How green is your job, really?

We used AI to look at four million job ads, extracting the green skills mentioned within them, and combined this with the time spent on green tasks and industry emissions data. With this, we set out to gauge the greenness of different occupations.

We’ve made this accessible via the Green Jobs Explorer – a prototype tool to help people make more informed decisions about green jobs.

Perhaps you’re contemplating your own career path, or you might be tasked with setting policy for the green skills transition – the Green Jobs Explorer can help.

Thinking differently about green jobs

In this article, we outline some key findings, while providing ideas for how the tool can be used. We plan to update the tool with new data twice a year. The findings are based on data included in the tool from December 2020 to November 2023.

So what did we find?

1. There’s no such thing as a job that is ‘green’ or ‘not green’

There is growing interest in understanding green jobs in the UK. Definitions vary, but the typical narrative surrounding green jobs categorises them into a binary of 'green' or 'not green'. Our analysis suggests we need a broader view.

Consider your own job. The question isn’t simply whether your job is green or not; it's about how green your job is. Greenness depends on numerous factors – and we’ve produced three metrics as a lens.

These proxy measures are:

• the emissions of the industry that you work in
• the green skills that you apply in your role
• the estimated time that you spend on green tasks.

These three dimensions of 'greenness' show that there is no single type of green job. The dimensions interact with each other, revealing various shades of green across occupations, skills, and industries. 

2. Green skills are still a small part of most jobs

Occupations with the highest percentages of skills that are green include environmental consultants (22%), sustainability officers (19%), solar panel installers (19%), environmental and geo-environmental engineers (18%), and ecologists (17%). The most commonly requested green skills are implementing environmental protection measures (0.4% of all job ads), lean manufacturing (0.4%) and managing habitats (0.3%).

The average percentage of green skills that make up job adverts across occupations is low – at around 1.5%. This indicates that green skills constitute a small proportion of the total skills required in most occupations.  

3. More time is spent on green tasks in emissions-intensive industries

Industries with higher emissions intensity (GHG emissions per unit of economic output) often include occupations where more time is spent on green tasks. Occupations where less time is spent on green tasks are commonly found in industries with lower emissions intensity. The relationship between the share of green skills in occupations and emissions intensity is similar but to a lesser extent. 

Industries such as teaching, accounting, childcare and office administration exhibit a low degree of green tasks and skills. However, these professions typically operate within industries that emit very little for each unit of economic output. 

On the other hand, industries like manufacturing spend considerable time on green tasks. Manufacturing jobs often involve direct actions and innovations aimed at reducing environmental impact, such as improving energy efficiency, reducing waste and implementing sustainable production processes. These roles are inherently more emissions-intensive due to the nature of the manufacturing process but are also at the forefront of integrating green skills to mitigate these impacts.

4. Measuring ‘greenness’ offers a new perspective on the regional green jobs story

Providing more nuance around the definition of a green job to account for different aspects of greenness reveals a new green jobs geography.

The East Midlands emerges as the region that performs best across the two greenness measures related to tasks and skills. Despite being known for a high concentration of emissions-intensive industries, the East Midlands boasts the highest concentration of green-focused jobs, outperforming other regions in time spent on green skills.

The North East enjoys the highest share of green skills in job adverts, while its industries are middle of the pack in terms of emissions intensity.

London's job market exhibits the lowest emissions intensity, yet green skills and tasks are among the lowest in the country. Industries such as financial services, education, and wholesale trade may emit less, but in places where roles like accountants and software developers are more concentrated, there appears to be a lesser focus on green skills.

5. Job ads in Sunderland, North Northamptonshire, and Aberdeen contain the highest percentage of green skills, while those in Liverpool, Manchester, and London contain the lowest

The Green Jobs Explorer allows detailed geographic comparisons, uncovering green skill hotspots within regions. We observed variability in the proportion of green skills in job adverts. While not excessively large, this variation is notable. Particularly striking is that some of the UK's major cities, including London, Manchester, and Liverpool, rank towards the bottom of the list regarding the proportion of green skills in job ads.

Note: The chart shows the percentage of skills that are green in job adverts, aggregated by ITL 3 areas corresponding to selected major towns and cities in the UK, which together accounted for 55% of the four million jobs analysed. We grouped London ITL 2 and 3 regions together as job ads tended to give a generic location of “London”, resulting in an inflated number in the geographical centre of London.

Sunderland has the highest average percentage of green skills in job ads, with lean manufacturing being its top green skill. Although lean manufacturing is not necessarily green, its focus on minimising waste within systems may lead to more environmentally responsible practices and it has been categorised as a green skill within the European Commission's ESCO taxonomy.

Taking green skills and green tasks measures together reveals that certain UK cities and large towns have job markets with roles requesting a higher percentage of skills that are green and more time spent on green tasks.

Highlighting the most sought-after green skills in each location shows that Sunderland’s leadership in the percentage of skills that are green is connected to its manufacturing industries. London and Manchester have a lower percentage of skills that are green, with the promotion of innovative infrastructure design being the top green skill in these cities.

The Green Jobs Explorer indicates that in recent years, the demand for green skills has been driven by places like Sunderland, Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and Northamptonshire – areas outside of the major cities where the predominant industries are less service-oriented.

6. The essential role of soft skills in growing greener jobs

The Green Jobs Explorer offers a snapshot of the most requested ‘green skills’. It also reveals which skills that are not typically considered green co-occur with green skills – highlighting the importance of non-green skills in unlocking green ones.

The tool shows that developing skills like working in teams, coordinating activities with others or providing improvement strategies are fundamental skills – alongside typically green ones like implementing environmental protection measures or ensuring compliance with environmental protection measures.

We found that a significant number of the top non-green skills in green occupations relate to communication. This underlines the fact that we need not only people with green knowledge but also those with the communication skills to persuade others of the importance of transitioning to more sustainable methods. 

The role of transversal skills across many different occupations and industries is well-known – the Green Jobs Explorer reveals that green occupations are no different and transversal skills remain relevant. 

This finding could be used to inform training and qualifications, which could be tailored to develop a blend of skills that support the green economy, focusing not just on technical knowledge but also on the strategic, communicative, and managerial competencies needed to drive change.

The Green Jobs Explorer uncovers a detailed and nuanced view of the green job market today

The Green Jobs Explorer is powered by four million UK job adverts to provide a detailed view of the job market with a focus on green skills, tasks, and emissions. 

We’re aware that online job adverts are biased in certain ways. For one, they do not represent the full breadth of the labour market. Not all vacant positions are advertised online and, moreover, we are only able to collect a sample of online adverts. That means that we have a less clear read on the greenness of certain occupations, particularly jobs in primary industries (such as agriculture) as well as the performing arts (where work is typically awarded via contracts and auditions). In the Green Jobs Explorer, we have excluded approximately 250 of these occupations where we had less than 50 adverts on which to judge their greenness. 

An important additional consideration is that job adverts are tools for attracting candidates; therefore, they might not reflect the true nature of the occupations. For example, they might overly emphasise the green aspects of a job or the greenness of the company hiring.

Given these considerations, any interpretation of the results should be seen as indicative. However, the Green Jobs Explorer is an attempt to help different stakeholders understand and engage with the concept of green jobs more effectively by providing a nuanced and detailed view of the green job market today.

How might the information provided by the Green Jobs Explorer be used to inform the green job market and green skills policy?

• Our proxy measures demonstrate that there are important factors to consider regarding a job's greenness. They indicate that there is no such thing as a job that is 'green' or 'not green,' – the Green Jobs Explorer reveals aspects of greenness in various jobs beyond the traditional image of engineers in hard hats and high-vis clothing by wind turbines. By making our proxy measures available on major job boards, we could enable job seekers to broaden their understanding of green jobs. For instance, they could search for roles that require green skills or positions within low-emitting firms or sectors.
• We found that green skills still make up a small portion of most jobs. Monitoring green skills on an ongoing basis could support the transition to net zero by influencing sectors outside the ‘green’ economy; it would encourage them to share responsibility for reducing emissions by transitioning their workforces and industries.
• Higher levels of green skills in emissions-intensive industries, such as manufacturing and construction, will be particularly crucial in the immediate phase of the green transition. The Climate Change Committee's 'Balanced Net Zero Pathway' envisions reducing emissions from manufacturing and construction by 70% by 2035 and 90% by 2040 from 2018 levels. The presence of green skills in these sectors is key to achieving these targets through improvements in resource and energy efficiency, especially during the early stages. The Green Jobs Explorer might facilitate a benchmarking of industries to assess progress towards the green transition – with a focus on the development and demand for green skills.
• Measuring and mapping 'greenness' reveals a regional green jobs story, driven more by large manufacturing and industrial towns than by major cities. The presence of green skills in job ads in some areas could indicate a shift in the job market towards future-proof jobs that align with environmental goals. The tool allows policymakers focused on local economic growth to appraise the demand for green skills in their areas, enabling them to tailor educational and training programs to the specific local demand for green skills. Areas with similar industrial profiles could learn from the examples of Sunderland, Northamptonshire, Aberdeen, and Stoke-on-Trent, which are leaders in implementing green measures.
• Cross-functional skills play a crucial role in greener jobs, just as they do in other sectors. Findings from the Green Jobs Explorer highlight just how important they are because of how often they co-occur with green skills. Skills such as teamwork and communication will facilitate collaboration, advocacy and the implementation of innovative solutions to environmental challenges.