Green Jobs and the

Clean Energy Economy

Hudson County

Department of Family Services and

One Stop Career Center

Presentation at Annual Conference

“Going Green to Save Green”

What is a Green Economy?

A clean energy economy generates jobs, businesses and investments while expanding clean energy production, increasing energy

efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, waste and pollution, and conserving water and other natural

resources.

What is a Green Economy?

• An economy that addresses the public’s concerns about high energy prices, national security, dependence on foreign oil, and global-warming, and in which new industries and jobs are created that will remain within US borders .

What is a Green Job?

• Green jobs can be broadly defined as jobs that involve:– Protecting wildlife or ecosystems,

– Reducing pollution or waste, or

– Reducing energy usage and lowering carbon emissions.

• Green jobs fall into two main sectors: energy efficiency and renewable and clean energy.

Energy Efficiency Sector

• Involves:

–Retrofitting homes and businesses to use less energy, as well as

–Developing and manufacturing products that save energy.

Renewable and Clean

Energy Sectors

• Focus on:

– Creating, installing, and maintaining technologies that generate energy from resources that are naturally replenished and generally do not emit the greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming.

– These energies include: wind, solar, geothermal, and hydropower.

Categories of a Clean

Energy Economy

• Clean Energy

• Energy Efficiency

• Environmentally Friendly Production

• Conservation and Pollution Mitigation

• Training and Support

While jobs themselves will change over time and in response to economic demand, these five

categories will remain constant.

Clean Energy

• This category’s businesses meet a stringent set of standards:– Have a positive net energy yield

– Reduce greenhouse gas emissions

– Be produced and distributed in a sustainable and safe manner

• Examples of jobs: electricians, electrical engineers, and plumbers, plan operators, mechanics, researchers, and technicians.

Building sustainable energy for the future

Energy Efficiency

Reducing and managing our energy demand

• Jobs and businesses that help Americans reduce the amount of energy we use.

• Examples of jobs: engineers developing new lights, meters, and software programs, and electricians and other technicians who install them.

Environmentally Friendly

Production

Improving our products and processes

• Jobs, businesses, and investments that seek to mitigate the harmful environmental impacts of existing products and develop and supply alternatives that require less energy and emit fewer gasses.

• Includes transportation, manufacturing, construction, agriculture, energy production, and materials.

• Examples of jobs: production, chemists, construction workers, consultants, plumbers, technicians, product designers, and engineers.

Conservation and

Pollution Mitigation

Recycling and remediating waste

• Jobs, businesses, and investments that enable the United States to manage water and other finite natural resources more effectively, and to mitigate emissions of greenhouse gasses and other pollutants.

• Examples of jobs: trained workers to remove hazardous waste, scientists, technicians, machinist, system operators, and environmental consultants.

Training and Support

Helping develop our clean energy economy

• These are jobs, businesses and investments that provide specialized services to the other four categories of the clean energy economy.

• Examples of jobs: financial analysts, consultants, lawyers, paralegals, researchers, engineers, and vocational teachers.

The Future:

Growth in Green Jobs

• Growth in the green jobs requires three major factors:

–Technological Advances

– Economic Conditions

– Energy Policy

Technological Advances

• Energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies are more expensive than traditional fossil fuel technologies. As these become more common, they also will become less expensive.

• Adaptability is also key: it is likely that the future of the nation’s energy will be a combination of many clean energy sources.

Economic Conditions

• The current economic downturn has lowered the amount of capital being invested in renewable and clean energy sources and technologies.

• The market price of traditional fuels affects the demand for clean energy options: – higher prices on traditional fuels mean an

increase in the demand for alternative energy.

Energy Policy

• Clean energy incentives (e.g. tax credits, rebates, or renewable energy certificate trading programs) and economic development initiatives can spur private-sector investment.

• Policies designed with a long-term goal in mind signal a need for wide investment in clean energy.

Where will the

Green Jobs Be?

• Green jobs will be mostly within the energy efficiency sector, with a significant portion in the retrofitting of buildings to higher green economy and energy efficiency standards.

• Green jobs will vary from state to state based on workforce strengths, natural resources and geography, infrastructure, and policy priorities, as these all shape renewable energy industries.

Preparing Workers for

Green Jobs in the

Emerging Green Economy

• Develop a coordinated, flexible workforce development infrastructure.

– Formalized communications structure, agreements, and linkages among stakeholders position states to be competitive for federal and foundation funding to increase green, clean economies.

Preparing Workers for

Green Jobs in the

Emerging Green Economy

• Develop a “green jobs” collaborative.• Build partnerships with employers and labor

unions.• Cultivate career pathways with training that

results in nationally recognized credentials.• Align green jobs workforce training with

economic development initiatives.• Ensure that all training is relevant to the

current economic demands.

Sources

• The Pew Charitable Trusts, “The Clean Energy Economy: Repowering Jobs, Businesses and Investments Across America,” June 2009

• Research Brief, “Preparing the Workforce for a ‘Green Jobs’ Economy, Jennifer Cleary and Allison and Kopicki

Contact Information

Benjamin Lopez, Sr. – Director

Hudson County Department of Family Services

257 Cornelison Ave.

Jersey City, NJ 07302

(201) 395-5460

blopez@hcnj.us