This research explores how everyday Australian businesses are experiencing the transition to a clean economy.

We wanted to understand more about the drivers of change, and their relationship to emerging skills and workforce needs.

For the businesses already on this journey, we sought to understand how skills and workforce needs were changing. We also wanted to uncover examples of best practice to help others and inform policy directions and support.

For those less advanced, we wanted to learn more about any potential barriers to change, and if a lack of skills and capabilities was playing a part.

Overall, we wanted to provide a 'real time' snapshot of Australian businesses navigating this transition, including the factors driving their decisions and business strategies, and what that might mean for jobs, skills and workforce capabilities going forward.

We conducted 31 semi-structured interviews with a range of Australian businesses. The detailed interviews were conducted in July and August 2023, and provided both quantitative data and qualitative insights.

Interview participants were drawn from a broad range of industries including manufacturing, construction, engineering, health, food, electrical and packaging. There was only one business from the clean energy sector.

We interviewed 8 small businesses (19 or less employees), 22 medium sized business (20-199 employees) and 1 large business (employing more than 200 employees). Participating businesses were drawn from across the country, with 12 located in Queensland, 10 in Victoria, 5 in New South Wales, 3 in South Australia and 1 in Tasmania.

A summary of this research – and what it means for businesses – is also available here.