We’re transforming the world to sustainability. As the worldwide alliance of environment and sustainability professionals, we’re working to make our businesses and organisations future-proof. Through our global sustainability standards and partnerships, we are driving understanding and uptake of crucial skills that will keep the world of business in business.

There is a need to take action

The world faces a serious environmental crisis – but it’s more than just global warming. Declining biodiversity and a pressing need to reduce waste in all aspects of our economy are equally threatening to human life on our planet. In response to the need for global action governments are setting out plans to transform economies to achieve net zero. Those plans call for significant evolution of the foundational parts of our industrial economy, entailing decarbonising the electricity grid and installing infrastructure to create and distribute future fuels such as hydrogen, biofuels and e-fuels. Organisations of all sizes will play a part in contributing to government commitments to mitigate and repair environmental damage. Doing so while remaining economically viable will require different ways of operating, placing new demands on workers at all levels. IEMA recommends that you seek to accelerate your organisations’ transition to a “greener” future.

Customers – are increasingly looking at green claims of organisations and making choices based on their credentials

Investors – driven by the changing consumer mindset and being seen to be “good citizens”, investors are looking for solid ESG reports alongside financial reports. There is also a case for better financial terms for companies with better ESG credentials

Internal workforce – ensuring the workforce have a good understanding of the environmental challenges and how to counter them is key for any organisational change. Having a strong strategy relies on strong education and training programmes behind them.

The need to develop internal capabilities

41% of respondents to the IEMA stakeholder survey indicated that “lack of experience and knowledge amount leaders” is a key blocker to developing green skills in their organisations. The lack of specialist talent to drive systematic change is core to this.

Often seen as a “nice to have” training in green skills is increasingly in demand and the shortage could result in missed commercial opportunities and lower long-term growth. To minimise the time spent on training, bite-size training, on the job development and learning by doing can be utilised. Knowledge boosters and tailored information can be shared through emails, posters, lunch-and[1]learn sessions, speakers at company meetings, or start-of-shift briefings. A strong sense of personal/ professional learning and development can be encouraged by certification, tailored learning and KPIs for each role.

Already working with IEMA:

These organisations have been trained through the IEMA training programme, most notably.

Contacts:

Toby Shaw [email protected]

Martin Baxter [email protected]

Lusine Manucharyan [email protected] - Regional IEMA representative