Green guidance impact report: what happened when career practitioners integrated sustainability into their practice

A new report from the Exploring Green Guidance consortium documents what happened when roughly 60 career counsellors, school psychologists, and vocational guidance practitioners across Europe spent several months trying to bring sustainability into their day-to-day work with clients and students. The Green Guidance Impact Report: How can green guidance impact practice, organisations and policy, covers a pilot phase running from late 2025 into early 2026. Practitioners from Czechia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, but also from Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Latvia and UK tested a set of tools with more than 300 people in individual and group settings.

The report draws on pre- and post-survey data, practitioner reflections, case studies, and focus groups transcripts to examine what changed in practice and what challenges emerged. Practitioners reported integrating tools that helped clients explore their values, reconnect work with environmental and social concerns, understand concrete opportunities linked to the green transition. In many cases, these conversations shifted the focus of guidance from short-term job placement toward broader questions of meaning, contribution, and the societal role of work. The pilot also shows how a durable integration of sustainability into practice relates with individual commitment of practitioners and a shift in how they perceive their role, rather than on a specific set of tools.

The findings suggest that green guidance is both feasible and relevant for contemporary career practice, but its wider adoption will require continued professional development, localised resources for practitioners, and stronger links between guidance systems and sustainability policies.

The report is available at green-guidance.eu.