Want to know if environmental jobs pay well, and which environmental job pays the most? We’ve rooted out 7 of the highest paid environmental jobs in the UK for you to dig into.
There’s a huge range of jobs related to agriculture, the environment and the natural worls available in the UK. We’ve covered the bases on how to get into a environmental career for all kinds of roles, from being an ecologist to starting out as an agricultural engineering technician. You can take a practical approach or an academic approach to build your skills and knowledge, and you don’t always need a degree. Over time you can also become qualified in your field – and that’s often where the big bucks lie.
Environmental Health Manager
Up to £45,000 a year
Starting pay: Around £19,000
As an environmental health manager you’ll be focusing more on the world of people than the natural world of plants and geography and animals. However, these worlds can coincide. Your role as an environmental health manager is to make sure business environments are clean and healthy and safe for people and livestock. You could be investigating outbreaks of food poisoning, disease or pests, and making sure environmental health laws are properly carried out.
One way to build up to this role is to start out as a pest control technician, then build on your skills to become an environmental health officer.
Ecologist
Up to £45,000 a year
Starting pay: Around £19,000
So what is the REAL relationship between plants, animals and our environment? Ecologists get to study the links between the environment and all living things. Ecologists can work in all kinds of places – in labs, offices, the great outdoors and even underwater. If you’re interested in life sciences you could look at how to conserve fish populations for generations to come, or even how to help hedgehogs cross motorways with special hedgehog tunnels.
WEIRD FACT: You can become a Bat Ecologist who specialises in making sure bats aren’t harmed by human activity. But to do this you’ll need an official Bat Licence!
Environmental Consultant (Eco Consultant)
Up to £60,000 a year
Starting pay: Around £22,000
You play a big role in helping organisations and people work together to ensure the land is sustainable for plants, wildlife, and generations of people to come. People will come to you for advice on all kinds of environmental challenges including waste management, recycling, flood risk and the effects of climate change. Every day on the news we hear more about the dangers of materials like plastics and new solutions to deal with all our waste. Consultants like you can make a BIG difference to keeping our world green.
Landscape Architect
Up to £45,000 a year
Starting pay: Around £20,000
Looking for an outdoors job that often involves travel? As a landscape architect you get to design, create and manage landscapes for people to live and work in. You could be working on anything from a community garden to the grounds of a mansion. Your job isn’t just to make green spaces look pretty. You will also get to survey sites to see what kinds of wildlife and plants they have that might need protecting, and you will also report on the impact any landscaping might have on the environment.
Land Surveyor
Up to £70,000 a year
Starting pay: Around £20,000
Land surveying is a very important part of the construction industry, and your work has an impact on how the natural land and resources will be treated by big business. You’ll be keeping an eagle eye on:
- Mapping the land using digital images, satellite photos and many other tools
- Doing land surveys and checking possible effects on the environment
You may not need a degree but you will need accreditation from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) to become a land surveyor at a senior level.
Farm Manager
Up to £50,000 a year
Starting pay: Around £20,000
Feed the world! Farming is an old industry but also a technologically advanced one in order to make sure everyone can be fed. There are many different types of farming in the UK so there is plenty of career potential. You would probably start off as a farm worker, perhaps doing seasonal work in the summer holidays. This would give you a taste of what’s involved to see if you like outdoors work and working with animals and/or the land. From there, you could progress in your career to management level.
Geoscientist
Up to £75,000 a year
Starting pay: Around £22,000
Get ready to rock… as a geoscientist you get to study the Earth’s structure and how it’s all put together. Your role is to analyse rocks to explore the land’s natural mineral and energy resources. Why do you get paid so much for looking at rocks? Because your knowledge can make a big difference to big business, and it can also help people cope with destructive earth activity across the globe.
You could be helping to provide sustainable, safe solutions for:
- Engineering projects (like building dams and tunnels)
- Better storage of nuclear waste and landfill
- Finding new energy resources, like gas and oil
- Finding new water resources
- Helping to create early warning systems for people living near earthquake hotspots.
Environmental careers… grow your future prospects
There are so many environmental jobs, and they don’t all involve the great outdoors. Not all of them need you to have a degree, either – but you’ll need to do some kind of extra training and get a professional qualification to earn a salary higher than the tallest tree in the world (the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, in case you were wondering). Nature and the environment is a rewarding career direction. Push yourself to achieve, learn as much as you can, and your salary can flourish along with our green, green world.
Find out more about getting into environmental careers.
