New Report: Millions of U.S. workers could gain from green industries
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 6/4/2008 9:13:00 PM
A coalition of conservation and labor groups argues that a fast transition to a green economy could solve America’s energy and employment problems simultaneously. The argument is based on the findings of a report examining the types of job skills that would be required to support a green economy.
The report, titled Job Opportunities for the Green Economy, was authored by Robert Pollin and Jeanette Wicks-Lim of the Department of Economics and Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
The report takes a state-by-state look at existing job skills across a wide range of occupations and income levels that would benefit from America’s transition towards a clean energy economy. It quantifies the number of workers who can apply their skills to six categories of green industries:
• building retrofitting;
• mass transit;
• fuel-efficient automobiles;
• wind power;
• solar power; and
• biomass fuels.
“Green jobs” are defined in the report as occupations that contribute toward building or producing goods to achieve a ‘green’ marketplace. At the same time, it links the idea that green jobs should be sustainable employment opportunities—that is, jobs that pay at least a living wage, offer training and promotional opportunities, and some measure of security.
The report’s authors contend that hundreds of thousands of workers in the U.S. already possess the vast majority of skills and occupations necessary to reduce global warming and make the shift to a clean energy economy. For instance, constructing wind farms creates jobs for sheet metal workers, machinists and truck drivers, among many others. Increasing the energy efficiency of buildings through retrofitting relies on roofers, insulators, and electricians, to name a few.
"Achieving a clean energy economy through green industries like wind and solar is just part of the story,” says Dan Lashof, director of NRDC’s Climate Center. “This report is also about job security. Making homes and offices more energy efficient not only saves money and energy, it also represents growth opportunities for workers who build our communities and keep them running We’re talking about jobs at every skill level from construction to research, already available here at home."
Other groups, including labor unions, agree. “The commitment to a clean energy economy will not only lead to quality jobs in manufacturing unions and the building trades,” says Leo W. Gerard, international president of the United Steelworkers. “It will help stop good-paying jobs from continuing to be exported.”
For more information and the full text of the report, visit: http://www.umass.edu/economics/
