Green Skills in Facilities Management: What They Are and Why They Matter
Green skills are the practical knowledge and abilities needed to run, maintain and improve buildings in ways that cut energy use and carbon emissions. In facilities management, that ranges from commissioning a heat pump correctly to reading energy data and acting on what it shows.
They matter because a building’s design only sets out its potential. A new building can be handed over with heat pumps, smart controls and sub-metering on every floor, and still cost more to run than forecast a year later. More often than not, the technology isn’t the problem. The question is whether the people running it have the skills to make it work as intended.
We asked Kevin Mcguane, DMA Group’s Energy Services & Pre-Construction Director, to explain what green skills are, where the gap is showing up, and what the industry can do about it.
What are green skills?
Green skills are not a separate category of work reserved for sustainability specialists. Most build on trade and engineering skills the industry already has. What changes is the technology people work with and the outcome they are working towards.
Some are technical: commissioning and servicing heat pumps, or setting up a building management system (BMS) so heating and cooling aren’t working against each other. Others are about data: reading meter information, spotting a building that uses as much energy at 3am as it does at 3pm, and knowing what to do about it.
It also helps to separate green skills from green jobs. The UK government’s Green Jobs Taskforce describes a green job as work that directly contributes to, or indirectly supports, the UK’s net zero target and wider environmental goals. Green skills are what people need to do that work well, and many of them sit inside roles that don’t have “green” in the job title.
“People hear ‘green skills’ and picture a brand new workforce,” says Kevin. “Most of what we need is already in the industry. It’s the engineer who understands that a heat pump behaves differently from a gas boiler, or who looks at the BMS and asks why the heating and cooling are running at the same time. That’s a green skill, even if nobody calls it one.”
What green jobs exist in facilities management?
Green jobs in FM cover installation, maintenance, monitoring and planning. Common roles include:
- Heat pump and low-carbon heating engineers, who install, commission and maintain air, water and ground source systems
- BMS and controls engineers, who set up and fine-tune the systems that decide when plant runs
- Energy managers and analysts, who track consumption, find waste and turn data into action
- Retrofit coordinators, who plan and oversee energy upgrades to existing buildings
- Electrical engineers working on solar PV, battery storage and EV charging
Many of these roles start from an existing trade, which is why apprenticeships and upskilling routes matter so much to anyone considering a career in FM.
Why do low-carbon buildings need green skills?
Low-carbon buildings need green skills because their savings depend on how they are run, not just how they are designed. A design is a set of intentions. Whether it delivers lower bills and lower emissions depends on what happens day to day once people move in.
A heat pump set up like a boiler runs inefficiently. Controls get overridden to fix a comfort complaint and never get reset. Time schedules drift out of step with how the building is actually used. None of these is a dramatic failure, but together they quietly erode the savings the building was designed to deliver.
Energy Manager Magazine makes the same point: when facilities teams lack sustainability skills, low-carbon buildings fall short of their specification. That puts M&E maintenance and day-to-day FM at the centre of net zero, not on the edges of it. It is also why decarbonisation capital projects need the operational side planned in from the start.
“Every decision made at design stage assumes someone will be there to operate it properly,” Kevin explains. “If that assumption doesn’t hold, the building never performs the way it was meant to. Making sure it does is one of the most practical things our industry can do for net zero.”
How big is the green skills gap?
The green skills gap in FM is real and measurable. SFG20’s State of FM 2026 report found that 42% of businesses still have a significant skills gap in their FM teams, and 32% named sustainability and energy management as one of their biggest gaps, alongside compliance and digital skills.
Specialist low-carbon trades show the same pattern. Energy UK’s Clean Heat: Jobs and skills for the future report puts the number of accredited heat pump installers at around 8,650 in late 2025, against a Climate Change Committee target of just over 40,000 by 2030. That is close to a fivefold increase in four years.
Taken together, the figures describe a workforce being asked to take on new technology faster than training can keep up.
How can the industry close the green skills gap?
The fastest progress comes from the people already in the industry. Energy UK’s research reaches the same conclusion, finding that most clean heat jobs in the near future will be filled from the existing workforce.
Upskilling existing engineers is the quickest route. Someone who already understands mechanical and electrical systems can learn to commission and maintain low-carbon plant far faster than a new entrant can learn a trade from scratch.
New entry routes matter too. Apprenticeships and career changers bring fresh capacity, and green roles can be a real draw for people who want work with a visible purpose.
Data skills run through all of it. Low-carbon plant only delivers if it’s properly maintained and kept compliant, and depending on its refrigerant, a heat pump can bring F-gas leak checks that a gas boiler never needed. Engineers who keep accurate records of what’s installed, what condition it’s in and what’s due are the ones who keep a building on track, and that same information shapes better decisions about what to replace and when. It’s one reason DMA’s BiO® platform gives engineers and customers real-time visibility of asset and compliance data across the estate.
“The skills gap won’t be closed by recruitment alone,” says Kevin. “There simply aren’t enough people coming through yet. The quickest progress comes from investing in the engineers you already have, and giving them the time and training to work with new technology confidently.”
Frequently asked questions about green skills
What are green skills?
Green skills are the knowledge and abilities needed to reduce the environmental impact of how buildings are run and maintained. In facilities management, they include low-carbon heating, building controls, energy monitoring and retrofit, along with the data skills to track and improve performance.
What is the green skills gap?
The green skills gap is the shortfall between the skills the UK needs to meet its net zero goals and the skills the workforce has today. In FM, it shows up as a shortage of engineers who are confident with low-carbon technology, building controls and energy data.
Do you need a new qualification to work in a green job?
Not always. Many green jobs build on existing electrical, mechanical or plumbing trades, with extra training on specific technology. Some areas, such as heat pump installation, have their own recognised qualifications and certification schemes.
Why do green skills matter for building owners?
Low-carbon buildings only deliver lower bills and emissions if they are operated and maintained properly. Without the right skills on site, heat pumps and building controls can run inefficiently and erode the savings they were installed to achieve.
How DMA supports greener buildings
Green skills are only part of the picture. Our energy and sustainability services cover everything from energy audits and carbon baselines to decarbonisation roadmaps and investment planning. Our Projects and Engineering team on the Capital Projects side then delivers the upgrades, from heat pumps and solar PV to smarter controls and building fabric improvements.
