The whole world lies at our fingertips, and the ocean at our doorstep. The crippling climate lens has blanketed our every decision, down to the very air we stimulate. From the lightning echo of boardroom strategies to the rising tides of frontline hiring, climate consciousness is raising the need for a sustainable existence. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 identifies climate-change mitigation as the third-most transformative trend, with 47% of employers planning climate-focused business shifts by 2030. The race to restore a withering planet has sparked a seismic shift in how we envision work, who we welcome into its core, and which skills we choose to nurture for a livable tomorrow.
Green jobs: From fringe to framework
At the epicenter of this green transition, ebbing through corporate corridors, CHRO dashboards, and HR pipelines, lies a critical question: How do we build a workforce that not only survives the future but also regenerates it? India’s economy has already begun to bloom toward sustainability, and nowhere is this shift more visible than in the labor market. A report from NLB Services projects 7.29 million new green jobs by FY 2027–28, with an additional 35 million by 2047. Green jobs are no longer just leaves dangling on a fringe; they are becoming the canopy under which industries will seek shelter and flourish.
Purpose meets pipeline: HR’s role in building a regenerative workforce.
The birds of a sustainable future are soaring, and TechHR 2025 is the nest where these bold ideas hatch, land, and take off again, flying higher than dashboards and reskilling modules. The skies are clearing, and HR is no longer the co-pilot; it is the wind beneath the wings of a workforce that must be not only future-ready but planet-ready. For CHROs, the green shift is more than a hiring trend; it's a strategic reset. Take the Mahindra Group, where climate-linked KPIs now guide leadership performance like a compass steering toward greener horizons. Or Infosys, where internal academies nurture carbon literacy and sustainable tech incubators of a new breed of talent.
Innovation at the Roots: Stories of Bold Green Leadership
“In the past 4–5 years, we’ve seen green jobs evolve from niche roles to mainstream opportunities across renewable energy, EVs, and sustainable infrastructure,” notes Sachin Alug of NLB Services. At TechHR India 2025, this momentum holds an umbrella for reimagined roles, new career paths, and a national conversation about being “workforce-ready” in a climate-resilient future. Alug adds that India’s green workforce “needs both sustainability know-how and digital fluency,” as technologies like AI, IoT, and GIS become core to the green economy.
Planting custodians, not just trees: What Peepal Baba teaches us about workforce regeneration
Such citizen action and leadership echo CHROs’ goals: building a workforce aligned with sustainability in terms of job and culture. Hero Future Energies is one example of walking the talk. With 500,000–600,000 renewable jobs expected by 2027, CHRO Bhawna Mittal is working with academic partners to future-proof talent. Her goal: “To ensure incoming talent is equipped with future-forward capabilities.” The World Economic Forum ranks environmental stewardship among the top rising workforce skills. Indian companies are embedding this into leadership DNA. Tata Power’s HR team incorporates sustainability into leadership development and manager KPIs. And while boardrooms shape the branches, it’s grassroots community action that waters the roots of change. Nowhere is this more embodied than in the work of Peepal Baba, founder of Give Me Trees Trustand a featured guest at TechHR 2025.
With over 20 million trees planted, his hands have created forests from dust to dreams. His urban forest projects, including Delhi-NCR’s “Uday Upvan,” mobilize thousands of volunteers to create green spaces, often on public land with CSR support. “We don’t plant trees,” he says, “we plant custodians of the future.” In the shadow of rising temperatures and shrinking timelines, his work reminds HR leaders that regeneration isn’t a corporate initiative; it’s a collective instinct. And tomorrow’s workforce must be trained not just to work in the world, but to work for it.
The green skills gap: What we know vs. what we can do
Yet, every transformation begins in a cocoon. While green jobs unfurl across industries, only 6% of roles today are truly sustainable, leaving many workers grounded in outdated maps. The World Bank warns that without a people-centered strategy, built on labor intelligence, lifelong learning, and inclusive skilling, the green transition may remain patchy. For India to steer this climate wind, we must nurture both technical skills like renewable engineering and the softer roots of leadership, stewardship, and systems thinking.
From skills to stewardship: What the workforce of tomorrow needs today
With a young population, expanding renewable sectors, and deep cultural ties to environmental consciousness, India holds immense potential. But here’s the kicker. While demand for green talent has grown exponentially, only 1 in 8 workers globally and fewer in India possess even one green skill. Deloitte’s 2025 Human Capital Trends report points to an emerging ‘experience gap.’ Companies are hiring for ESG roles, but candidates often have book smarts, not real-world readiness to tackle regenerative business models. This ‘learned but not lived’ disconnect puts added pressure on HR teams to rethink the traditional training-to-performance pipeline. To truly green India’s growth engine, CHROs must become architects of a new kind of workforce, one where skills are built for impact, inclusion, and innovation.
Where green careers take flight: The role of TechHR India 2025
The green shift isn’t just a trend;, it’s a full-scale talent transformation. And CHROs sit at the helm of whether we build a workforce that keeps up or leads the way. India’s climate opportunity is massive, but only if we match vision with velocity. TechHR India 2025 is where this leadership is activated. It’s a launchpad where strategies turn into stories, and bold ideas take root. Whether you're a founder, a policymaker, or a people leader, this conference is your front-row seat. The future is here, and it’s green, inclusive, and vast. And its odds are in favor of being built right now, at TechHR India 2025.
