CIOB’s president, Professor Mike Kagioglou, and head of environmental sustainability, Amanda Williams, will both be attending the COP29 conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, later this month. In advance of the event, the organisation has pledged its support to the #GreenSkillsAtCOP campaign
As the world’s leading professional body for construction management and leadership, we were thrilled to give our support to the #GreenSkillsAtCop campaign.
We signed up ahead of this year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, which I am delighted to say I will be attending alongside Mike Kagioglou, CIOB’s president.
For readers who may not be aware of the campaign, it has been led by the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA) and calls for green skills to be integrated into national action plans for biodiversity and climate change.
From the top, IEMA believes that without the right education, skills and jobs in place, we will struggle to meet global targets, so they are pushing for the integration of green skills into national workforces as a vital aspect in delivering the action plans. That is something which I, as the CIOB’s head of environmental sustainability, absolutely agree with.
Construction faces a green skills shortfall
We know from various pieces of research conducted over the last few years that there is a shortfall of around 500,000 workers in skilled trades in the UK alone, just to bring the national housing stock up to a minimum energy efficiency standard of EPC C by 2030.
What’s more, the built environment is responsible for almost 40% of energy-related CO2 emissions, and addressing this has the potential to accelerate the transition to a net zero future.
Addressing the deficit
By joining the #GreenSkillsAtCop campaign, we hope to encourage the government to give proper focus to the issues the industry is facing and to put measures in place to address the deficit.
The CIOB was pleased to see homebuilding become one of the flagship policies of the new Labour government since they took the helm in July – but we need to ensure that new homes are built to high sustainability standards and there must be an urgent focus on improving the existing housing stock.
We were also encouraged to see Skills England recently acknowledge the importance of ensuring there is a healthy supply of workers with green skills. CIOB will continue to work closely with Skills England to understand the links between crucial industries, particularly construction, and the future emphasis of a workforce with skills for the
climate transition.
But we cannot talk about improvements unless we start talking about who is actually going to deliver them.
As has already been made clear, the construction industry is crying out for more people in green-skilled roles, from sustainability managers to workers trained in things like heat pump installation and retrofit coordination, as well as ecologists to deliver requirements like biodiversity net gain.
But this transition won’t be delivered by people in “green jobs” alone, and there is also a green skills gap among many existing trades – where new technical skills, knowledge and capabilities may be required to use different technologies or materials, and new practices such as modern methods of construction.
The CIOB has long called for the creation of a green construction skills fund to be introduced, which could help fund a pipeline of workers who are trained with these specific skills. It was a significant part of our own pre-election manifesto and is an area where we know other bodies across the construction industry are keen to see action.
As one of the priorities in the CIOB manifesto, we will continue to push the government on this.
Embedding sustainability at every level
Finally, it is worth highlighting that “green skills” is a broad term and we should be mindful that to fully embed sustainability into everyday life, we need every job role at every level of every organisation in every sector to become “greener”.
It’s not just about specific green skills but also transferable skills and sustainability awareness. Essentially, all jobs need to be greener, and everyone has an important role to play in that transition.
For me, that starts with training. There needs to be a variety of both online and in-person training options that cater for different learning styles. These could include hands-on and practical learning, as well as opportunities to make use of virtual reality technology or flexible options for people already in employment, such as learning on the go.
In summary, urgent focus is needed to reduce the green skills deficit the industry is facing. Everyone has a role to play in that, including the government, employers, the education sector and professional institutions like CIOB.
CIOB will continue to work closely with the government to encourage more focus on green skills and joining an excellent campaign like IEMA’s #GreenSkillsForCOP initiative is a small step on the journey to a more sustainable built environment.
