Planting green jobs

Businesses, ventures and proposals that could help satisfy new renewable energy requirements could add thousands of jobs across North Carolina

The nation's shift to solar, wind and other alternative energies is spurring a green-collar work force. A quarter of the nation's population will work in the emerging green economy -- 40 million green-collar Americans by 2030, according to one estimate.

Last week the United Nations predicted that many green-collar jobs created globally will trap the world's poor in dirty, dangerous, unhealthy and low-paying work, primarily in agriculture and waste recycling.

Predictions of a booming green-collar job sector are becoming more common as volatile energy prices, concerns about global warming and economic instability beg for solutions.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has made green jobs a cornerstone of his Democratic bid for the White House, predicting 5 million new green jobs through the development of plug-in electric cars, biofuels, renewables and clean-burning coal. Republican presidential candidate John McCain is promoting the construction of 45 nuclear power plants, and $2 billion a year toward developing clean-coal technology and renewable resources such as wind and solar.

"Right now, being environmentally friendly and energy efficient is still not always cost-efficient," said Stephen Scott, president of Wake Technical Community College.

"The question becomes: What will happen first? Will it become cost-effective to be sustainable, or will it become a biological necessity to be sustainable? One or the other will drive green jobs."

Though North Carolina is a straggler in green energy compared with California and other states, proposed projects to meet the state's new renewable electricity requirements bring the promise of thousands of jobs.

The rise in green jobs reflects the growing emphasis on conservation and sustainability at universities, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and major corporations such as Wal-Mart and McDonalds.

Even before this state endorsed an alternative energy policy, scores of businesses had set up to tap the region's brain trust and feed green economies sprouting throughout the country. Along with solar installers and biofuels producers, many of these niche companies design electronics and components to streamline power grids, develop alternative fuels and boost energy efficiency.

Advocates in the state say green jobs will not only fight global warming but help revive North Carolina's ailing manufacturing sector and create a service industry of contractors and technicians who can't be outsourced to Mexico or Malaysia.

Anticipating demand for green-job skills, state community colleges are including conservation and efficiency practices in their course offerings on architecture, construction and landscaping. The N.C. Solar Center, Advanced Energy and other nonprofit groups say builders and contractors are asking for sustainability seminars.

"Eventually it's the way everyone is going," said Kim Kasdorf, 59, a former mechanical engineer who recently finished a program in architectural technology at Wake Tech. "People who don't have that kind of experience are not going to be able to survive."

What's a green collar?

The definition of green-collar job is still up in the air, and some job growth projections strain credulity. Such jobs are a broad description, not a work-force classification, and there is some disagreement on which jobs should qualify.

The N.C. Sustainable Energy Association estimates that 6,470 jobs in the state are directly related to energy efficiency or renewable sources. Among the manufacturing ventures it counts: solar panel components made by chemical giant DuPont in Fayetteville; solar cell connection wires from Torpedo Specialty Wire in Rocky Mount and fiberglass material for wind turbine blades from PPG Industries in Shelby.