Creating Tomorrow’s Greener Leaders           

As we transition into a low carbon economy, there will be a significant amount of retraining required.  A standard accountant will need to understand carbon accounting and a facilities manager will need to understand green building and design. On the sustainability journey, businesses need to adapt to remain competitive globally. So says Lisa Tarry of Turning Green.

By Lisa Tarry, Managing Director of Turning Green

 The Green Steps session of the Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS) conference opened with the million dollar question – what are green skills?  Is this just political rhetoric or new jobs for new sectors? 

To dive deep into this area there are a number of key reports that have produced official analysis – ACF, ACTU, UNEP, EIANZ and whilst it is safe to say that ‘green’ roles certainly fall into specific technical environmental areas the extent of change we will see across industry will be far broader reaching. 

As we transition into a low carbon economy there will be a significant amount of retraining required.  For example a standard accountant will need to understand carbon accounting; a facilities manager will need to understand green building and design and we will all need to keep up to date with the sustainability journey as businesses are forced to adapt if they are to remain competitive globally.

Green Steps were ahead of the game when they created a program to offer sustainability training and internships.  This program was born out of Monash University in 2000 when a group of entrepreneurs and activist students responded to the challenge they could see required within organizations to change in the face of sustainability. 

Drawing on a cross discipline of participants including sports management, property management, marketing and communications, environmental science and international business students, Green Steps has continued to survive on federal government grants coupled with some income from industry.

They seek to address the gap between theory and practice through two phases; Sustainability Training and Internships.

The Sustainability Training program runs over two weekends and offers the following content:

- Environmental Auditing

- Change management

- Communications

- Action planning and strategy

It is a highly interactive course with a large focus on group work and all facilitators are past participants.

I asked Mark Boulet, the Green Steps Program Manager at the Monash Sustainability Institute if the content provided students with the tools to communicate how sustainability can positively impact the bottom line of a business.  According to Mark, the change management piece looks at where a company is at on their sustainability journey, and the communications aspect looks at the key drivers and levers to push / pull for optimum outcomes. 

In my view, if we are to transition business forward in the best way, it’s crucial to be able to reframe the impact of sustainability in a language that finance professionals understand.  Cross-functional stakeholder engagement is critical.  As we learned from Leith Sharp, Founder of Harvard’s Green Campus Institute in the previous session that day, social marketing, peer-to-peer engagement through engagement ambassadors and in-house competition creates great social interaction to integrate sustainability thinking throughout an institution.

The Internships offered by Green Steps are real sustainability projects that are paid over 12 days.  Hosts include private business (banks, energy companies, retail and manufacturing), Government, Not for Profit and Schools.

Typical internships include:

- Environmental assessments

- Education and behavior change

- Sustainability reporting

- Action planning

- Research

The Green Steps at Work is a four-day program delivered over a number of weeks that covers basic skills auditing and communicating change.  This program is offered to individuals tasked with sustainability responsibilities within organizations as well as passionate champions.

Outcomes of the Green Step Programs:

65% of graduates get involved in sustainability work

40% of internships resulted in further work

200 tonne of GHG saved per intern

Aside from these statistics, Green Steps are proud to report that past participants include the founder of AYCC (Australian Youth Climate Coalition) and Larissa Brown, founder and Executive Director of the Centre for Sustainability Leadership.  They have also won the Banksia Award for environmental achievements.

Whilst it is heartening to hear about the great achievements of past students, the Green Steps program is no longer receiving federal grants as a result of the ETS delay.  There was a suggestion that a task force be formed to brainstorm future survival tactics.  This is not a bad idea.  The task force would consist of each participating University representative – from the Careers Unit, School of Environment or Facilities and collectively a solution could be found – collaborative sustainability in action.

Source: www.turninggreenconsultants.com.au