Growing Green Collar Jobs
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Economist Van Jones writes that it’s the one solution that can fix our two biggest problems. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Thomas Friedman agree.
Here’s how we can create thousands of local green collar jobs for Austinites of all skill levels.
The future is coming… are you ready?
Only a few months ago, my 4-year-old son Ford liked children’s music and Jack Johnson. His favorite movies were Toy Story and Cat in the Hat. He loved Elmo.
Then he discovered Miley Cyrus.
Before that day, I had only a vague awareness of Mylie Cyrus. Star of the Disney TV show Hannah Montana. Daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus.
No longer. I now know the names of every character on Hannah Montana. I know every Hannah/Mylie song – both her version, and the version that Ford sings through his karaoke machine in our living room.
Recently, Ford and I were going through our evening ritual of picking out bedtime stories. I suggested a Sesame Street book. Ford shook his head emphatically.
“Elmo is for babies, Dad,” he said.
I knew the day would eventually come when I had to deal with stuff like this. But naively, I thought that day was a long way off.
The Green Collar Economy
Economist Van Jones writes that it’s the one solution that can fix our two biggest problems. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Thomas Friedman agree.
That one solution? The Green Collar Economy.
There is broad recognition that clean energy holds the promise of significant environmental and economic benefits. With the right vision and strategy, Austin can become a national leader in the green collar economy. If we are successful, a green collar economy could transform our region, save existing jobs at Austin semiconductor companies and produce significant new opportunities for local businesses.
But success in creating jobs depends heavily on which clean energy vision we pursue. Some clean energy approaches, in fact, will produce virtually no jobs.
Even with the right vision, successful job creation depends heavily on broad-based job training to create opportunities for people of all skill levels.
Here’s how we can create thousands of local green collar jobs for Austinites of all skill levels.
Start with the vision – go local.
For a vision to come to pass, you’ve got to have a vision to start with.
There are two basic visions for clean energy. One vision is to install significant clean energy infrastructure in remote locations – such as wind farms and large solar arrays in the desert. This approach will be an important strategy for utilities to add large amounts of clean power to the grid. However, it will do virtually nothing to create local jobs.
The second vision is to focus clean energy and clean technology on a local level. It includes rooftop solar, green building, and a transformation of how energy delivered through development of a smart grid Energy Internet. This is the vision advocated by Jones, Kennedy and Friedman. It is the vision we are developing in the Pecan Street Project.
According to Robert Kennedy, Jr., a locally focused Energy Internet vision will “give every American the opportunity to become an energy entrepreneur.” It will “increase… wealth and generate millions of jobs that can’t be outsourced.”
According to Thomas Friedman, this vision “will unlock more human potential, more innovation, more possibilities to lift people out of poverty in a sustainable way, than you can possibly imagine.”
Installing solar locally and linking new solar with green building produces an entire supply chain of new local jobs. Roofers, homebuilders, electricians, solar equipment vendors… even software companies and service providers like the smart grid company Gridpoint (which has a significant Austin presence).
The vision of transforming job opportunity for everyone by transforming our energy system is achievable. By implementing the strategies I describe in my Seven Steps to Securing Austin’s Economic Future – the same strategies that Austin first used to transform ourselves into a global technology leader – we can lead in the green collar economy, too.
Austin’s Green Collar Jobs strategy should include these steps:
- Empower people through job training. When Austin decided to lead in technology during the severe recession of the late 1980’s, we also came together as a community to invest in job training. To implement the vision of a locally focused clean energy system… and to achieve our deepest values of creating opportunity for everyone… we need to do in this recession what we did during the last serious recession a generation ago. We need to invest in green collar job training.
- Prioritize locally-sited solar. There are sound reasons why Austin Energy will need remote solar arrays in addition to locally-sited solar. But after the utility implements its currently planned solar installation in Webberville, Austin Energy should focus on locally-sited solar. That is where the jobs will come from. The Pecan Street Project is tackling the technological challenges of a locally based clean energy system.
- Align utility policies with job creation policies. Perhaps more than any American city, Austin needs solar to succeed not just to create new jobs, but also to protect current semiconductor manufacturing jobs. Austin is losing good manufacturing jobs in our semiconductor sector. The semiconductor industry is moving heavily into solar as its future business strategy. Not only is the semiconductor sector a major source of good jobs, it is also a major source of utility revenues.
That means Austin and our utility Austin Energy need to focus both our economic policies and our utility policies on innovating in solar. This will likely require incentives, equipment purchase agreements and creation through the Pecan Street Project of research and development consortia in energy storage and smart grid Energy Internet systems.
By making Austin a national innovation center for clean energy systems, we can attract and keep good green collar jobs.
- Build a local market. Austin Energy’s current solar rebates have not only prompted homeowners and businesses to install solar panels. These rebates have also created opportunity for local solar installers. Likewise, our early leadership in green building has created opportunities for architects, builders and landscapers. By significantly expanding local implementation of clean energy systems, we can significantly expand the opportunities for these local businesses.
If we have the vision to lead in the green collar economy, not only will our electricity be cleaner and our air clearer. The Austin of our future will be a community of opportunity for everyone – no matter where they live, no matter how much they make.
Elmo’s World
On Saturday morning, I took Ford to the Feria Para Aprender. Feria Para Aprender is Austin’s largest Hispanic education fair. Education providers were present to give interested parents information on how to prepare their children for a better future.
There were a lot of interested parents. In fact, over 7,000 people came to the Burger Center Saturday morning.
The size of the crowd was impressive – and overwhelming to Ford. He asked me to hold him, and even though he is getting big, I gladly obliged. Like all of the parents at Feria Para Aprender, I want my son to have a better future, and yet… I don’t want him to grow up.
We were moving through the sea of people when suddenly Sesame Street’s Elmo appeared ahead of us. Ford’s eyes grew wide. He smiled as the person in the bright red Elmo suit reached out and touched his hand.
Elmo walked past. A few feet away, he stopped and waved. Ford waved back excitedly.
“Daddy, I love Elmo,” he said.
I held my child close. Breathing in the smell of the baby shampoo he still bathes with, I felt gratitude for his innocence.
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