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Green skills initiative calls for industry-wide commitment

The City of London Corporation’s Skills for a Sustainable Skyline Taskforce has launched its new industry pledge to help support the recruitment and retention of young and diverse people in ‘green jobs’.

The Future Skyline Skills commitment aims to help boost the supply of skilled workers needed to deliver central London’s sustainable infrastructure.

The commitment is open to all UK built environment firms, including those involved with the delivery of sustainable housing. 

More than 50 construction companies and industry bodies have already signed up to the commitment, including the Chartered Institute of Building.

The commitment includes requirements to: 

  • Build – promoting more inclusive, safe and welcoming working environments to retain workers. 
  • Inspire – engaging with young people to promote career and training opportunities in the built environment. 
  • Lead – directly employing, training and nurturing new, untrained talent. 
  • Strengthen – collaborating with other employers to address broader sectoral skills challenges, including fostering collaboration on wider awareness of built environment jobs and apprenticeships.
Collective effort

The City of London Corporation launched the Skills for a Sustainable Skyline Taskforce in 2022 to bring together built environment leaders.

The aim is to collectively tackle central London’s green skills shortages across its commercial real estate. 

To better understand the current green skills landscape, the Skyline Taskforce published its evidence base, including a series of recommendations, in 2023. 

The recommendations included multiple solutions to address London’s commercial green skills gap, which are reflected in the Future Skyline Skills commitment. 

Chairman of the Skyline Taskforce and sheriff of the City of London Keith Bottomley said: “With the built environment sector one of the largest contributors to global carbon emissions, it is vital that we train our young people to be able to deliver the green infrastructure of the future. 

“This commitment, developed by the City of London Corporation and the Skills for a Sustainable Skyline Taskforce, empowers the built environment industry to shape a sector that is sustainable, inclusive and future-ready.”

‘More than bricks and mortar’

Bottomley added that the built environment is more than just bricks and mortar. “It is about people, progress and possibility,” he said.  

“By aligning expectations with capacity, we can support more meaningful engagement, reduce friction, and build the kind of workforce legacy the industry talks about but often struggles to deliver.”

For more information about signing up to the commitment, please contact [email protected].

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