Green Job Hunters

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What Are Green Jobs?

It’s easy to limit green jobs to solar panel installers, energy-efficient building architects and wind turbine manufacturers. But green jobs encompass so much more. They include all positions that ensure the well-being of the environment.

The renewable energy sector, of course, employs a lot of engineers and other scientists. Yet green jobs also encompass urban planners, bike repairers, corporate social responsibility advisers and solar sales people. Public transit workers and teachers can have green jobs, too.

Most green jobs are just like any other jobs. They are in major industries such as manufacturing, construction, sales and agriculture. They are both white collar, usually requiring a four-year degree, and blue collar, requiring little prior experience or training.

How To Get a Green Job

You have passion for the environment and civil rights.

You’re concerned about climate change. You want a less polluted, more equitable world for your children. You’re tired of paying high gas prices for foreign oil.

What do you do to make a difference in the world?

Green Education for Green Jobs

Colleges and universities have been responding of late to the increasing numbers of students and employers wanting courses and degrees in sustainability.

Mechanical and electrical engineering and earth sciences have been taught for decades at universities. Now courses, and even research centers, on solar, wind and hydroelectric power are commonplace.

Community colleges like Coconino and Yavapai in Arizona and San Juan in New Mexico offer degrees in solar design and installation and energy-efficient building.
Graduates in these fields are just about guaranteed jobs. For instance, the nation will likely need more than 5,000 solar installers by 2015.

Government’s Role in Green Jobs

The creation and long-term health of green jobs depends upon money. Business profits and private venture capital funding are important. But governments can play the biggest role in sustaining the green economy.

The American Solar Energy Society believes that, with proper public investments, about a quarter of American workers will be in the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries by 2030.

Last year, Congress included the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program in its energy bill. The program will provide about $2 billion per year to state and local governments for building and home energy efficiency, energy audits, transportation fuel conservation and installing solar panels on public buildings.

The energy bill also incorporated the Green Jobs Act of 2007, which provides $125 million for workforce training. It could help train about 30,000 workers per year in green industries.

Southern California Edison: A Green Jobs Case Study

Electric utilities have a plethora of green jobs today with their conservation and renewable energy generation mandates.

Southern California Edison (SCE), which employs more than 15,000 people, has seen incredible growth in sustainable jobs in the last five years. Some of its departments are now solely focused on mitigating climate change and nearly every unit has at least one green job.

Positions at SCE run the gamut from entry level to highly technical and everything in between.

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