Why Green Jobs are Great for the Community
How Sustainability Can Help Local Business and Families
Aug 17, 2009
According to the Census Bureau the U.S. is home to less than five percent of the world’s population . And yet, as of June 2008, the Energy Information Administration reported that “preliminary data show that the United States consumed around 24 percent of world total oil used in 2006.” The need for going green at home and in business is very real. And green-collar jobs are a big part of this move.
Now here’s some good news. The Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (PERI) conducted a report (commissioned by Green For All and National Resources Defense Council), “Green Prosperity: How Clean-Energy Policies Can Fight Poverty and Raise Living Standards in the United States,” and determined that making investments in a clean-energy economy can “significantly drive down the unemployment rate and provide job opportunities to Americans across all skill and education levels.”
It should be no surprise that a clean-energy economy can generate jobs, businesses and investments while having an overall positive impact on society through economic, environmental and social action. However, to find out that it is also possible to increase employment, lower energy bills and transportation costs, AND provide an improved standard of living for low-income people is amazing. Not to mention that green jobs make workers happy.
Being Green Doesn’t Always Require a College Degree
One of the things that the researchers found is that they expect clean-energy investments to produce more jobs than the fossil fuel industry currently does. And while positions requiring a high-level of education are part of green business, the highest job growth will likely be seen in green-collar jobs which require only high school diplomas (3.6 times more than if investments were made in fossil-fuel energy).
Translated that means that out of the nearly two million net increase in jobs that going green nationally is projected to bring, about 870,000 could be filled by workers without a college diploma.
The reason is that many green-collar jobs, for instance construction and installation, typically will receive training on-the-job or through an employer-sponsored apprenticeship program. And the clean-energy industry invests more of its budget on hiring people versus the machines and supplies used in the fossil fuel industry.
Being Green Tends to Keep Jobs Local
Another good thing about green-collar jobs is that they tend to be local because a lot of what needs to be done involves retrofitting homes and businesses that already exist. Obviously, that means these green-collar jobs cannot be offshored.
In addition, the report suggests that the best clean-energy policies would rely more on U.S.-made products and less on imports. That means reducing the cost and negative impact of manufacturing and transporting large green products such as wind turbines by building them closer to home.
Plus the researchers suspect that a large proportion of the green-collar jobs generated will offer good opportunities for advancement through training programs.
Being Green Helps to Save the Planet
While many may look at green-collar jobs as a way to put some “green” in their pocket, green-collar jobs also benefit planet earth by helping to eliminate greenhouse-gas (known as GHG) emissions and protecting earth’s natural resources and systems.
Along with retrofitting buildings, green-collar jobs will include things such as building bike paths and constructing alternate transportation lines, erecting wind farms, repairing hybrid and bio-diesel cars, and restoring eco-systems around the nation.
While there are already a lot of green-collar jobs in America today, there could be many, many more. It’s up to businesses everywhere to think differently and realize why green-collar jobs are great for their local – and the worldwide – community.
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