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To meet today's global sustainability challenges, the corporate world needs more than a few chief sustainability officers—it needs , in all areas of business, thinking about sustainability in their decisions every day.

That means product designers, supply managers, economists, scientists, architects and many others with the knowledge to both recognize unsustainable practices and find ways to improve sustainability for the overall health of their companies and the planet.

Employers are increasingly looking for those skills. We analyzed job ads from a and found a tenfold increase in the number of jobs with "sustainability" in the title over the last decade, reaching 177,000 in 2021.

What's troubling is that there are not enough skilled workers to meet the rapid growth in green and sustainability jobs available.

While the number of "" grew globally at a per year over the last five years, the number of people listing green skills in their profiles only per year, according to a LinkedIn analysis of its nearly 800 million users.

As professors who train future workers in sustainability principles and techniques, we see several effective ways for people at all stages of their careers to gain those skills and increase those numbers.

Where sustainability jobs are growing fastest

In the U.S., jobs in the , over the last five years. Globally, the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is forecast to result in for the energy sector.

But green jobs go well beyond solar panel installation and wind turbine maintenance.

Sustainable fashion is one of the fastest-growing green jobs sectors, averaging a annually between 2016 and 2020.

The rapid expansion of ESG investing—environment, social and governance—and portfolio management is opening up new jobs in sustainable finance. In 2021, the accounting firm PwC announced that it would invest US$12 billion and create in ESG investing by 2026.

There is also a growing demand for urban sustainability officers who can help transition cities to be net-zero carbon and more resilient. After all, the world is adding and someplace on the planet every day.

In 2013, when the Rockefeller Foundation , a network to help cities become more sustainable, few cities had a resilience or sustainability officer. Today, more than 250 communities and 1,000 local government professionals are part of the .

The number of companies with in executive positions also from 9% to 28% between 2016 and 2021. But given the , these skills are needed much more widely within organizations.

So, where can you find training?

Most sustainability and green jobs require creative problem-solving, synthesizing and . Some of those skills can be learned on the job, but boosting the number of qualified job applicants will opportunities that target employers' needs. Here are a some training sources to consider.

University programs: Sustainability is increasingly being incorporated into a wide range of university programs. Fifteen years ago, sustainability training was mostly ad hoc—a product designer or economist might have taken a class in sustainability approaches from the environmental science department. Today, U.S. universities have with a "sustainability" label, up from 13 in 2008.

A National Academies recommends looking for a competency-based approach to sustainability learning that blends content with skills and links knowledge to action to solve problems and develop solutions.

Micro-credentials: For mid-career employees who to reinvest in full-fledged degrees, short courses and micro-credentials offered by universities, colleges or professional groups offer one way to develop sustainability skills.

A micro-credential might involve taking a series of courses or workshops focused on a specific skill, such as or into business operations.

Short courses and micro credentials take up less time and are much less expensive than college degree programs. That may also help train for sustainability jobs and diversify the field.

Specializations: A similar option is jobs-focused online certificate programs with a sustainability specialization.

For example, Google teamed up with universities to provide online courses for project managers, and Arizona State University is offering a to accompany it. Project management is an area where the expects to see fast job growth, with in the next decade.

Corporate training: Some companies have developed their own internal sustainability training in , , and other skills.

Integrating sustainability across all functions of companies will require some level of sustainability training and understanding for most if not all employees. Companies like , , and have created internal training programs to spread sustainability knowledge and practice throughout their companies, not just for employees who have sustainability in their titles.

Closing the gap

A recent of major companies found that only 43% of sustainability professionals in businesses had sustainability-related degrees, and 68% of sustainability leaders were hired internally.

It's clear that on-the-job sustainability training and up-skilling will be necessary to fill the growing number of roles inside of companies.

To meet the sustainability skills gap, we believe more training will be required—at colleges and universities, by professional organizations and from employers. Achieving global sustainability and meeting climate change challenges will become more likely as legions of people commit their working hours to sustainability solutions.

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