The ENDS Report’s annual review of the environmental sector has revealed there is an acute shortage of environmental skills and salaries in consultancies are ramping up fast as a result. Waste management is the skillset that heads the ‘in demand’ list.

One of the problems I have found with recruitment in the past is that many people entering the sector are coming from a scientific background rather than engineering. This means they understand the effects of pollution etc, but lack the knowledge of how stuff is manufactured which is essential when trying to stop that pollution occurring in the first place. The Engineering Institutes have worked hard to bring environment and sustainability issues into the engineering mainstream (sometimes in the face of stiff opposition from a crusty old guard), but there is still a way to go before the development of these skills is seen as an invaluable part of a young engineer’s training.