Climate Workforce Coalition
Building the Workforce to Achieve Vermont’s Climate Goals
Problem: To accomplish the work necessary to reach Vermont’s 2020 Global Warming Solutions Act commitments, Vermont must scale up the climate workforce, at a time when finding qualified workers is already challenging.
Vision: Vermont will have enough workers to reach its 2030 Climate Action Plan commitments. This workforce will be diverse in race, gender, age, and geography. They will be well trained, supported, and compensated, and have clear career pathways. Employers will have the tools they need to scale up their businesses, recruit new employees, and upskill, train, and retain employees with best human resources practices.
Coalition: Since 2021, Energy Action Network (EAN) has convened a Climate Workforce Coalition, recognizing that meeting Vermont’s required greenhouse gas emission reduction targets will require training thousands of Vermonters with the skills to electrify our transportation sector, install clean energy solutions, weatherize homes, build net zero commercial buildings, and sustainably manage our working lands, forests and waterways. Right now we are not sufficiently building and sustaining this climate workforce pipeline. There are approximately 19,000 Vermonters who currently participate in occupations that are part of Vermont’s climate workforce – far short of the number we need to keep pace as policy is put in place to lead the transition forward. The coalition has done work targeted at potential employees, employers, and more generally looking at data, funding, communications and analysis.
Employee-Centered Work
- Supporting the Weatherization Training Center business planning process organized by Efficiency Vermont and the VT Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) and funded by a Department of Energy grant. This work is geared toward aligning training opportunities and services for weatherization and other Climate Careers.
- Conducting outreach to students and college and career navigators at events like the CTE conference, Women Can Do, and the Youth Environmental Summit, and online. Development of materials for students and college and career navigators, and a new Pathways to Climate Careers webpage on MyFutureVT.
- Collaborating with six community organizations (CVOEO, ReSOURCE, Rights & Democracy, St. Johnsbury Community Hub, Vermont Energy Education Program and Vermont Works for Women) to learn about how people in different demographics might view job opportunities in the climate workforce, and how they get information about jobs. The findings from these focus groups were compiled into the 2023 Climate Workforce: Community Feedback & Findings Report. This research was built upon for a high school student survey to complement the information from the focus groups.
Employer-Centered Work
- Coordinating with Efficiency Vermont to start a Talent Pipeline Management project in 2024 with a focus on weatherization and heating electrification workforce.
- Supporting the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund (VSJF) in developing a business training program for companies that want to do more in renewables and efficiency and need support on business fundamentals through a cohort learning program and one-to-one coaching.
- Hosted a webinar on Low and No Cost Strategies for retaining workers in February 2023.
- Coordinating conversations about weatherization workforce barriers and solutions.
Communications, Analysis, and Funding
- Analysis of Vermont’s current climate workforce to understand the scale of this sector, as well as the barriers, pipelines, and pathways to climate careers.
- Collaboration with students from Middlebury College and University of Vermont on Climate Workforce research and a climate jobs campaign.
“Climate Workforce” defined
Clean energy workers
+
some foresters, farmers, teachers…
=
~19,000 Vermonters (more than 6% of the VT population)
EAN Climate Workforce Coalition Resources
- Climate Workforce videos – 2024 – created by Middlebury College Students
- Printable information sheet about the Climate Workforce Coalition – winter 2025
- Climate Workforce: Community Feedback & Findings Report from community based focus groups – released March 2023 (additional 2023/24 Climate Workforce: High School Survey Findings)
- Pitch Video to the EAN Network about the need for a Climate Workforce team – 2021
Coalition Partner Resources
- MyFutureVT – Climate Workforce Landing Page
- Efficiency Vermont resources for trade partners
- Serve Learn Earn Coalition
- ReSOURCE
- Vermont Energy Education Program
- VT Adult Learning
- Weatherization Assistance Program Recruitment Website through Green Workforce Connect
- Vermont Department of Labor (including apprenticeships, Vermont JobLink, etc.)
- Office of Economic Opportunity Weatherization Training Center
- UVM Professional and Continuing Education (UVM – PACE)
- VT Works for Women
- Vermont Youth Conservation Corps
- Sustainable Energy Outreach Network (SEON)
External Resources
- Clean Energy Industry Reports – produced Annually for the Clean Energy Development Fund | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | all reports and additional resources such as slide presentations (look part way down webpage)
- The J. Warren & Lois McClure Foundation – Vermont’s Most Promising Jobs
- Green Buildings Career Map
- Green Workforce Connect
Climate Workforce Coalition Partners
Advance Vermont – Association of General Contractors – Building Performance Association – Capstone Community Action – City of Burlington Community and Economic Development Office – Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity – Efficiency Vermont – McClure Foundation – Neighborworks of Western VT – Office of Senator Sanders – Regional Planning Commissions – Renewable Energy Vermont – ReSOURCE – Rights and Democracy – SEON – Serve, Earn, and Learn – St Johnsbury Community Hub – Unions – University of Vermont – VT Adult Basic Education – VT Afterschool – VT Business Roundtable’s Talent Pipeline Management – Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility – VT Agency of Natural Resources – VT Career and Technical Education Centers – VT Department of Corrections – VT Department of Economic Development – VT Department of Labor – VT Department of Public Service – VT Office of Economic Opportunity – VT Office of Historic Preservation – VEEP – VGS – VNRC – VT State Representatives and Senators – VSJF – Vermont Technical College – Vermont State University – VT Works for Women – VT Youth Conservation Corps
If you are interested in learning more or getting involved in this project, please contact Cara Robechek cara@eanvt.org.
Note: Network Action Team projects were selected by the Network membership through a competitive process at the EAN annual summit. Although Network members may support specific policy actions as part of their work on these Action Teams, EAN staff serve in the role of neutral convener and refrain from advocating for specific policies.