Why green jobs are resilient to AI substitution 

Last month, I had a conversation with my daughter about what she wanted to do with her life. She likes the idea of being a lawyer, but isn’t sure whether that job will still be around by the time she leaves school.

She is not alone in being nervous about her livelihood. But advances in artificial intelligence are happening alongside the energy transition. To understand the intersection of these two mega-trends, my colleagues and I at the Futerra Solutions Union, an independent nonprofit that exists to push the cultural narrative on climate and nature toward solutions, commissioned a report that examines how green jobs will be impacted by AI.

Green jobs should be an extremely compelling proposition. We already know that they pay more than the national average and that green skills are in high demand. To examine the impact of AI on these roles, our partners at the consultancy CBI Economics and the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a nonprofit, asked whether the occupations supporting green activity today, and those expected to grow as the energy transition progresses, have lower or higher potential to be carried out by AI. 

There is no single definition of green employment, so the analysis covers parts of the green labor market, including the renewable energy and low-carbon transport sectors, as well as green apprenticeships offering roles such as horticulture operative and crop technician. And while this is U.K.-focused research, it’s applicable to other markets. These occupations are found, to a greater or lesser extent, across the world’s major economies. 

The conclusions of the report — Green Advantage: Employment in an AI-Enabled Economy — are clear: green jobs are more resilient to AI substitution. 

• Nearly all green apprenticeships in England (96 percent) lead to jobs that are harder for AI to replace, compared with around three-quarters of all apprenticeships.
• Ninety-four percent of the additional clean energy workers the U.K. government says are needed by 2030, such as wind turbine engineers, are in roles where AI is more likely to support the work than take it over.
• Across the wider green economy, more than four in five green jobs are in roles less exposed to AI substitution, compared with around three in four across the U.K. workforce.

What does this mean for those of us working in corporate sustainability? 

Selling sustainability 

It can be hard selling sustainability in a downturn. Use this analysis in your decks and conversation to make the point that momentum is growing again for corporate sustainability. The anecdotes it contains can help whether you are pitching internally for more resources, persuading your board to stay the course or motivating your team. 

Talent attraction and retention

Use this frame if you are hiring, particularly for trades and technical teams. Attract the best talent by making your employer proposition one of resilience and long-term stability. We also need to help existing workers update their skills as AI and green technologies develop. Make this part of your talent retention program.

Future-proof your own career

First the bad news: “Corporate responsibility and sustainability practitioner” has a large proportion of research, reporting, communications and information-processing tasks, which generative AI is increasingly able to support or perform. That means it has a higher potential for AI substitution. 

But ask yourself if your job also meets the components of “AI complementarity,” meaning the role can benefit from AI rather than being replaced by it. These include the level of responsibility, consequences of error, importance of interpersonal interaction, level of human judgment, as well as the training and expertise required to perform the work. 

Share the findings with younger generations

As the mother of two school-age children, this research has made me think completely differently about what constitutes a good job for them. I now counsel my kids to think about trades, technical, operative or installation occupations. Roles that involve doing and building things while exercising human judgment. 

Keep going

For the corporate sustainability community, my main conclusion from the report is that we truly are in the decade of delivery. The most resilient roles, highly in demand, are those in clean energy, low carbon transport and other roles that support the transition. Renewable energy employment in the U.K. grew almost two-thirds between 2014 and 2024, while low-carbon transport jobs increased almost three-fold — evidence of a changing economy that needs people with the skills to make it happen. This is a genuinely exciting proposition.

Futerra Solutions Union will bring this research to new markets in 2027. Our methodology uses O*NET occupations, which use the U.S. Standard Occupational Classification, ensuring it is replicable for the U.S. market. If you are interested in partnering with us, get in touch via hello@futerrasolutionsunion.org.