The ‘green collar’ industry is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and today’s HR professional needs to know more about hiring and training employees with an entirely new set of skills, knowledge and understanding.

The Green Economy is serious business.  The report, Growing the Green Collar Economy argues that if the Australian government takes action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, national employment in this area will grow by 2.6 million in the next 20 years. Furthermore, more than three million existing employees will need to be retrained to work in more sustainable, energy efficient ways.

HR professionals need to act now to position their company in a way that can respond to these changing demands. Working together with senior managers and staff from both the strategic and operational sides of the business can help HR professionals to set green targets, understand changes in regulations and analyse how the rising costs of energy is affecting the business’ bottom line.

Mario Surjan, an Emissions Management Consultant with Carbon Planet warns that if businesses don’t prepare now for the introduction of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, due to commence in July 2011, their business will suddenly be behind the eight ball, particularly for those companies involved in any supply chain.

“This impending legislation will open up a whole new world that will impact on business in so many ways,” he said

“If companies don’t start training and creating jobs in this area now, we’re going to experience a huge skills shortage in this area.  Companies will be demanding skills like managing the business’s needs to  purchase permits and carbon credits, measuring and minimising its greenhouse gas emissions and managing increasing carbon and energy costs.”

Carbon Planet offers a three stage consulting plan to help businesses measure, manage and minimise carbon emissions from your business with a full cycle suite of services. Beilby Recruitment has partnered with Carbon Planet to offer workshops in Perth and Melbourne to help businesses understand and prepare their business to operate successfully within a  carbon constrained economy.