The Canadian Environmental Workforce is Changing.

The Fastest Growing Employment Sector in Canada.

Interest has grown significantly in sustainability and a collective focus on better environmental standards and accountability. Jobs and careers are varied and touch virtually all industries.

Part of our objective as a leader in labour market research is to name the jobs and career profiles within the environmental space to give you a clear picture of the work that is carried out in the name of responsible, economic growth in Canada.

Labour market research conducted by our team suggests that there are significant opportunities for Canadian workers to support and contribute.

Environmental Workforce Trends

Roughly 180,000 jobs will be added to the growing environmental workforce in the next eight to ten years
1 in 50 Canadians is employed as part of the environmental workforce
Nearly 600,000 people are part of the environmental workforce
Roughly 25% of this workforce is expected to retire in the next 10 years
The shift to cleantech and new solutions to energy efficiency and sustainability best practice is creating a vast range of roles in demand and new career profiles

Career Profiles

Every economic sector benefits from the contributions of environmental workers, even those that may not be directly involved in environmental and sustainability specializations. Environmental experts contribute directly to the success of firms in all industries, as the video below illustrates, featuring EP Designated environmental expert Kyle Paddon.

We maintain a library of career profiles and occupation descriptions that are updated regularly. These are meticulously scrutinized and curated to help employers, government, academics and job seekers understand the specific competency requirements, expected job duties and salary ranges associated with environmental work in Canada.

Access our Library of Career Profiles

The Environmental Workforce Defined

As environmental competencies and solutions have evolved over years, so too have definitions of the Environmental Workforce.

Our research team conducts extensive labour market research using survey data, secondary statistics from large government databases, and job ad data. For purposes of analysis and classification, we subdivide the aggregate workforce as follows:

Core Environmental Workers

These practitioners work in occupations requiring specialized environmental skills and training, wherein the skills directly relate to the National Occupational Standards.

Core Workers participate in any industry or occupation requiring environmental-specific competencies, such as an Environmental Advisor employed by a pipeline company.

Environmental Goods and Services Workers

These practitioners are direct employees of firms classified under the Environmental Goods and Services (EGS) sector, regardless of whether roles require environmental-specific competencies.

Example: an Accountant and an Environmental Manager employed by a manufacturing company.

For more information on how we classify environmental workers, and the environmental employment sector, please follow the link below to download our research report.

National Occupational Standards

Environmental Labour Research On-Demand

We are constantly working to provide the most up-to-date and relevant information to facilitate effective and informed decision-making pertaining to HR strategy and skill development.

Additional Resources