GreenBuild Blog
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Green Buildings and Green Jobs: What’s Up?
I provide my answers to the question: “Green Jobs, Where’s The Beef?” as part of a series of short video commentaries on green building trends and sustainable development practices distributed to the public via YouTube.
The new green jobs will come from three areas. The first area is green buildings, both new and existing, where the growth is already tremendous - about 80% in 2008. The second area is renewable energy development, particularly wind and solar. And, the third area is efficiency upgrades for older buildings.
These are the same drivers of future employment that President Obama is promoting in his proposed budget and policy projections. Assuming the President and the Congress keep the momentum going, investments in green building, renewable energy and energy efficiency literally could provide millions of sustainable new jobs over the next four years.
Many of these new jobs in the building and construction industries will be created by the need to retrofit the hundreds of thousands of structures that were built for an era of cheap energy, without regard to environmental consequences. Now, we have to go back and make design and operational changes that are consistent with our new knowledge of the financial costs and environmental consequences of building without sustainability in mind.
This new green building consciousness is crucial for the success of this transition. I learned the hard way in the late seventies and early eighties when I was director of the California solar energy program designed to establish a permanent solar industry in the state. We had a good start, but in 1985 the federal and state governments took the props (tax credits) away simultaneously, and the industry collapsed overnight. For me, this is a valuable lesson to remember today.
What do we have to do to make the growth in green jobs permanent? My list of requirements includes making sure building codes accurately reflect the current realities of global warming and the cost of carbon emissions, establishing governmental economic incentives that will not go away after a few years. Finally, we need to create a lasting infrastructure connecting building owners, facility managers and government agencies to ensure that green practices will guide future construction and operations.
To view the brief video of highlights of Jerry Yudelson’s perspective on green jobs, click here.
Posted by Jerry on 05/03/2009 at 02:15 PM
This entry has been viewed 251 times.
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