A recent survey conducted by Eco Canada of cleantech employers in Canada to assess market and industry trends.  Specifically, ECO Canada surveyed cleantech employers to uncover in-demand occupations, skills, trends, and opportunities facing the sector and its workforce.  The survey was conduct prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a global level, clean innovation is a trillion-dollar industry. Investments, activities and jobs in clean technology are expected to grow further, likely exceeding $2.5 trillion by 2022. While Canada has potential to become a market leader, ensuring an adequate supply of skilled workers is vital to supporting the sector’s growth.

ECO Canada surveyed 81 cleantech employers to gather relevant data such as in-demand occupations, skills, trends, and opportunities facing the sector and its workforce. Their responses provided the following key insights:

  • Employers that hire cleantech workers come from a variety of industries such as Natural Resources, Utilities, Construction, Manufacturing, among others.
  • Increased demand, corporate environmental commitment, and overall growth are driving cleantech revenue amongst businesses surveyed.
  • More than half of respondents plan to hire cleantech positions in the next 12 months, but they are experiencing shortages in a variety of occupations, and skills.
  • Some employers are implementing strategies to address labour shortages, however broader workforce solutions are needed to ensure an adequate supply of skilled workers are available in the months and years to come.

What is Cleantech?

In the survey, Eco Canada defined Cleantech as any technological process, product, or service that:
1) provides superior performance or lower costs than the current norm or standards,
2) minimizes negative environmental impacts, and
3) makes more efficient and responsible use of natural resources.

In other words, it is any technology that uses less material or energy, generates less waste, and causes less negative environmental impacts than the industry standard.

Download the report to get more insights into the cleantech sector.

About Eco Canada

ECO Canada is the steward for the Canadian environmental workforce across all industries. The organization is involved in job creation and wage funding, environmental training and labour market research. For over 25 years, the not-for-profit organization has forged academic partnerships, tools, and research not only to train and certify environmental job seekers, but also to help address labour and skill shortages.