Wind turbines in Douglas, central Scotland, help produce clean energy. Photo by: European Commission/Audiovisual Service

Climate change and other environmental issues are becoming commonplace concerns for governments and corporations. This has created a niche particularly for consultancies and professionals that possess expertise in sustainable development.

Sustainability consulting groups have two sets of clientele: companies that have corporate social responsibility programs in industrialized nations, and international organizations and national governments especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

"We work a lot with the World Bank and AusAID," said Geoff Stapleton, co-founder of Global Sustainable Energy Solutions.

The Australia-based firm offers consulting, training and project management services to both private and public clients in Africa and Asia. It operates an office in Ghana.

In the past eight years, GSES implemented a number of projects to help teachers select solar home lighting kits in Papua New Guinea, for instance, and to carry out a World Bank-funded training course in the design and installation of solar photovoltaic systems in rural Sri Lanka. It also helped promote the use of solar panels in Malaysia, a project backed by the United Nations Development Program, and implemented a renewable energy training program in China and India funded by the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate.

Stapleton, an electrical engineer with a strong background in renewable energy, chairs the board of the Institute for Sustainable Power, an international nonprofit that seeks to expand and improve the use of sustainable energy. He also teaches in training programs certified by the group.

According to the Australian engineer, nonprofits like ISP, which collaborates with GSES in many of its projects, can be very effective in promoting industry sustainability in the developing world.

"NGOs seem to have the right drive," Stapleton said. "When NGOs work in terms of community capacity building, they can do a very good job."

Non-governmental organizations, according to 32-year-old French industrial engineer Jeremie Fosse, can prove even more effective than some private consultancies in the sustainability field, as they enjoy greater trust from civil society.

Along with a group of fellow Spain-based young professionals with an interest in the environment, Fosse founded Eco-Union in Barcelona in 2005.

Eco-Union works as an environmental consultancy, organizing trainings on sustainability-related issues for professionals in different fields.

The demand for services such as those provided by Eco-Union to food, construction, energy and other industry leaders, as well as to public administration officials and development NGO leaders, has been increasing over the years.

"There is a growing interest and a strong need," Fosse said. "We need to be able to advise the top management as there is a generation gap. Older people didn't learn these things at school as we did, so we need to educate the executives."

Eco-Union staff have strong academic backgrounds in technical fields and experience in business, administration and advocacy. According to Fosse, such qualities are crucial when advising professionals from different fields.

"We have been in all these sectors and we can bridge them," he said.

Professionals with expertise in sustainability are now in demand. International gatherings - such as the Off-Grid Power Conference this May 28 in Munich, Germany - are thus extremely useful to people of different backgrounds who share a common interest in the environment and for companies hoping to hire experts in the field.

Fosse's organization started the Global Eco-Forum in October 2008 and is currently organizing the 2009 meeting in Barcelona on Oct. 27.

"You have Davos and the Social Forum," said Fosse on why Eco-Union created the annual conference. "We want to be between economics and social. Between them you have sustainability and the environment. We want it to be a point of reference in Europe, the place where people who are interested in the environment come to express their ideas."

Fosse said last year's Global Eco-Forum saw participation of about 200 company executives, government representatives and students from business schools and technical universities across Europe. This year, he expects 300 to attend the event.

Eco-Union also set up an online social network to facilitate connections between participants before and after the meetings. Along with the Open University of Catalonia, it founded an online university to help students overcome geographical barriers in gaining knowledge of sustainability.

Networking is crucial for the industry, whose professionals need to be constantly updated on changes and news from the public sector.

"There are strong regulations and they need to know what is going to take place in the future," Fosse said.