ESG Recruitment

​In a recent article for the Financial Times, Acre's Client Director, Head of Private Markets & Real Assets - EMEA, Helen Pradas-Page, discusses the "green hiring spike" the world has seen in recent years, the growing demand for specialist knowledge, and the opportunity to hire people from the non-profit sector. In addition, Helen addresses the transition of industry professionals from environmental non-profit groups to financial firms that the demand for climate specialist knowledge has resulted in.

​In a recent survey, KPMG UK found that environmental, social and governance factors influence where UK office workers want to work. Some 20% said they had turned down a job because the company’s ESG commitments were not in line with their values, a number that rose to one in three for 18- to 24-year-olds. 

As companies look for ways to turn sustainability commitments into action, finding and keeping the right talent and expertise is a big part of the challenge. 

​Talk of progression and urgent solutions reverberated throughout the COP27 crowd, during the long-drawn-out summit, as leaders made a desperate bid to clinch climate deals.

Delegates from 190 countries gathered for the global climate conference in Egypt to discuss the required action to effect climate change adaptation, climate finance and decarbonisation. However, the event in Sharm-el-Sheikh overran by several days (making it the third longest COP in history) as leaders battled to thrash out agreements, giving cause for disheartenment in the wake of COP27 by the lack of certainty surrounding how progress can be accelerated.

​Following the UN’s recent report announcing there is “no credible pathway to 1.5°C in place”, taking action to operationalise the Paris Agreement has never been more urgent.

The reality is that, despite the window dressing that says otherwise, the transition will only take place if long-term capital is funnelled into unequivocally credible decarbonisation-focused solutions.

The problem lies not in the fact that the market lacks these solutions, but in the startling truth that people without the necessary understanding, experience and skills have been tasked with orchestrating change quickly.