Val Leveson reports on the huge growth in specialist environmental jobs
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With world focus on global warming and the need for a clean, green world has come a "phenomenal" growth in environmental jobs.
David Mussared, manager of NRMjobs.com.au, the oldest internet-based environmental job-advertising service in New Zealand and Australia (having been established in 1998), says: "Over the past 10 years we have seen the creation of specialist environmental positions in a surprising array of industries and organisations, but our feeling is that this is still just the tip of the iceberg.
"There has been a big shift from the early days when most environmental jobs were about 'awareness raising', or about helping businesses get around what they saw as irksome environmental requirements, towards the modern trend reflecting genuine interest by business and government in sustainability.
"Jobs these days tend to be more practical, to require higher skill levels and to aim for measurable outcomes," he says.
Mussared says the salary range and range of skills required is enormous. Jobs range from entry-level ones as "team members", or even volunteers doing manual labour, through to high-salary positions managing multi-million dollar programmes.
"But there does appear to be a common 'esprit de corps' in the industry - people do identify themselves as 'environmental' employees, and as being part of a regional, national and international network of like-minded souls," he says.
"It is a very buzzy, positive industry to work in. Until the last couple of years it was typified by people earning less than they could in other sectors - and that is still the case in some areas - but increasingly the salaries for environmental jobs are becoming competitive with other economic sectors, and the fringe benefits in terms of lifestyle, locations and work enjoyment make them even more attractive."
Mussared says there is a bit of a mismatch between people's expectations of "environmental jobs" and the reality.
"The reality is that most environmental jobs require a sound technical training of some kind, preferably at tertiary level. The days of the 'gifted amateur' or 'self-trained sea-changer' are largely gone - most employers will demand solid tertiary training in a discipline such as natural resource management, biology, environmental engineering or similar.
"However, good communications skills - and particularly good report-writing skills - are still very much in demand. In most environmental jobs you will be expected to deliver the odd PowerPoint presentation at the very least, and often they require complex communication tasks."
Gael Ogilvie, senior principal, URS, has been in the industry for 25 years. She says there has been a quantum shift as far as demand for this work is concerned. "Since Al Gore and others have done their work, environmental issues are mainstream."
She says previously, clients were mainly concerned with compliance issues - now it's much broader and companies are looking at climate change and their influence on it. "Now we're even talking to marketing people as customers are asking how green the products they are buying are. People weren't asking this before.
"There's a great need for companies to 'greenwash' their products."
Ogilvie points out that employees are also asking questions. "Especially now that staff are more aware of recycling and energy saving at home, they want to know what their company is doing."
Ogilvie says her company does carbon footprinting. "We do a life cycle assessment of a product and assess its environmental credentials."
She says there is an increase of jobs available in the field, but there's also an increase in supply. She's found some people have retrained into environmental jobs at mid-career and others have been inspired to go into it from scratch.
"There is no shortage of young people coming into the profession."
People who want to go into the field have to have strong technical (science, chemistry) skills and have a good understanding of the interface of nature and development. "That's a given," Ogilvie says. They must also have good communications skills and an understanding of complex issues - climate change, the biofuels debate etc, and they must be able to communicate things clearly.
"There is a lot of confusion around these things, and they can seem boring. It's important to be able to clear the confusion in an interesting way."
Lateral thinking and creativity, understanding legislation and being able to find solutions are all important.
Ogilvie says there's a strong alignment between environmental awareness and social justice.
Belinda van Eyndhoven, senior planner at Beca, agrees. Her work is to help Beca's clients with environmental sustainability management.
"I have always been interested in the environment. The field has grown hugely - people in the field are no longer disparaged as 'greenies'. People now realise also that it's not just about the environment. There are strong social and financial aspects too."
She says there was environmental consciousness before the concern about climate change, but it is more so now.
"Employers see a need to balance environmental performance with financial and social performance. The benefits of managing environmental performance include employee attraction and retention but also address legislative, stakeholder, ratepayer and customer requirements," she says.
The change in the field is that it is no longer just about risk management: "Now there are a lot of positives included in environmental roles."
As far as jobs are concerned, Eyndhoven says adviser roles are opening up at the moment.
"This is to help companies with environmental management. It's about understanding new policy and science. We are dealing with new concepts - and businesses sometimes struggle to get their heads around it."
Eyndhoven says that at present there is a lack of people with formal qualifications - but that universities are now offering courses, including postgraduate ones.
"If you want to go into this field you must have a strong understanding of the market and a real passion for it."
The field will only grow, she says, as the younger generation is very environmentally aware and people are demanding responsibility from companies.
Mussared says: "My personal vision is that in the future every job should be an environmental job - and I mean a genuine environmental job, not just greenwash - with positive environmental outcomes being demanded by employers in all industries and sectors.
"I guess that's a bit optimistic, but wouldn't that be nice - an economy which takes the environment seriously and budgets and plans accordingly, instead of environment being a last minute add-on or a bit of PR fluff? I do think that is where we are heading - and that is where concern about climate change is taking us.
"I would like to see the day when all businesses and industries take the triple bottom line seriously - that they genuinely do put environmental and social outcomes on a par with profits."
He says: "I think New Zealand still has a bit of catching up to do. In both countries the growth cycle is just beginning - I am confident that I actually work in the one industry which is not under economic threat, and for which the long-term future is undeniably rosy. One thing you can be sure of is that the environmental sector is going to grow and grow."
