Green chemistry jobs are now booming

The green industrial revolution is happening right now. Governments, companies, and universities are all moving in the same direction. The UK government has made it clear that after the COVID-19 pandemic, their intention is to ‘build back greener’ and urgently pivot toward a green economy. To facilitate this shift, the government has set an ambitious goal of 2 million green jobs in the UK by 2030, alongside net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Green chemistry jobs will be a vital part of achieving these targets.

Green chemistry jobs in the UK

In November 2020, a group of 17 individuals from an array of disciplines were assembled by the UK government to form a ‘Green Jobs Taskforce’. They compiled an 82-page report which details 15 recommendations for how government and industry can deliver green jobs and skills. The report also points out that the scale of the transition to a green economy means that most jobs will become green to some extent. In the UK alone there are 410,000+ jobs in low carbon businesses (energy-efficient products, the solar sector, low emission vehicles, etc.); turnover in this sector was estimated at £42.6 billion in 2019. Meanwhile, the value of goods and services exported by these businesses was worth £7 billion.

Green chemistry jobs around the world

The green transition is not limited to the UK. According to the US Department of Labour blog, green chemists will be some of the most in-demand environmental professionals in the coming decade. In the US, a green chemist’s median pay was $79,300 in 2020 and they were typically educated to a bachelor’s degree level. There are currently 86,700 American jobs in this space, and annual openings are expected to average 7,300 between 2019 and 2029. The article also highlights a good selection of other environmentally focused jobs that are set to explode in demand.

Here in the UK, the demand for green chemists is also rising. Companies are looking to hire green or sustainable chemists, with recent job openings at Unilever, Croda, Kingfisher, GSK, and AstraZeneca, just to name a few. Most of these companies also offer on-the-job training to bring you up to speed and improve your skillset. Unilever provides extra scientific and professional training in their R&D academy, whilst GSK uses a platform called ‘myLearning’ which gives their employees access to over 2,000 skills training courses. Croda has focused on training their managers on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and carbon emissions to ensure a ‘trickle down’ of information, as well as maintaining an expansive repertoire of courses for their employees.

Training for green chemistry jobs

If working in a green chemistry job interests you, the typical place to start is with a university programme that provides specific courses on sustainable chemistry. York has a BSc course on ‘Chemistry, Green Principles and Sustainable Processes’ where you can partake in a twelve-month industrial research project, as well as MSc and PhD programs around green chemistry. The University of Bath houses the Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies for PhD students to carry out research, training, and outreach in sustainable technologies. Bath is also the first UK university to sign the Green Chemistry Commitment, which means that sustainable chemistry will be taught to all chemistry students from 2023. The University of Nottingham has an MSc course in ‘Green and Sustainable Chemistry’ and also has an award-winning carbon neutral laboratory.

Other resources to learn about green chemistry

If you’re not in the UK, don’t worry – there are plenty of courses around the world. Beyond Benign is a US non-profit dedicated to promoting green chemistry education around the world. A map is available here of all the institutions that have signed their commitment to green chemistry.

You can also check out this resource from the American Chemical Society to find out which Universities have green chemistry and green engineering programs across the world.

If your student days are behind you but you’d still like to learn about green chemistry, there are options for that too. BioYorkshire and The University of York have created a free online course designed to explore the ways in which the world is transitioning to a biobased economy. CoE BBE have also put together a free course called ‘Biobased Economy – Green Chemistry’ which teaches you the basics of the biobased economy from the comfort of your home.

You can also check out this great free course about chemicals and their impact on our health, which is critical information when working in green chemistry jobs.