New year, new job?

Despite wider gloom in the jobs market, Vicky Kenrick says talented utility and sustainability professionals are in great demand right now.

International efforts to rein in energy use and emissions, together with other global trends such as a burgeoning population with the associated strain it places on natural resources and waste disposal, are creating job opportunities in specific fields of utility work. Growth areas include: renewable energy, energy engineering, energy management, carbon and climate change, water engineering and waste management.
Within the energy sector, much attention must be given to renewable energy. Global investment in renewable energy increased by 30 per cent between 2009 and 2010, reaching levels of £156 billion. This growth is attributable not only to utility companies seeking to comply with carbon emissions reductions requirements, but also to corporate organisations’ sustainability efforts.
In fact, it is clear that renewable energy is increasingly becoming an integral part of corporate sustainability. Many companies are choosing to examine their supply chains and procure from renewable energy sources. There is also an increased trend for larger corporations to invest in or build their own windfarms. 
RenewableUK predicts more than 250,000 new jobs created will be created in the European wind sector over the next decade, and at sustainability recruitment specialist Allen & York we are already experiencing a demand for candidates in the wind sector. Specifically, there are a growing number of job opportunities for project managers in the UK due to a rise in windfarm sites being identified and with the number of wind sites increasing. The grid transmission sector is increasingly playing a central role in windfarm development too.Candidates for the roles of grid connection development engineer and of principal consultant in transmission and distribution, can be looking at £90,000. 
In addition, we are seeing an increased demand for environmental impact assessors and project developers to find suitable sites, undertake the audits, carry out the environmental impact assessments and so forth, which is required pre-­project. This is a growing technical area and skilled professionals in social impact assessment, within renewable energy in particular, are rare and in demand on a global scale. 
Elsewhere, it is likely that businesses will increasingly seek to hire specialist climate change and carbon management professionals. How corporations manage their carbon emissions and reduce their impact on the environment is likely to become a competitive battleground, as corporate environmental sustainability strategy is increasingly embedded within the culture of organisations, forming part of their triple bottom line. The Environment Agency’s recently unveiled Carbon Reduction Commitment league table is testimony to the move in this direction. 
At Allen & York, our energy services recruitment team is witnessing an increased demand for carbon consultants and energy and carbon managers and directors, all of whom are at the frontline of providing expertise and delivering solutions to major energy users from industry, commercial and public sectors. Account director level roles carry salaries of up to £80,000. 
Water is another sector in which demand for highly skilled professionals is on the increase. Globally, population growth is putting intense pressure on water resources, which is exacerbated by increasing agricultural farming, global mining activities and energy production – and all against a background of climate change. New roles, intended to better manage the global water supply, are being created. 
Well-educated, skilled and experienced water engineering professionals are required, more than ever, to operate and manage vital water and wastewater treatment services. The demand for such professionals is already high and will only increase over coming years, as environmental standards for water quality increase and pressures on our water supplies continue to grow. We have a number of water engineering, flood modelling and hydrologist career opportunities available. 
Aside from the more mainstream employers in this sector, many leading technical organisations are rapidly recruiting water engineers who have experience within water and wastewater treatment projects. Salaries can reach up to £50,000 and there are excellent prospects for such specialist candidates. Corporates also are increasingly looking to sharpen up their act on water, as water management is becoming a key focus in managing a sustainable business. So there are opportunities among such employers too. 
Finally, the waste management sector is another to receive an injection of job opportunities based on a number of up and coming trends, including population growth and changing consumption patterns driven by the evolution of Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDP/c). Obviously, both a bigger population and the remarkable growth of global GDP/c will drive an increase in waste volumes: it has been estimated that a 1 per cent increase in national income creates a 0.69 per cent increase in solid waste. 
Cultural changes will bring more specific changes too. The demand for agricultural goods is expected to rise by 70 per cent by 2050 and the demand for meat to double. Besides the serious issues related to food production and sustainability, these changes will alter the waste composition in a large part of the world. The rapidly growing stream of electronic waste is another major challenge stacking up for the future waste management industry. Such challenges, combined with the controversial nature of exporting waste outside of the European Union, into China and other Asian countries, all leads to the need for better and more efficient waste management infrastructure. 
Allen & York’s waste recruitment team is seeing a rise in waste management roles – specifically within waste and resource efficiency, energy from waste and waste engineering. Improving waste management operations, water minimisation and energy from waste processes are all key to these roles and this is an area in which new technologies within anaerobic digestion and biogas production are offering new and challenging job prospects. 
So although the recession has affected the global jobs market, the sustainability industry is not suffering as much as other sectors. Indeed, job creation in the expanding sectors described within this article could actually help the global economic recovery. Sustainability, and specifically the discipline of renewable energy, is a sharply rising trend that will create more sustainable job opportunities. The increase in the world population points towards a greater stress on our resources and the vital need to address sustainable energy development, water management and waste infrastructures for our future generations. All of which requires rare, technically skilled and specialist ­professionals. 
Vicky Kenrick, marketing, at international sustainability recruitment specialist Allen & York.

This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 13 January 2012.
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