Energize Alberta Features
Green growth
- Details
- Category: General
- Written by Jim Bentein
Plenty of career opportunities in environmental fields
Going green is a growth industry—and the job openings in the sector throughout Alberta and Canada reflect that.
“It is one of the fastest growing areas for new job creation in Canada,” explains Joel Pagnucco, senior manager of employer services for Calgary-based ECO Canada, which was established in 1992 to make Canadians aware of the potential in the environmental sector and help recruit workers for the industry.
“I’d recommend young people looking at training for jobs in the area look at the work we’ve done, so they understand what sub-sectors are growing the most.”
For instance, he says it might not be a good idea to aim at a job in “sustainable forestry,” since the forestry industry in Canada is in decline.
Conversely, the oil and gas industry is a growth area, as evidenced by the growing demand for environmental advisors and other green jobs in the oilpatch.
“Given the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and ducks in the oilsands [a reference to the incident where hundreds of ducks were trapped and died in a Syncrude Canada tailings ponds near Fort McMurray], you’ll see more job openings in that industry,” Pagnucco says.
Oil and gas companies are searching for people “who can develop their environmental strategies,” he adds.
WIDE-RANGING NEEDS
But the oil and gas industry isn’t the only area where
people with environmental training are needed—
they are required in virtually all of Canada’s industry segments, from manufacturing to mining to the power-
generation sector.
“There’s a particular shortage of intermediate and senior environmental managers—people with the education and experience to assume leadership roles.”
ECO (Environmental Careers Organization) Canada is one of 30 sector councils established by the federal government to help deal with worker shortages in industries ranging from trucking to health care to energy.
The Calgary-based Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada (PHRCC), which is supported by 11 oil and gas national and regional organizations and the federal government, and which focuses on the oil and gas sector, is also one of the 30 councils.
ECO Canada works with the PHRCC and other organizations in helping to identify the needs of various industries for environmental professionals.
In addition, ECO works with secondary and post- secondary school systems throughout Canada to make them aware of the opportunities in the field, oversees scholarship programs for students taking green-industry training, works with education providers in the environmental field, maintains an awards program for companies involved in the sector, produces regular studies about the area and maintains a job board.
For the last decade, ECO has offered a certification program for professionals in the field. Once known as the Certified Environmental Practitioner designation, it’s now called the Environmental Professional certification, the only one of its kind in Canada that provides professionals with formal recognition of their competency.
To date, about 750 environmental professionals have received the designation and another 750 or so are in the process of getting it. “You need at least five years of experience in the field and peer recognition to receive the certificate,” Pagnucco notes.
In addition, in tandem with Victoria’s Royal Roads University, ECO has created the Canadian Centre for Environmental Education, which offers an environmental certification program that takes the best online environmental university and college courses and combines them into one certificate. There are more than 25 institutions participating.
It also offers Canada’s first certification program for greenhouse gas professionals, which is being administered by ECO.
POSTINGS APLENTY
While not all environment-related jobs in Canada are posted on ECO’s website (www.eco.ca), many are. Most recently, there were about 70 postings, with 27 of them specifically in Alberta. Those included positions with consulting and engineering firms, the cities of Calgary and Spruce Grove, one with oil and gas producer Penn West Exploration and another with Newalta, which specializes in oilfield environmental services.
A recent study conducted by ECO illustrates just how huge the environmental sector is.
The study, Profile of Canadian Environmental Employment, was the first attempt in Canada to measure how many jobs there are overall in the sector, with data being gathered from more than 2,200 employers. The results were surprising, even to Pagnucco and the other more than 40 employees at ECO.
It showed that four per cent of the Canadian labour force, or over 682,000 employees, are spending at least 50 per cent of their time on environmental work. Two million Canadian workers overall are required to do at least some environmental activities as part of their jobs.
But the growth in environmental-related jobs, as with the growth in jobs overall in Canada, is most notable in the Wild Rose province.
“About 38 per cent of the jobs posted on our website are from Alberta,” says Pagnucco. “That may be partially because our head office is in Calgary, but it probably also reflects the growth in the oil and gas industry.”
In another recent study that looked at trends in the sector, ECO divided jobs in the sector into two broad categories: environmental protection and resource management.
The first section includes such sub-sectors as waste management (including hazardous wastes), air quality and climate change management, and water protection, treatment, supply and conservation. Protection of biodiversity and landscape, noise abatement and remediation were also in this category.
The second category includes natural resource management, alternative fuels, and heat and energy saving and management. It also includes other professions like teaching and accounting, where some workers increasingly deal with the environment.
The ECO study predicts that the greatest growth in the overall sector will occur in climate change mitigation, renewable energy and energy efficiency, and alternative-fuel vehicles.
