Sustainability Workforce
Demand for sustainability-related skills in the job market has increased by nearly 40% since 2015.
These unique skillsets are needed in energy, manufacturing, transportation, IT, finance, insurance, health, hospitality and tourism, marketing and communications, agriculture, business services and government jobs.
Universities are playing a pivotal role in shaping the leaders of tomorrow who will tackle the challenges of our changing world. Schools like the University of South Carolina are adding sustainability curriculums and concentrations in response to CEOs and businesses identifying sustainability as a top priority for their businesses.
The University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business now offers a Sustainability in Business Undergraduate Concentration which allows students to deepen their understanding of the key environmental, social, economic, and governance issues facing society today. While the Moore School has offered sustainability-related classes for the last 15 years, it wasn’t until the fall 2022 semester that an undergraduate concentration was available for students.
The Sustainability in Business concentration requires 12 credit hours which includes a core course offering the basics behind sustainability. So far, 14 students have pledged to complete the concentration.
Dr. Kealy Carter, clinical associate professor at the Darla Moore School of Business, said Sustain SC was pivotal in helping establish the concentration.
“Sustain SC has helped us highlight some of the business needs and interests in this program. There were some members of the university that we were trying to work with that benefitted from hearing that business perspective from Sustain SC,” Carter said. “It was great to have a group of members from the business community in the room to say we need students that have certain skill sets and understandings of sustainability.”
Carter said the Moore School will continue to expand its sustainability opportunities with a certification for graduate students.
“We really want to get involved with offering executive education courses or certificates in and around South Carolina,” Carter said. ”This is a topic that everyone says they are interested in, we are just trying to pin down what they are interested in learning.”
The Moore School recently joined ClimateCAP, a partnership of more than 35 business schools from across the world working together to educate MBA students by providing them with the skills and insights they will need to lead in climate action throughout their careers.
“Joining ClimateCAP gives MBA students a chance to go deeper with sustainability,” Carter said. “Sustain SC played an integral role in influencing both the certification and the ClimateCAP partnership. This is the start of something really special that will have a lasting impact for years to come.”
Founded and led by the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, ClimateCAP partners include Harvard, Northwestern, NYU, Yale, MIT, and others.
The impetus in interest sparked another initiative. Sustain SC launched the Sustainability Workforce Accelerator in the fall of 2023. The project seeks to identify and remove barriers through innovative thought leadership, partnership, and action to create a robust workforce with sustainability skills for 21st Century economic development in South Carolina.
“As the head of HR for a global company, these green skills are critical for moving South Carolina forward,” said Michael Morris, Director of HR at ZF Transmission. “We need a robust workforce to help us transition from combustion to EV engines and it will take a multi-generational approach in order to make it happen.”
Morris served as a panelist at the first STEM2030 Future Skills Workforce Accelerator event and has been a champion for ZF’s workforce development, which is focused on retaining and training existing employees on various green skills initiatives.
