He has always been an outdoorsman, spending a lot of time in Cannock Chase and going camping in Scotland. When asked about his career plans, he would say he had no idea but always imagined himself working for the Forestry Commission.

A family friend told him about the opportunity to apply for an apprenticeship at the University of Birmingham’s Birmingham Institute of Forestry Research (BIFoR) woodland at Norbury Junction on the Shropshire-Staffordshire border. It was only 20 minutes down the road, but it wasn’t somewhere he’d ever heard of before.

“Obviously my apprenticeship is pretty unique,” ​​Downes says. “I don’t think I know anyone who works on a site like this.” The Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment facility, which exposes trees to high levels of CO2, is one of only two facilities in the world located in a mature forest rather than a laboratory or open field (the other is just outside Sydney). A series of six towers pumps CO2, or ambient air, around the oak forest, which also includes hazel, sycamore and hawthorn.

As well as working in the bush, Downes studied general engineering one day a week at Solihull College; When he started the institute, this was a brand new discipline for him. “It was very challenging,” he says, “it’s very math-based, and when you’re not doing math, you’re doing physical work that’s rooted in math, thermodynamics for example.” He found practical machine shop work in his first year useful and exhilarating: “it’s something completely different, you can only learn that by doing”.

The apprentice engineer’s main role is to look after the facility’s instrumentation and CO2 system. There are 130 tonnes of liquid CO2 in use at the site at all times. Six people work full time at the facility. Downes usually climbs one of the 25-foot or 40-foot towers that disperse CO2.

The apprenticeship includes training for working at height with wind meters and all the correct climbing equipment. Leading up to the role, Downes told interviewers he had a “healthy amount of fear of heights”. After a lot of shaking on their first climb, “it got a lot easier,” he said, including getting used to close passes by low-flying helicopters.

He started his apprenticeship in challenging conditions at the start of the first Covid lockdown on 1 April 2020. The BIFor facility was still open and operating two days a week. By the summer of 2020, it was back to normal.

“In a way, BIFoR is the largest climate change experiment in the world in terms of the scale and scope of the field,” says Downes. “Many people from different countries and universities are in the same place.

Downes describes himself as “very passionate about the environment and aware of climate change.” “It’s nice to work somewhere where you are involved in a small way.”

He is aware that many people are struggling with climate change and environmental problems. He thinks this may be down to the fact that because of where they live, “they’re probably not connected to the natural world, and it feels quite separate from their own lives.” “If they understood the connection, they would understand the seriousness of the situation,” he said.

He encourages town and city dwellers to get outdoors whenever possible, even going to the local park, to clear their heads and reap the benefits of better wellbeing, as well as getting closer to nature. People can come to the BIFoR woodland on a pre-booked tour, and engineers such as Downes often lead them, with school groups and local government staff among the typical visitors.

Looking ahead, Downes hopes to work somewhere where he can be outdoors at least some of the time, and aims to find jobs where he can combine his engineering knowledge and forestry skills.

Green Careers Week is a national campaign encouraging young people to consider the wide range of roles across different sectors that help communities and the planet, and the ways of working and training to achieve them.

In its 2023 Net Zero Workforce report, the Committee on Climate Change estimated that up to 725,000 new jobs could be created in low-carbon industries by the end of the decade, while WPI Economics said 505,000 jobs could potentially be created in green priority sectors by 2030. There is a growth rate of nearly 6 percent per year. But green careers are broader than this: any job or role in any industry that contributes to protecting or restoring the environment, not just those seen as “green.”

To access the latest resources and information, visit greencareershub.com.