The green skills emergency and the Greenworkx mission

Updated in October 2026 to reflect how our work has grown since we launched.

In the summer of 2022, the UK issued its first ever red heat warning, and households faced historically high energy bills. The case for generating and saving more of our own energy had never been clearer.

Each of these challenges points to the same answer: more green infrastructure, from home insulation and heat pumps to solar panels and electric vehicle chargepoints. Every piece of it needs skilled people to install it, explain it to residents and get it right first time.

The green skills emergency

We call the gap between the work the energy transition needs and the people ready to do it the green skills emergency.

It is not only a question of numbers. A new installer, assessor or resident liaison officer has to be ready for live, regulated work on day one. Experienced teams have to keep up as standards change around them.

Our mission

That is why we started Greenworkx, on a mission to power 10 million people in green jobs in the next 10 years.

I had spent my career bringing people and policy together, from running employability and skills programmes to advising at No 10 Downing Street when the UK legislated for net zero. That summer, I saw that the climate crisis and the social challenges I had worked on were one and the same problem. People are how the energy transition gets delivered.

What comes next

In part 2, we explain how we pursue that mission today: by helping the organisations that deliver the transition get their teams ready, and keep them ready.