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.
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