Integration of Green Competencies in Entrepreneurial Practices for Sustainable Development of the Industry

Abstract

Today, industrial enterprises face the challenges and opportunities of the green transition, sustainable development, and digital transformation. In their long-term entrepreneurial strategies, there are significant investment costs related to increasing sustainability and imposing circular practices. A significant part of them is focused on training human resources to understand environmental and sustainability issues and knowledge about the possible impacts of human activity on ecosystems. Such an effort leads to a paradigm shift in the way the industry operates and to the search for new management approaches to training people. Such training is an invariable element of the transformation of the economy toward a green and circular economy. Thus, the focus of attention is on new competencies, knowledge, skills, and experience, which are critically important for going through the transformation of the industry toward green and sustainable strategies, policies, and practices. Based on the research, a specific set of competencies has been analyzed and formulated, defined in their entirety as green competencies. The aim of the study is to derive the requirements for the competence profile of workers in industrial enterprises, with an emphasis on their environmentally and socially responsible behavior. As a result of the study and analysis, guidelines for integrating green competences into entrepreneurial practices for sustainable industry development are indicated, which can contribute to the development of the entire economy.