Considering a career in sustainability? Here are some of the benefits:
Here are a few roles you may consider.
The solar revolution kicked off in earnest around 10 to 15 years ago, and continues to grow.
Solar panels reliably supply power without the need to burn fossil fuels, and are being installed in all countries.
A solar PV installer will install systems on rooftops, or may be involved in the installation of large ground mounted systems. Depending on the country you are from there may be licensing requirements. Cable connections to and from the inverter – the component that connects the solar panels to the electrical grid – have to be undertaken by a licenced electrician. If you start off as an assistant, there is a career path to becoming an electrician (involving study and licensing).
With solar technology ever improving, this is a sector where there is lots of opportunity to learn. A solar PV designer will undertake the electrical design of a system. Designers will usually be using software tools to help with the design, and need an understanding of electrical engineering. Smaller systems can be designed by electricians, larger systems usually require electrical engineering expertise.
There are also career opportunities in equipment testing and certification, sales, and solar business management. Upstream in the supply chain there are opportunities in assembly and manufacture.
Another green job you might consider is becoming a recycling plant technician. There are a range of career paths. You could get involved in municipal recycling, which involves sorting, crushing and packing material sent in for recycling, such as paper, plastics, etc. There are
opportunities in machine operation, machine maintenance, and the design and manufacturer of recycling machinery. Additionally, with increasing focus on the circular economy, there are opportunities in science and engineering to create and invent new processes to recycle and reuse waste that would otherwise end up in landfill.
There are opportunities in recycling for mechanics, fabricators, maintenance technicians, operators, chemists, biologists, engineers, researchers, managers, and others. Who knows, you could become the next Isaac Newton in the recycling field!
As we move from centralized energy grids, based on large coal or nuclear powered power
stations, to distributed energy resources (DER) new electricity networks are being built, and
energy generation equipment will increasingly be found in remote regions. When people need to gather information in the field to inspect energy generation and transmission infrastructure, or for monitoring wilderness areas, water pipelines, or similar, individuals usually need to travel from one place to another. This process is not only time-consuming but also polluting. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, can cut down the time required and amount of pollution, and there are opportunities in this area for those who are tech savvy.
Working as a drone operator, you’d be responsible for operating and monitoring UAVs. It can be like playing a video game, only the sights you see and the information you gather are real. Sadly though if you crash your drone, sadly a few mouse clicks won’t restore it! Perhaps you can become a top gun, famed for never crashing.
If you like coding, machine learning, AI, linear algebra and similar you may like to get into
semi-autonomous or autonomous drones, which you program to do tasks that might otherwise be pretty boring (inspecting a powerline) but which are important in keeping remote solar and wind farms operating. Or perhaps you can get into micro-drones, e.g. for inspecting air conditioning ducts and equipment to enable maintenance to help it continue to operate at high efficiency. There are also opportunities to create purpose built drones. Can you imagine building yourself your own robot? Or coming up with new ways to combine hardware and software to help achieve sustainability outcomes? It’s exciting and fulfilling at the same time.
Being an environmental engineer/scientist means you get to assess human activity and its effects on the environment. From these environmental impact assessments, you design interventions to control the damage, or to regenerate what was lost due to human behaviors.
You can choose a specialization if you want to focus more on air, soil, or water management. You might even consider learning all, to broaden your career options.
There are opportunities in consulting leading projects, in research and in innovation.
The last job on this short and incomplete list is to consider becoming a sustainability manager. This career is one of the most rewarding yet one of the most challenging professions in sustainability.
As a sustainability manager you’ll usually be working in a larger business, and taking
responsibility for helping the company become more sustainable. You’ll help your company
make more effective decisions leading to improved social, economic, and environmental
outcomes. You’ll likely collaborate or liase with the government, the community, and your fellow experts. Your responsibility is to mitigate environmental problems, create interventions, and suggest solutions to environmental concerns.
If you are looking to a new career, or starting out for the first time, it can be hard to decide which way to go. In this article I’ve aimed to give you exposure to just a few of the many sustainability careers, both those which are well established, and new and emerging careers.
These are only some of the many fulfilling green jobs in the sustainability industry. No matter what you choose, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you are working for the good of the environment, and all of us, by helping improve the health of our planet earth.
Are you looking forward to boosting your career? You might like our next article about the seven habits to boost your sustainability career.
Get notified about new articles