SHARE THIS SHOW:
RELATED CONVERSATIONS:
RECENTLY ON TOL:
The TOL Blog
TAGS:
Green Collar Jobs
Green jobs: you hear about them everywhere these days, including Governor Ted Kulongoski's to do list. Last October he set out a green agenda for 2009 and now he's hoping to attract federal stimulus money with "The Oregon Way," promoting renewable energy, conservation, carbon reduction and sustainable development. But what exactly are green jobs, and what role will they have in making — or breaking — the future prosperity of the region?
Vice President Joe Biden, who is leading the Obama Administration's Middle Class Task Force that has a special focus on green jobs, has an answer:
“[J]obs associated with environmental improvement and improving the lives of the American people. Scientists working on an advanced, renewable alternative to CO2-producing fossil fuels is engaged in a green job, as is a laborer winterizing or weatherizing a home, or a lineman or a linewoman building out the smart grid -- they're all green jobs.”
During Portland Mayor Sam Adam's State of the City speech on Friday he put forth a green plan for economic development. He said:
Portland is already often ranked as America’s greenest city. We have been the living laboratory for clean technology and sustainable policy and practices. Sometimes we make the world’s top ten most sustainable cities. Now, we will set the goal for Portland to be the most sustainable city in the world. And in doing so we will make Portland the hub for the global green economy.
How real is the green dream? What jobs will the green economy really produce? How do you we know that this region — even this country — is the place where they will be created? (How do we beat China, in other words.) What role do you hope to play in a green collar future?
GUESTS:
- Tim McCabe: Director of the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department and former economic policy advisor for Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski
- Jim Walls: Executive director of the Lake County Resources Initiative
- Paul Elson: Vice president and director of investor relations for NCS Power in Vancouver
- Robert Bass: Assistant professor and program director of the Renewable Energy Engineering program at Oregon Institute of Technology
Tagged as: business · green · sustainable oregon
Photo credit: Silverlinedwinnebago / Flickr / Creative Commons
-
The Oregon Employment Department is currently conducting a Green Jobs Survey throughout the state. The preliminary release date for the survey results is June 30th, 2009. For more information, send requests to Charlie.B.Johnson@state.or.us
-
Hi,
I was remodeling my house, after 30 years of on and off work in the construction business, I thought I could read up for a few weeks on the internet to catch up on the latest thinking of energy efficiency and continue on with my remodel; wrong, I read for 2 years, conflicting information before I was able to come to a conclusion of what the greenest remodel would be, and to realize that that was what I had been looking for.
The primary path to green building, the goal, can be reached from many different roads. I believe this is very confusing to the average person not too interested in building as well as to most of the industry professionals that haven't put years of research into this field in the last few years, because so many things have changed recently.
Energy efficiency is really the most important aspect to green building. What is energy efficiency? It is first the energy efficiency of ongoing operation of the house, heating domestic water and heating air and the house, because if these can be done inside of an efficient insulation envelope, then they can be done reasonably with 90% of the input as solar energy for a fairly normal house and with 100% of the input solar with a house with limited windows or one with one thermal shutters.
Other than this, of primary concern are these very common problems with most houses; air leaks at exterior doors and windows, air leaks at electrical outlets and switches in exterior walls, inferior insulation of basements and attics or roofs and walls.
Secondly energy efficiency has to do with the choice of building materials, which can be traditional for the area where the building is located, wood in woodland areas, earth in deserts, etc. One thing that can easily be missed is that the primary job of a house is to thermally insulate the interior from exterior so that the residence are comfortable when it is hot or cold outside. A lot of people mistake the primary purpose as that of longevity.
-
(continuing)
This is incorrect, most houses are majorly remodeled every 15 or 20 years. If this is understood at the beginning of the design process, relatively conventional walls can be built that have far superior thermal characteristics than they otherwise would have. Windows are placed with respect to solar orientation. A sun space or low thermal mass solar oriented greenhouse area (which can be very small) is used to maximize solar gain and to heat high efficiency thermal storage inside of it's own thermally insulated envelope (separate for the living space insulation envelope, all of which can easily take place in a smaller than normal house). All of this can be done with minimal cost. The greatest additional cost of all this is the insulation! What is more fantastic is that a central heating system can be reduced to the size of a through-the-window air conditioner which are getting more and more energy efficient every year and can be vented in reverse to be used as a heat pump for heating with an efficiency of 4.5 times more efficient than that of electrical resistance heating. Farther more, if thermal storage is employed correctly, the heat pump would likely never be needed and if it were needed, it would be effective in the coldest of weather. The normal minimum operating temperature of 30 to 40 degrees F is truly irrelevant. This is without the expense of a geothermal heat pump system
Third energy efficiency has to with the embodied energy of the building material, which also has to do with the carbon foot print and the resource allocation of manufacture and transportation of the material
Forth energy efficiency has to with the time and energy the workers spend building a quality house, witch is also known as labor intensity.
All of these can be addressed in the design process, if intelligent designers are used that keep current with the latest energy efficiency design and understand real world choices and how to use discards as resources that would otherwise head to landfills or recycling centers in ways that move houses toward 100% solar efficiency.
Shody (ShowDee) Portland, OR
-
I have heard that the so called stimulus bill includes $50B for clean coal and nuclear energy.
I call on all governors to reject this money; no clean coal and no thermal nuclear reactors in my back yard, up stream or up wind from me. Since coal pollution comes to Portland OR from China, everywhere is up wind, up stream and in my back yard.
What would $50B purchase in the way of proven ocean wave electrical generation developed by OSU and commercial thermal solar power that stores heat during the day for use at night?
Why spend billions on coal which is limited, it will run out, it is killing the planet now and is being relentlessly pushed on us by those who will gain financially from it. The only thing coal should have been used for is to build solar and wave electrical generation equipment, but the coal industry is not responsible and should be shut down now forever.
Coal has methane mixed in with it which is many more times worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. This methane is released into the atmosphere when coal is mined, it is killing the planet, stop coal completely now. Jimmy carter put solar panels on the white house roof probably 25 years ago, and what have we accepted since, minimal solar R&D but coal has charged on and on, because we let it happen.
The mining byproducts from coal are huge in volume and toxicity. The mainstream media is owned by the same people that own coal companies, so they down play the toxicity of coal mining byproducts, this is a cover up.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0624-25.htm
What is shown is how the ground can be put back where the mining has taken place in show case areas, but the real story isn't told to the general public and they do not know that there is a problem and that they should educate themselves on this subject.
-
(continued)
Germany has converted over to a lot of wind and solar power and we have a much better climate to do this than Germany has, so what is stopping us from converting, the coal industry, not common sense.
Nuclear energy should be cleaned up now! If it is so great, why is the EPA being sued over the mess at the Trojan nuclear plant, clean it up first, before you tout it as clean. Then let the general public understand how the industry is really run, then you would not have the nerve to present it as anything but disease, death and destruction, it is now time for solar energy. With mining, refining (tailing transportation and disposal), security, health hazards, clean up costs, solar is actually less expensive now.
-
Oregon should spend money on R&D in these area like the state of New York is:
carbon nanotubes which are super light weight and strong so they could be used to make car chassis and bodies. They have an electronic component and can be used to collect enegy and in photo voltaics (PV panels or solar cells) and store energy as a super capacitor (ultra fast charge)/battery (slow controlled discharge). This technology has already been developed. What I don't know about is the cost effective manufature of the carbon nanotubes themselves, which may not have brought the cost of the carbon nanotubes down to a reasonable cost.
Other wise carbon is low cost, easily abundant, non toxic, light weight, and has no known drawbacks that I can think of like hydro, coal and nuclear has.
http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=2280
What about these other energy storage systems?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/09/050907102549.htm
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oxygen-0731.html
-
Many good points!
I am currently building and Oregon's building code is a farce!!
It is apparently written by completely out of date morons that are on building material manufacturers payrolls!
For example, the code has required that I unnecessarily waste many hundreds of feet of copper wire that will never be used in this structure and yet must be installed into my house that I designed for me!
-
How many of us use our reusable shopping bags when we shop? How many of us think we're being "green" when we replace incadescent bulbs with Mercury-laced compact fluorescents? Living sustainably is more than a slogan, it's a mindset, it's a lifestyle change. Keep a diary of your activities that promote sustainability. Incorporate more sustainable techniques as you go. We all have to become "green" if our society is to rehabilitate its selfish and wasteful ways. Good luck, I visualize your success.
-
Regardless of how one defines Green Jobs, the bottom line is now that China is retooling multiple factories to build solar panels, it means two things. More US money will go to China and even fewer Americans will be employed under the broader “Green Jobs” umbrella. Yes there are many things Americans can do every day to be more sustainable, and here in Portland there is a higher level of awareness than in most of the country, but when talking about green jobs, or a green economy it is a farce until the problem of the Chinese is addressed.
BTW – I do shop with reusable grocery bags, I unplug everything when not in use, and I recycle mercury laden compact fluorescents correctly. But I read the label and still see “Made in China” on many things supposedly “green”
I just heard McKay's argument, and I don't buy it. Why would ANY company PAY MORE for something when they can get only slightly inferior product for much less? His argument of the power supply in China is suspect. If that were really the case, why would the US Military have production facilities in China? It seems like burying one's head in the sand and ignoring the huge advantage China has in labor and costs.
-
"when talking about green jobs, or a green economy it is a farce until the problem of the Chinese is addressed."
Echolynch, when you say "the problem" do you mean China's competitive advantage (cheaper labor, say)? How do we solve that problem?
Anyone else?
Do you buy Tim McCabe's assertion that our quality workforce will save us?
-
Oops, Tim McCabe. Sorry Mr. McCabe. And Mr. Miller, no I do not.
I think we were posting at the same time; I edited my above post once I heard his argument.
-
"Echolynch, when you say "the problem" do you mean China's competitive advantage (cheaper labor, say)? How do we solve that problem?"
That "advantage" only benefits business and is in fact a dis-advantage to both Chinese and American workers, we need fair trade laws that put workers and business on a level playing field.
-
When applying ideas of sustainable construction to contractors and workers, the pricipals defined by the union also make labor sustainable. NECA/IBEW 48, the union electricians and contractors in PDX, is committed to creating the highest quailty, longest-lasting product ensuring the health of the local economy.
An important ingredient of sustainble construction is avoiding unnecessary waste, including energy and materials. The most wasteful component on a job comes from human error through costly mistakes and on the job injury. Making safety the number one priority and taking extremem pride in craftsmanship, union electricians build safely, build to last and build right the first time.
Being a union electrician isn't a job, it's a carrer - a green collar career. Half of all union workers have been with their current employer for 10 years or longer, compared with only 32 percent of nonunion workers. Employer invest more training in union employees and don't waste valuable time and resources, ensuing training and then retraining a constant revolving door of workers. Union means the best of the best. Like the buildings the partnership constructs, we're in it for the long haul.
Union labor is a green collar job. www.necaibew48.com has more information on the green efforts of this area of construction.
-
Hear hear!
We need more and stronger Unions.
-
Wind Turbines hold gallons of Synthetic Oils and/or Petrol based oils. Blades are made of composites. Solar Panels will be destroyed in hail storms. Hybrid batteries do not last forever.
Make the Oregon maintenance/clean up work on these various items be the leader for the entire nation.
Yes it is more 'Green' but not cradle to grave. Look beyond the Politically Correct term "Green" for the day and try not to use the term "transparent" while doing so.
-
At Portland YouthBuilders (PYB), we help low-income youth complete their high school education and provide vocational training in construction and computer technology. On average, students in our construction program build four green, affordable homes each year.
PYB students built their first Earth Advantage certified home in 2001, and we've continued on the path of building homes that are energy efficient and use as many green materials as possible. PYB now works closely with the Energy Trust of Oregon to ensure that the affordable homes we build have maximum energy efficiency.
Our students are currently in the process of building their first LEED-certified affordable home. We feel that training students in green-building techniques and preparing students for careers in an emerging green economy will give them a competetive edge in the job market upon graduation.
Thanks for opening up this discussion. We look forward to hearing more about green collar jobs as this series continues.
- Tonia Kovtunovich, Portland YouthBuilders
-
I'm a college student and interested in engineering. I'm wondering what's being done to encourage and develop sustainable engineering programs at colleges/universities around Oregon. Seems to me that if we want "green jobs" and technology then we should be training the developers of our technology to be more "green".
-
Robert Bass, who created a program in renewable energy engineering at the Oregon Institute of Technology, will be joining us after this break.
-
Green Jobs? Definition please...
Frankly I am tired of Green as it generally indicates bogus science and politics of feel good!
-
I just woke up so forgive me if this has already been touched on. After listening to the gentleman from lane co. call burning wood to create energy "green." I wonder how many of the jobs discussed have been truly green and how many of them are just greedy entrepreneurs riding the environmentalist coat-tails. Furthermore, are there in fact any jobs that are green or does the very presence of 6 billion humans on earth preclude us from saving the environment? -
It was Jim Walls, and he did touch on this question. His basic take, as I recall, was that this particular bio fuel prodcution would be cleaner overall than current logging practices.
-
I understand steal may not seem all that green but it was the first anything to be recycled in the early 1900s. Every year millions of tons of steal are recycled and reused.
Personally, I have a concept for a passive AC system for homes and smaller commercial buildings that does not use electriciity (how much power would that save?). Unfortunately, I am unemployed and have little development funds.
James Wilson
Battle Ground, Wa
wrightconceptsinc@gmail.com
-
Let's be realistic... Green jobs are less than 1% of workfore and may grow to 5%, BUT.... they are not going to replace the jobs we've been offshoring for 20 yrs.
We have lost our technical leadership, and are now one of many global players.
I applaud the efforts of counties and colleges and feel Green is an important element in future industry, abeit a SMALL element.
-
Economist and author Michael Shuman says Oregon should balance its heavy investment in recruiting with equal investment in entrepreneurship....basically supporting in-state start-ups and expannsion. (The Governor has put ZERO money in his 2010 budget for business training services to small businesses.)
Shuman (www.smallmart.org) said that calling wind manufacturer Vestas a green company is somewhat disingenuous, given the carbon footprint to bring in all the manufactured parts, leaving only the construction and maintenance parts to Oregon workers.
It's great to be called green, great to strive for energy independence, but it shouldn't be done at the expense of existing or future businesses able to do true green.
A two day conference in Salem, March 20 - 21, will feature Shuman and others helping us understand how to make better use of our entrepreneuer class and improve our carbon standings.
-
It is not entirely clear that using tax dollars to boost "green collar" jobs will actually increase total employment and/or wages. Every tax dollar spent to "create" green jobs is really a transfer of tax dollars from Oregon's existing firms and households.
Moreover, there has been no evidence that "green collar" jobs are in anyway superior to jobs elsewhere in our diverse economy. A report published by the Oregon Department of Energy showed that while the BETC program may be associated with increased employment, the jobs associated with 2007-08 tax credit projects have wages that are approximately 11 percent lower than if the money were spent on other state funded programs.
-
I've just tuned in to today's program. Is there a web page that lists today's guests and their affiliations? I'm thinking of the Lake County representative who participated.
Bob
-
Bob,
Sorry, we put them up late today. They're at the top of this page now.
-
What avenues, ie schools/ State / Federally funded organizations should someone interested in Green Technology opportunities venture down to inquire about getting involved with the green movement industry in Oregon.
I have been downsized in the telecommunications industry locally and would love to utilize my several years of technical expertise.
Any info would be greatly appreciated...
Thanks, Casey
-
While this discussion has great value, it should be mentioned that green jobs are not limited to renewable energy and related technologies. There are tremendous opportunities for entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes and types to benefit from consumers' growing preferences to buy green.
In large part, the Portland area owes it's identity as a green city to the multitude of small and micro businesses who decided to operate with sustainable principles, and create green jobs in each and every neighborhood, from non-toxic dry cleaners to organic grocers.
-
Let's not forget about the green jobs that should be created to monitor, protect and restore species and habitat threatened, fragmented or lost due to the development and siting of 'green' energy sources.
-
Those wind turbines in the photo at the top of this page sure are beautiful, aren't they?
Wind turbines really are the fashion supermodels of the new world energy systems!
-
We really need to just skip over compact flourescent bulbs and go directly to LED lighting. And CFLs don't light when it is cold, so they are not usable outside.
-
Too often the conversation tends toward high tech/high wage green jobs. How can the emerging green/clean economy raise peple out of poverty with living wage, local jobs. Are we training/educating folks for this?
-
The question of Chinese competition in the green tech field can be partially addressed in 2 ways:
1) Work through international organizations to eliminate subsidies to national flag ocean carriers (such as COSCO or Chinese Ocean Shipping Co.) This would raise the relative cost of international shipping to something approaching a free market cost.
2) Consider imposing a "tariff" (import tax) on imports of green-tech products. Currently all solar cells (for example) are duty-free. The tax would not be very high, say 5%, so as to avoid a WTO challenge; but it could help to off-set the unfair advantage of low-wage labor from authoritarian regimes such as China.
-
Greetings,
Last year I began a beekeeping business called Bee Thinking (http://www.beethinking.com) with the focus of promoting local, sustainable beekeeping practices. This year I will be placing 20 hives throughout the city of Portland as well as small organic wineries of the Willamette Valley. Our goal is to aid the struggling beekeeping industry and bring beekeeping back to the public eye.
Unlike most beekeepers, I will not be using any chemicals in my hives to deal with the various pest and diseases that afflict the honey bee. Instead, I will be using quality breeding and a combination of more natural hive designs: Top bar hives and Warre hives.
I have been amazed by the amount of support I've received from both the local and world communites. Due to the recent publicity of Colony Collapse Disorder, those that might not have known anything about honey bees a few years ago are becoming rather educated on the fascinating world of these insects. The wineries (all small, organic operations) have been more than willing to host some of my hives at no cost.
I think the Pacific Nortwest is the perfect environment in which to push for alternative methods in every field, including agriculture. The plethora of CSA programs, community gardens and organic farms in the area is a clear example of our region's willingness to break from the norm.
In addition to beekeeping, I'm also in the process of beginning a green IT support company that specializes in rural IT support -- a region that rarely receives the quality support of those in the city: http://www.beefleet.com
In my mind, if the ideal "green" job to fit your personality isn't there, create it yourself! The world is ripe for change.
Matthew Reed
-
I have a green business concept that rewards intelligent living and helps the environment. As we all know the elephant in the room of any global problem is population. There are too many of us, and more are coming.
As the founder of Pop-n-Trade, I am its first employee. Here is how it works. You see, I am a childless adult. As such, countless tons of future carbon emissions have been prevented through my decision to forego progeny production.
Now, here's how the revenue stream is created. If you produce more than two children, then you will send me 25 dollars per month for every extra child you have.
You will feel much better. Special cases, such as the Octo-mom, will receive a healthy discount.
With that income to supplement my modest pension, I pledge to consume only local beer made from organic hops. Then I will donate the empty bottles to someone else here on Grand Avenue to cash in, thus enabling you to indirectly support an important facet of Portland's vibrant street culture.
bob
P.S. I also pledge not to marry anyone who wants the big house. If you inhabit more than 700 square feet of personal living space (1000 for couples), then send me 25 dollars per month also. Then you may wander naked through your castle with the heat up to 80 guilt free.
-
Yow! What a fun post!
-
What is the most consumed source of energy?
A: Glucose (sugar)
Roughly, a tree is 50% sugar. So why do we not talk about the real source of renewable energy. Plant life. Farmers and loggers provide the largest volume of Green Jobs, but are termed a blight on the land. Non-food Biomass conversion into ethanol and diesel is our only near term solution for rural transportation needs.
60% of Oregon is owned and controlled by public domain but is being more and more controlled by 1% of the people (environmentalists). Most Oregonians I speak to are conservationists and want to live in balance with nature, not to turn 2/3s of the State into a Preserve. This is a terrible waste of valuable resources for our people. For the most part we cut down the junk forest and burn it in place or let it burn uncontrollable because over fuel load conditions, which is going directly into the atmosphere. The biomass community is on the cusps of creating ethanol for $.81 per gallon from non food sources.
2. What is the largest source of power to create biomass?
A: Solar Power
So if we want to be good stewards of resources solar biomass production is our most efficient means to convert the sun into liquid fuel.
Problem; most of the high tech batteries required for the electric cars is made with heavy metals and come from some of the most dangerous places in the world. We will be trading one war for another as we compete for more and more scarce resources.
Solution: Support your local farmer and logger with the latest conversion technology available.
It appears that when one mentions Green they think of solar, wind or remodeling jobs. The problem is the lack of liquid renewable fuel.
Sincerely,
Tim Moles Oregon State
-
Some of the most important green jobs are in educating Conservatives about reality through science.
-
How real is the green dream you ask? Its very real in Portland! I work for GreenPrint Technologies which launched in 2006. Its a green software application that helps to reduce unwanted pages coming off of your printer in order to reduce paper waste and save money. The average user can save about $100/year and a tree simply by using the product. Its a dream to be working for a company that walks the walk and talks the talk and is growing! We have added staff and moved to larger office space a few times and are now known internationally from both a sales and press perspective. Locally we work with"Friends of Trees" and have a green bundle program set up with Xerox down in Wilsonville for their customers. More staff will be added and more developments will occur as we continue to see the trend for businesses and consumers to take "green" actions as a necessary part to help with global warming while also reducing their own costs. Its a win - win.
-
Comments are now closed.
