Building the restoration workforce in North America

Clearing invasives in a state park, U.S. Courtesy of Accenture, 2025.

There are two great converging challenges facing young people today – (1) the collapse of the entry-level jobsmarket due to economic uncertainty and the looming trend of an agent-based AI “workforce” and (2) increasing environmental impacts from the loss of natural ecosystems and climate-driven changes affecting not only physical wellbeing but also mental wellbeing of people under 30. Building the restoration economy could help directly alleviate both crises.

It is estimated that the restoration economy in the U.S. will contribute $30B in GDP in 2025 (nearly doubling from 2015), providing more than 300,000 jobs. Globally, the restoration economy has been growing at 10% per annum and is set to surpass $1T by 2030, due in part to multilateral policy efforts like the Bonn Challenge, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and Target 2 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Despite the enormous potential for ecological restoration in the U.S. and Canada (148M acres in the U.S. and 47M acres in Canada are suitable for reforestation) its overwhelming popularity on both sides of the aisle (the Biden Administration pledged to restore 15 million acres supported by conservative groups like the American Conservation Coalition), the growth in this emergent sector is still sluggish relative to the rest of the world. What will it take to 10x the U.S. restoration economy -- $200B in GDP and 3 million jobs by 2030? Who are the key players in the space, and what are the obstacles in their way?

These are the questions addressed in a new research project in partnership with Accenture Corporate Citizenship and led by the Nature Data Lab. Interviews will be conducted with 50+ experts, building upon the findings of Accenture’s recent internal desk research, “Resilient Careers that Restore Mother Earth” for U.S. and Canada. Together, we're identifying the top 10 geographies most in need of restoration and detailing 9 nine cross-cutting workforce gaps that need to be addressed to move the restoration economy forward in North America.