According to the Government’s Green Jobs Taskforce, the UK is aiming to create up to two million climate jobs by 2030. These roles will be vital in enabling the transition to a green economy. However, the climate narrative is now so urgent that we need to view all jobs as climate jobs – even those existing roles which may not have an obvious connection to the environment.
To accelerate meaningful climate action, we need to ensure everyone is equipped with at-least basic climate skills, especially in the food industry where decarbonisation is critical and there are lots of opportunities to make a positive impact.
However, just 12% of the food industry workforce is confident in their understanding of climate and sustainability issues. Furthermore, research from Veris Strategies has found that vast majority of people working within the sector (78%) believe their employer has a responsibility to help them understand how they can tackle climate change.
Climate upskilling will therefore be vital for our industry.
Effective climate upskilling means moving away from siloed thinking and dedicated sustainability departments. It makes sustainability a consideration for everyone in a company, and empowers them to apply their existing skills and thinking to a shared challenge, while giving them the opportunity to adapt their role to meet new demands. And there’s an appetite for it: one study by PwC found that 77% of employees are ready to learn new skills in response to changing workplace needs.
Many climate jobs involve hard, technical skills, but soft ‘fusion’ skills that unlock proficiencies and promote creative problem solving in order to implement greener practices can be developed by employees at all levels and in all roles. Every employee experiences their company differently, so whether it’s understanding energy consumption to improve efficiency, or getting a handle on the wider issue of food waste to prevent unnecessary losses, everyone has something to bring to the table, and climate upskilling helps to facilitate that.
At Future Food Movement, we have identified four areas to support the industry: certified upskilling, inspiration, collaboration and future generations underpinned by community. This means everyone in the organisation can tap into upskilling and nudges, with stretch opportunities for employees, enabling them to take on projects outside their usual remit.
Upskilling ensures a company’s workforce is better equipped to meet future sustainability challenges (read the latest retailer collaboration from WRAP here) , attracts future talent, motivates current colleagues (read about conscious quitting here), takes action on climate anxiety and creates a sense of inclusion in working together towards a common goal. It’s a win-win for everyone.
What climate upskilling can you do with Future Food Movement? As a Business Member you can access all these programmes at a discount plus extra benefits to develop the skills and knowledge to help workforces become agents of change:
Are you on the Board?
- boards for climate certified upskilling for all members of the board
Are you a manager, or senior leader?
- 6 week accelerator programme for managers + future leaders
- hot topic certified masterclasses for managers + future leaders
- certified carbon literacy programme for managers + future leaders
Are you in category management?
- category marketing accelerator programme for customer facing teams
Are you simply wanting to improve your climate knowledge in your own time?
- elearns for anyone in the organisation to improve base level understanding
- join the ally community to access on demand and live events
Contact us if you’d like to join the growing group of forward-thinking food and drink organisations who are already Future Food Movement Business Members – we are here to be an ally to the food industry, regardless of where you are on your sustainability journey.
