Improving equity in Canada’s low-carbon energy workforce: learning from the lived experiences of diverse applicants to a grassroots bursary

Abstract Transitions to low-carbon energy systems require labour market transformations to support resilience, new technologies, and infrastructures across communities. Despite its rapid growth, the worldwide low-carbon energy sector remains one of the least diverse industries and has persistent inequities. Even with steady job growth in the renewable energy sector, women’s overall representation has stagnated since 2019, which indicates the need for new approaches to removing barriers to their entry and retention. Most existing research on the low-carbon energy workforce relies on structured surveys, aggregate labour market data, and projections. Very little is known about the lived experiences and motivations of equity-deserving groups entering the sector. This omission matters because mainstream data often overlooks the qualitative, values-driven perspectives and circumstances that shape career pathways, particularly those of women, newcomers, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (2SLGBTQIA+) workers. This study uses a co-creation research approach to analyse 119 applications to a grassroots, community-led bursary—the Trellis Fund bursary—from an intersectional group of women. Applications were analysed against a theoretical framework of alternative pathways, strategic niche management, and feminist and energy justice, to generate insights into improving equity in recruitment and retention in Canada’s low-carbon energy workforce. Our study’s contribution is to provide deeper insight into how small-scale, grassroots, and flexible funding mechanisms developed within the communities that they serve can foster novel, justice-centred contributions that mainstream funding often overlooks. These insights offer qualitative, narrative-based data as a critical counterpoint to traditional workforce projections. They show that interest and ambition are not lacking; rather, systemic barriers are constraining diversity in Canada’s low-carbon energy workforce.