More and more people, especially early career workers, want jobs fighting climate change. But when we think about climate work, we tend to imagine only a small number of activities, like integrating renewables into the grid or planning cities to be resilient against flooding and fires. We often overlook jobs in another key climate technology sector: biotechnology.
Biotech is often perceived to be synonymous with pharma. That makes sense, since the vast majority of biotech products we hear about are drugs, like mRNA vaccines, gene therapies, or insulin. But today, thanks to technical progress, falling R&D costs, and advances in manufacturing, many non-health sectors are turning to biotech to solve some of our biggest issues. This is because biotech lets us ferment all kinds of physical goods, in the same way we ferment beer and wine, instead of extracting them from petroleum, plants, or animals. This approach saves energy, land, and water.
Companies are being founded around the globe to create biotech versions of goods like nylon, cement, silk, textile dye, and sunscreen that are far more sustainable than their conventional counterparts. Others are already getting squalene from yeast instead of sharks and culturing oil from bacteria to reduce crop land. And new biotech companies are even growing trees with enhanced photosynthesis to pull more carbon out of the air. These solutions will be critical to addressing the climate crisis.
The companies developing these products say they have found staggering environmental savings compared to conventional products. Modern Meadow measured an 80% reduction in carbon emissions, 95% reduction in land use, and 95% reduction in blue water use from their bio-based leather alternative compared with conventional leather. Cronos Group reported that fermenting cannabinoids instead of extracting them from the marijuana plant resulted in 99% less CO2 emissions and 98% less water consumption. LanzaTech found that leveraging their fermented biomass-based ethanol as a fuel resulted in a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional gasoline.
And these companies aren’t alone. Similarly compelling measurements are cropping up across the economy. In total, a recent McKinsey report estimated that near-term biotech applications could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 7% to 9% by 2040.
Given the staggering potential for biotech to provide environmental savings, you might wonder why it isn’t already a hallmark industry for climate jobs. To make that a reality, two shifts are needed.
First, the biotech sector needs to change its historically exclusive hiring practices. Unlike the biomanufacturing sector, which has historically been more inclusive in its hiring practices, the biotech R&D industry has given the implicit (or explicit) signal that only individuals with the most advanced education — those with Ph.D.s or at least master’s degrees — need apply. Those programs are not only inaccessible to the vast majority of society; they also don’t produce graduates fast enough to keep up with demand. Most importantly, as the technology has matured, most roles no longer require the highly advanced scientific knowledge these programs teach, so they have been an unnecessary barrier.
Luckily, on this front, there has been some progress already. Companies are starting to reconsider their hiring attitudes. Over the past decade, the biotech R&D sector has started to learn from its biomanufacturing counterpart that bachelor’s degrees, associate’s degrees, and even certificate programs are more than adequate training for most of its workers. It’s critical that we accelerate this trend, by scaling existing programs, creating others to fill gaps, and encouraging more companies to modernize their hiring practices, to increase the accessibility of climate careers in biotech.
Here in Massachusetts, several compelling programs are being developed. Ginkgo Bioworks, where I worked until recently, has partnered with Franklin Cummings Tech, a longtime leader in training Boston-based technicians, as they launch an A.S. degree in Biotechnology Manufacturing. The education nonprofit MassBioEd has an apprenticeship program that takes four months to train individuals who have no experience in biotech and then place them at partner companies for one-year apprenticeships. The trade association MassBio recently launched a training center in the Boston Globe’s old building in Dorchester to train Bostonians for entry-level roles. To fully change the culture and unlock biotech as a climate tech, programs like these will need to be greatly expanded.
The second shift that is needed is for high schools and universities to start incorporating biotech into their climate curricula. A decade ago, as an undergraduate majoring in environmental science and minoring in biochemistry, I found that there was rarely cross-over between the two subjects. My environmental sciences professors were more likely to view biotech as exacerbating environmental problems than as a relevant potential solution to the climate crisis. Because of this association, they didn’t put careers in biotech on the radar for students like me interested in fighting climate change.
Ten years later, despite the many examples of biotech being leveraged for environmental goals, it seems that not much has changed. I was pleased to see Claflin University recently introduce an M.S. in Biotechnology to Mitigate Climate Change. While the interdisciplinary program is a significant step, as Claflin describes, it’s also the first (and seemingly only) of its kind. Significant investment and attention should be made to expanding this kind of curriculum and collaboration.
To reach its potential as a transformative climate solution, the biotech sector will need a major influx of climate-focused workers. More accessible workforce development pipelines and more integration with environmental training and leadership can help us get there.
Lily Fitzgerald is the former associate director, policy and partnerships at Ginkgo Bioworks, where she previously also worked as an engineer. She has an M.S. in technology policy from MIT and a B.S. in environmental Science from UMass Amherst.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and not an expression of those of her current employer.
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- Source: https://www.statnews.com/2023/09/05/climate-change-biotech-jobs/?utm_campaign=rss