New Opportunities in the Green Economy

By Oriane Casale and Kyle Uphoff
March 2009

PDF of article (11 pages)

Four industry sectors are expected to be the main catalysts for creating green jobs in Minnesota in coming years.

The United States is mired in what is likely to be the longest recession of the post-World War II period, and Minnesota hasn’t been exempt. Economists, educators, economic developers, policymakers, and others are looking for breaks in this bank of economic clouds. Many hope that a growing concern with the environment, combined with a desire to meet our energy needs at home, will create demand for new, green goods and services, and, in turn, green jobs.

If green is the color of new jobs, what sorts of skills will the incumbent and future workforce need to be successful in this emerging market? This article reviews four industry sectors where green jobs are likely to exist and grow over time in Minnesota:

• Energy
• Construction
• Manufacturing
• Services such as solid waste disposal, recycling, and hazardous waste disposal

Below we examine each of these sectors in terms of existing and new green initiatives, what sorts of occupations are needed for these initiatives and what sorts of skills, training, and education these jobs are likely to require in a greener economy.

Energy: Utilities

Minnesota has a unique set of energy-producing industries. While we lack some of the standard energy industries – coal, petroleum, and natural gas, for example – we are leaders in some new and emerging areas, especially wind and biofuels. Moreover, while demand for energy continues to grow, new state and regional environmental regulations are forcing utilities to innovate. Taken together, these conditions make Minnesota’s energy industry a likely first stop on our search for green jobs.

Electric power distribution and central steam and air conditioning supply are two industries in Minnesota that have become greener in recent years by incorporating new technology and different sources of energy. Both electric and district heating and cooling plants have implemented projects to increase energy efficiency and air quality over the past several years. Moreover, both are moving toward greener sources of energy. The electrical industry has been moving to wind and solar, while District Energy St. Paul is now fueled primarily by biomass in the form of urban wood waste.

The green[ 1] portion of the electric-power industry produces about 10 percent of Minnesota’s electricity and is surprisingly worker intensive. About 74 percent of electric power workers are in the hydroelectric, biological materials, solid waste, wind, or solar portion of the industry (see Table 1). Some of the specific jobs associated with this portion of the industry include the people who keep hydroelectric, biomass, and solid waste power plants running. These plants tend to be smaller and take more staff per kilowatt of electricity to run. Jobs include, for example, power plant operators, electrical and electronics repairers for powerhouse, substation and relay, and electrical and electronic engineering technicians.

Other jobs in the utilities industry are associated with installing and maintaining environmental technology, connecting new wind farms and solar installations to the grid, maintaining and expanding power stations, experimenting with new technology, and consulting with customers to help them conserve energy. Jobs include civil engineers, electrical engineers, and electrical and electronic engineering technicians, among others. See Table 2 for other examples.

Close to 8 percent of Minnesota’s electricity is produced from wind and solar energy sources. Most of the jobs related to wind and solar energy production, however, do not fall within the utilities industry because most of the production capacity is owned by private companies and individuals rather than utilities. Wind turbines and solar panels are, in most cases, privately purchased, installed, and maintained. Estimating the number of jobs involved in this work is impossible with existing data, but the work tends to be labor intensive.

A handful of firms throughout the state design, sell, install, and maintain solar installations, which includes both solar voltaic (electricity-producing solar panels) and solar hot water heating (solar panels used to heat water). These companies fall into the following industries: plumbing, heating, and air conditioning contractors for solar hot water systems, residential electrical contractors, and nonresidential electrical contractors for solar electric systems. Unfortunately it is impossible to determine a reasonable estimate of solar-related employment in the state for several reasons. Most firms within these three industries do not specialize in solar, and even for the ones that do offer these services, solar installations are often only a part of their business.

Some of the occupations involved in solar installation and maintenance are listed in Table 3. Workers are primarily involved in siting and installing solar systems and hooking them up to the electric grid, batteries, or heat exchangers. Some of these workers are also involved in redesigning plumbing, heating, or residential and commercial electrical systems to make use of solar-derived hot water.

Construction

Considering the wide range of temperatures that Minnesotans experience annually, or even at times daily, construction is another likely industry in which to look for green jobs. In fact, construction industry revenue increasingly is coming from projects registered with or certified by third-party rating groups under objective environmental or sustainable development standards.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and GreenStar are two of the most common certification programs for environmentally-friendly construction in Minnesota. LEED certification is obtained through the U.S. Green Building Council, and GreenStar is a Minnesota-based program for residential building. Table 4 ranks Minnesota construction firms based on revenue generated from working on third-party certified green projects.

Green construction spans the whole range of project types, including new commercial and residential construction, and retrofitting of existing commercial and residential structures. Wind turbine projects are another area of green building.

The U.S Green Building Council spells out five areas in green building:

• Sustainable site development is primarily concerned with stormwater runoff through the types of paving materials used, site grading, and rain gardens or other water collection features. It also deals with how the site is maintained during the building process.
• Water savings is concerned with the conservation of potable water.
• Energy efficiency is concerned with building design, heating and cooling, and insulation for energy efficiency.
• Materials selection and resource recovery deals with the types of materials used and with waste disposal and recycling.
• Indoor environmental quality is concerned with air quality issues such as mold abatement and ventilation.

Each of these areas involves new skills, techniques, and/or technology for construction workers. For example, pervious concrete is increasingly used to minimize stormwater runoff. Concrete workers on green projects must understand how to prepare and grade sites and work with this new material. Ultimately, every construction trade is affected by green building practices.

Although these practices were developed for LEED-certified buildings, architects and construction companies are adopting them more widely because they make sense and do not cost significantly more money. In fact, according to Engineering News-Record Magazine, a base level LEED-certified project now costs only 0.5 to 1 percent more than a traditional building. [2]

Because of the surge in demand for green construction, it is increasingly likely that every construction worker in Minnesota will at some point in his or her career work on at least one green project.

In describing his company’s experience with green construction, Mike Smoczyk, director of education at Minneapolis-based Kraus-Anderson Construction, explained, “In the last five years, the curve of change in construction methods, materials, and concepts has become much steeper. More than ever, an employee in the construction field who is a continuous learner is of great value.”

To illustrate this point, Smoczyk said his company recently started Kraus-Anderson University to get employees up to speed on new technology, including green technology.

The important question is not how many green construction workers will exist in the future, but how will construction workers obtain the training and skills they need to meet the growing demand for green building? The authors' research indicates that the answer spans all possible options, from post-secondary technical education programs, to formal apprenticeships and on-the-job training programs, to informal training and learn-as-you-go work. Some of the larger construction firms like the ones listed in Table 4 even provide training opportunities on green practices for subcontractors.

Construction workers who must be up to speed on green practices range from architects to the construction trades specialties (see Table 5). Architects learn green building design in school, but many practical skills must be learned on the job. Architects, project managers, and site superintendents are well positioned to become LEED accredited. This exam, offered by the U.S. Green Building Council, requires serious preparation. Some construction firms support the preparation process because of such strong demand for LEED construction.

Construction-related technical educational programs, such as carpentry, HVAC, and electrical, have taught conservation and energy efficiency as basic principles for decades. But as new technology comes on line, technical education programs around the state are expanding their course offerings. In many cases this means adding new technology in labs so that students can gain hands-on experience. The few green certification programs in Minnesota emphasize LEED principles in the classroom. Technical education programs in the construction field are struggling to incorporate training in these practices into curriculum.

Beyond buildings, companies such as Golden Valley-based M.A. Mortenson Construction specialize in wind turbine construction. This is a relatively new and growing area of construction. It takes a certain degree of expertise that is not yet widely available in the construction workforce, and project managers with wind turbine construction experience are highly sought after by companies that want to break into this new area of construction. Construction firms may also be in the business of power line grid expansion to bring electricity from windy corners of the state to the Twin Cities and other urban centers.

Manufacturing

Green manufacturing can be thought of in two ways. There are firms that produce green products and firms that produce goods using green principles. Examples of the former might include wind turbines, water purification equipment, energy-efficient construction materials, and electric cars. These products and technologies have received much attention in recent years because of their economic, political, and environmental implications.

Can hydrogen- or electric-powered cars save the U.S. auto industry? Can biofuels reduce our dependence on foreign oil? Indeed, the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul recently launched the “Making it Green” initiative that promotes green manufacturing as a regional economic driver.

Firms using green principles might create products out of recycled materials or utilize new technologies or procedures that reduce energy consumption, pollution, or waste.

In some cases, manufactured green technologies are in a relatively advanced form of development and have an established market. Wind turbines and solar technologies are witnessing continuous innovation, but regulation and demand have created a sustained market for existing products.

In the case of hydrogen fuel-cell cars, there are daunting roadblocks around fuel production, storage, and vehicle efficiency that make growth unlikely in the near future without significant government support. In any case, green manufacturing is likely to witness substantial growth, although lower energy prices may temper that growth in the near term.

Minnesota has a solid base of such green manufacturing firms. A well-known example is Suzlon Rotor Corp. – a manufacturer of wind turbines in the southwestern Minnesota community of Pipestone. Viracon, based in Owatonna, makes energy-efficient glass products. Maplewood-based 3M makes membranes that are necessary in hydrogen fuel cell technologies. Minnesota is a major producer of biofuels (ethanol and biodiesel), ranking fourth in production nationwide.

Just as green manufacturing can span a wide range of industries, occupations similarly defy easy classification of being green. A welder or machinist who builds wind turbines may not necessarily use green-specific skills. A number of regional and national reports have attempted to identify the quantity and character of green occupations. Table 6 shows some of the occupations:

When gasoline prices were at their highest, some green manufacturing sectors started reporting instances of skill shortages. The Agricultural Utilization Research Institute recently published a study of workforce issues in the biofuels industry. Eighty-seven percent of plant managers reported difficulties in finding qualified workers. In hiring, technical skills were extremely important, with 88 percent of managers citing equipment operation skills as important and 81 percent citing manufacturing process and control as being important. Interestingly, 94 percent of managers wanted workers with interdisciplinary skills, such as knowledge of machinery coupled to knowledge of biology. [3] Skill shortages are not necessarily confined to the green sector, however, with Minnesota manufacturers in general reporting that they have difficulty finding workers with the right set of skills.

Green Services

Green services represent another potentially fast-growing part of the economy. As organizations seek to develop sustainable business plans, they will devote more resources to conservation (energy, water, supplies, and manufacturing inputs), use of renewable energy and recycled materials, pollution mitigation, and waste reduction. This shift in focus will drive some of the manufacturing demand mentioned previously. But demand also will grow for staff that can repair green technologies, audit energy or other conservation activities, or carry out traditional job tasks with an eye for waste or environmental standards.

As with manufacturing, there are firms that provide green services and those that provide traditional services in a green way. It is likely that numerous occupations will be touched by green trends in one way or another. Demand will increase for occupations that are traditionally green, such as conservation scientists. Demand also will increase for a range of occupations with traditional job descriptions but employ green skills or knowledge. These might include auto mechanics and technicians now fixing hybrid vehicles or architects designing energy-efficient buildings. Even traditionally “non-green” jobs (e.g., waste removal workers) are likely to experience some greening over time. Finally, some jobs are not currently recognized by government occupational classifications. These might include wind turbine mechanics, energy auditors, or sustainability officers. The table below shows a select, but not comprehensive, list of occupations that are likely to see increased demand with the greening of the service industry.

 [1]While there is a fierce debate in the environmental community over whether nuclear power is environmentally friendly, there is little dispute that hydroelectric, biological materials, solid waste, wind, and solar are green. This article focuses on jobs related to these sources of electrical power generation only, in part because they are the new and growing sources of energy. The nuclear industry is not growing in Minnesota or nationwide, although that may change as the American public begins demanding non-greenhouse gas-emitting energy.
[2]ENR.com (Engineering News-Record Magazine), Sept. 22, 2008
[3]AURI, “Talent Development Issues and Opportunities in the Biofuels Industry”