Tag Archives: green jobs

Trades Going Green

Posted on March 5, 2012 | Leave a comment

Specialty contractors work in the trenches of green building, performing the hands-on tasks that make sustainable buildings a reality. High-performance systems installed by workers in the field are critical to green goals, but not everyone recognizes the role of the trades in sustainability. New training programs aim to change the mindsets of specialty contractors, while familiarizing them with the emerging systems and techniques in green building.

“Some of the big myths are that [trade contractors] don’t matter in green buildings; that they only build from drawings; that they are a cog in the machine,” says Russell Unger, executive director of the Urban Green Council in New York City. “The truth is, they make decisions every day that impact the performance of a project.”

Within the burgeoning green education movement, much of the initial focus has been on designers, but an increasing number of green training and certification programs aimed at contractors have launched in recent years. In January, the Urban Green Council set out to tackle the issue with GPRO—a comprehensive training program that focuses on the people who build green projects. Initially established by Urban Green Council in New York, the program is already spreading nationally, adding programs in New Jersey, Illinois, Colorado, and Texas.

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Green Economy Resilient, Growing Quickly, Report Says

Posted on February 13, 2012 | Leave a comment

Since the mid-1990s, green jobs in San Diego County have grown more than twice as fast as the overall average and weathered the past two recessions better than most other industries, according to a report released Tuesday by Next10, a research organization focused on the environmental industry.

According to the report, there were 20,500 “green economy” workers in San Diego County at the beginning of 2010 — the most-recent year for comprehensive data — compared to just 12,400 in 1995.

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Those jobs — including solar-panel installers, wind-turbine manufacturers, biofuel developers, energy conservation consultants, recycling collectors, wastewater processors and “clean-building” designers — grew at an average pace of 4 percent per year, compared to 1.8 percent for the overall workforce.

Even at the depths of the Great Recession, green jobs held steady in San Diego County. Only 300 jobs were lost — a 1 percent drop in employment — that compared to a 4.5 percent drop in the county’s total workforce.

Solar Factory Coming to San Diego – 450 New Jobs

Posted on December 18, 2011 | Leave a comment

French semiconductor maker Soitec will locate a new solar power factory in Rancho Bernardo and bring 450 new jobs to the area, according to two sources involved with the transaction.

The deal between Soitec and Sony Electronics Inc. for Sony’s former Vaio laptop production plant at 16550 Via Esprillo was not quite final, according to a Sony Electronics spokesman and a Cushman & Wakefield broker who listed the property. But Soitec sent invitations to local clean tech entrepreneurs and scholars in the clean tech industry for a dedication on Dec. 16. The exact location was withheld until a later date.