Demand among Singapore’s youth for careers in sustainability is strong, but the pipeline of green jobs is tightening as corporate climate commitments weaken, companies consolidate environmental, social and governance (ESG) roles, and artificial intelligence (AI) automates work once managed by junior executives.
Speaking to Eco-Business at the Sustainability Youth Festival (TSYF) 2026 in Singapore, students, sustainability professionals and young eco-preneurs described an increasingly competitive jobs market at a time of rising graduate unemployment and uncertainty within the sustainability sector.
Mandatory climate disclosure rules and rising corporate ESG commitments had fuelled strong hiring demand in sustainability reporting, carbon accounting and communications roles in recent years. But last August’s delay mandatory climate disclosure requirements for most listed firms by five years has slowed momentum for parts of the consulting sector.
Last week, Singapore sustainability consultancy The Transmutation Principle announced it would scale back operations and reduce staff, citing weaker demand for ESG services and growing exhaustion within the sustainability industry.
Kenny Lek, co-founder of seafood education platform Pasar Fish, said that while there has been a surge of talent into the sustainability sector as corporates have built out ESG teams, there was a danger that a green jobs “bubble” had formed.
Paddy Balfour, Asia Pacific managing director of sustainability recruitment firm Acre, said hiring conditions had softened significantly over the past 18 months as companies reassessed sustainability spending and completed major ESG capacity-building efforts.
“The market has definitely slowed,” Balfour told Eco-Business. “A lot of organisations have already built their foundational sustainability teams, so the volume of hiring we saw a few years ago is no longer there.”
Most hiring activity is concentrated at senior levels, he said, with experienced sustainability professionals moving between companies or into more commercially focused “value-driven” roles. Opportunities for junior-level entrants have become far more limited.
Meanwhile, AI is beginning to automate many entry-level tasks traditionally performed by junior sustainability staff. “Benchmarking against other sustainability reports can now be done by AI. A first draft of a sustainability report can be produced by AI,” noted a sustainability executive who declined to be named.
Other observers argued that sustainability work is not disappearing, but is shifting away from the communications-driven ESG boom of recent years towards a more pragmatic adaptation and infrastructure-focused economy.
Instead of roles centred on sustainability reporting and corporate storytelling, demand is increasingly emerging in areas such as climate adaptation planning, coastal engineering, heat resilience, energy systems and grid optimisation.
In her opening address at TSYF 2026, Goh Hanyan, senior parliamentary secretary for sustainability and the environment, said young people would need to develop new skills for a changing climate economy.
She called on youths to create ideas that can “collectively strengthen climate resilience and safeguard our way of life”.
Singapore’s branding of 2026 as the “Year of Climate Adaptation” signals a policy shift towards preparing for the physical impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures, sea level rise and extreme rainfall.
Goh pointed to the OCBC TSYF Changemaker Challenge as a platform for young people to develop adaptation-focused business ideas that are “practicable, relatable and actionable”.
She also noted that the SG Eco Fund — a S$50 million (US$39 million) government fund supporting community sustainability initiatives — has launched a new S$5 million (US$3.9 million) adaptation facility focused on heat resilience, flood protection and water conservation projects.
A team from EcoRind Creations present their idea of biodegradable tableware made from watermelon skins at the OCBC TSYF Changemaker Challenge. Image: EB Impact
Sustainability startup opportunities and obstacles
As the pipeline for corporate sustainability jobs tightens, more young Singaporeans are attempting to build their own ventures, often relying on government-backed grants such as the SG Eco Fund to get started, observers said.
The OCBC TSYF Changemaker Challenge, one of the centrepieces of the Sustainability Youth Festival 2026, saw youth teams compete for a prize pool of up to S$50,000 (US$39,000). Finalists showcased ideas ranging from a biodiversity literacy card game to water-soluble plastic bags and tableware made from watermelon rinds.
But several Singapore-based eco-preneurs said sustaining green businesses beyond the initial grant stage remains a challenge.
Lek from Pasar Fish said Singapore has become an attractive testing ground for sustainability-focused startups, but many ventures struggle to survive once early-stage funding dries up.
“Singapore is a great test bed for sustainability solutions, but going the distance is tough,” he said.
He noted that while startups such as sustainability app SusGain and urban farming initiative Corridor Farmers have established a foothold locally, many businesses launched with SG Eco Fund support have since faded from public view after receiving initial funding.
Since launching in 2024, Pasar Fish has reached around 18,000 people through seafood guides, workshops and educational port tours. But as grant funding becomes harder to secure, the startup is shifting towards more commercially viable services, including a guide to locally farmed fish and a seafood consultancy targeting hotels and large restaurant chains.
Young sustainability entrepreneurs also described cultural and financial pressures surrounding careers in the sector.
“Most Singaporean parents are not confident their children can pay the bills with a job in sustainability,” said Anna Susan Varghese, a 19-year-old electrical engineering student involved in a project repurposing expired face masks.
Lek said many young people interested in climate work remain cautious about entering a field perceived as financially unstable.
“A lot of people want to work in sustainability, but they also want financial security,” he said. “That’s why many end up trying sustainable finance.”
Yasser Amin, Singapore head of urban clean-up app Stridy, said the social value of environmental work is still poorly understood in a highly consumer-driven society, which makes ESG-related businesses hard to sustain.
“I’m up against Singapore’s consumerist culture, where people buy a single item with five plastic bags,” he said.
As growth in his business plateaued in 2025 after a strong 2024, Stridy has repositioned its approach away from purely environmental sustainability towards broader social and public health concerns. The platform now increasingly focuses on involving elderly residents in clean-ups and frames tackling litter in terms of addressing issues such as dengue, rats and crows.
“Telling Singaporeans to care about litter and clean-ups is not working. But peoples’ eyes light up when we talk about active ageing and addressing issues that are linked to urban litter, such as dengue, rats and crows,” Amin said.
