from top management is ranked as the second most significant challenge to the adoption of green skills in the survey, alluding to the important role that leadership plays in driving green-skills adoption.
Larger companies place greater emphasis on green skills than their smaller counterparts. This might be due to smaller companies lacking resources to do much more than execute on its core functions. As sustainability considerations increasingly permeate large companies, their smaller suppliers will need to adapt accordingly, especially if they want to sell to customers in places like Europe, where climate ambitions are driving increasingly stringent environmental regulations.
80.3%
of surveyed executives ranked “government regulations and policies” as a “very important” factor influencing demand for green skills.
50.7%
of surveyed executives are offering free or subsidised tuition to training/education courses as a way to incentivise employees to adopt and/or build their green skills.
While policy can help create a greener zeitgeist for society, the spread of green skills throughout the corporate world requires education, training and upskilling or reskilling, in which mid-career individuals pick up new competencies or refine existing ones. This can happen through several avenues, including formal educational institutions or within companies themselves.
Cities as drivers of corporate sustainability
Cities serve as the locus of business activity and their choices on sustainability have a major impact on companies, including when it comes to green skills. This is all the more apparent for the six cities in our survey, where 89% of executives say that city-level sustainability initiatives provide “extensive support” for green-skills adoption in the wider workforce.
Almost all executives surveyed (98%) think that their organisation is ready or partially ready to support green-skills development and training.
A higher share of respondents from the manufacturing, machinery and industrial and energy, utilities and natural resources industries believe their organisation is ready to support green-skills development and training.
Download our report to find out more about the green-skills ecosystem
Cities are both laboratories of innovation and essential forces in the green transition. In partnership with companies, they can make sure the green-skills revolution has the wind at its back.
Download briefing paper
Infographic
Explore the key findings from the research programme to understand the business leaders’ perception of the green-skills ecosystem across six cities.
Articles
Explore more content
Lasting principles for sustainable design
After three decades, the Ecosys concept that drives the design of Kyocera’s laser printers is more timely than ever, helping customers reduce waste as documents enter their digital future.
Read more
A sustainable future for document management
As organisations strive to reduce printing waste, Kyocera’s tools for managing information and turning it to competitive advantage are boosting efficiency, security and customisation.
Read more
A creative solution for textile printing opens new possibilities
Kyocera’s new inkjet printer, Forearth, busts preconceptions in a way that could free fashion from the environmental and economic burdens of wasted water and fabric.
Read more
