Seeding the Green Job Market

In the not too distant past, the Internet was considered the new frontier. Urban cowboys with computer science backgrounds, MBAs or simply big dreams harnessed the expanding technology for a wild ride, taking start-up companies public and hoping consumers would follow. For many the bubble burst; others thrived and ended up changing the way we live. One way or another, "dot-com" is a term that is now firmly rooted in our vocabulary.
 
Today there is a new term that is causing a lot of excitement: green jobs.
 
Stylistically, dot-coms couldn't be more different than green jobs. One was about now and instant gratification; the other is about later and creating a better future. Dot-coms lived on flashy millennial excess while green jobs are focused on post-9/11 conservation. One was slick the other crunchy - from fast to lasting. But what they have in common as economic trends is the lesson that to make it in the mainstream, scientific breakthroughs have to be paired with realistic business models.
 
Just what exactly are we talking about when we say green jobs? According to Dr. Jerry Paytas, director of research for GSP Consulting in Pittsburgh and a professor of economic development at Carnegie Mellon, green jobs are not yet clearly defined. "There are lots of definitions floating around and that's part of the challenge," he says.
 
Paytas says there are "green collar" or "pure green" jobs like an Environmental Scientist, or the relatively new position of Sustainability Coordinator, whose mission is to look at an organization's systems and try to make them more environmentally sound. Many universities, Paytas says, are now hiring Sustainability Coordinators. He says there are also jobs that are green by nature of what they do, such as Energy Efficiency Experts, and jobs that are green by nature of what they produce, like solar panels or wind turbines.
 
In addition, there is another category that Paytas calls brown-to-green jobs. These workers look within specific industries to find new ways of doing things that are better for the environment. "Take a chair," Paytas says as an easy example, "say it needs paint and varnish. You would take the chair from brown to green by using more sustainable materials to do the same job."
 
From Brown to Green
Paytas says that Pittsburgh will not have large numbers of jobs in the "pure green" area, but we have a wealth of opportunities for brown-to-green jobs. In fact, the city itself is a good example of something that has gone from brown to green.
 
From the 1800s to the early 1980s, steel production and it siblings (glass, chemicals, coatings, aluminum) dominated Pittsburgh. Since steel collapsed, the city has been successful in diversifying to cleaner industries like health care (which thrived here because there were so many sick people from their work in manufacturing), financial services, and computer software. Paytas characterizes Pittsburgh's current economy as fairly stable.
 
"We've had no boom and bust," he says. "We didn't grow as much and we won't shrink as much. Our housing didn't inflate as much and during a recession we won't slow as much."
 
Paytas says that because of the city's stability, and because it has learned from the past, we are poised to pioneer green jobs. "Pittsburgh has already gone through a lot of clean-up of our air and water, going back to the 1900s when the Chamber of Commerce focused on smoke and flood control. We're in a position to be leaders because of our history. There are people around who understand the economic benefits of being clean and green and that's an advantage," he says.
 
Getting the Greenlight
Paytas says that in the last few years both the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University have created initiatives that can lead to more green jobs. Started at Pitt in 2003 in the school of engineering, the Mascaro Sustainability Institute researches green practices and translates them into real products and processes. Founded at CMU in 2004, the Steinbrenner Institute for Education and Research's aim is to synthesize various disciplines that are pursued on campus, with the goal of a green future.
 
Pointing to industries in which research is leading to greener methods, Paytas mentions high-performance metals and composite metals, HVAC systems, and the carpet industry. In janitorial services, chemists are creating non-toxic cleaning products and better methods of waste disposal are being found. One field that has already come quite far is green building. "The U.S. Green Building Council has evolved a set of standards and educational programs that have helped architects and designers, and research into better construction practices is advancing," he says.
 
In Pittsburgh, the non-profit Green Building Alliance is now 15 years old and is considered a national pioneer. Its mission is to drive market demand for environmentally sound materials by explaining the financial payoff in reduced energy, water, and other operating costs. “The Green Building Alliance recently launched the green building products initiative to foster the development of more green technologies by our companies and universities,” Paytas says. He also mentions other established local not-for-profit organizations such as Construction Junction (which recycles building materials), Sustainable Pittsburgh, and the Riverlife Task Force, which share green goals.
 
Newer on the local scene are GTECH Strategies and Steel City Biofuels. GTECH has recently started to clean-up brownfields and vacant lots by planting crops that can then be turned into bio-fuel. Steel City Biofuels, which is run by Nathaniel Doyno, who is also a partner in GTECH, is working to create and supply the market for renewable alternatives to petroleum.
 
According to Paytas, these exciting new start-ups focused on sustainability are not yet at the point that they're generating enough income to be, well, self-sustaining. But he is hopeful that the seeds that are being planted now will result in a crop of new green jobs. "The science is there," Paytas says. "The breakthrough that is needed is sociological and organizational. Where do you go to re-charge your hybrid?"
 
The computer revolution proved that human behavior can change, but sometimes people need a push to venture into new territory. Paytas thinks that government needs to be in a leadership role in the move to a green future. "There's foot-dragging because government has an aversion to change," he says, but adds that the state of Pennsylvania is being aggressive in green legislation. "For example, the Rendell administration has proposed incentives for consumers who buy green appliances and encourages green building in projects that use state funds. The legislation is still being written," he says, "but it will put Pennsylvania at the forefront of the green wave.”
 
The fear of global warming is at the root of the interest in sustainability, but it might be America's current economic climate that motivates the average consumer to go green. As gas prices continue to rise, the Prius is starting to look more desirable than the SUV. House flippers stuck with 6,000 square-foot McMansions to heat and cool are suddenly developing a passionate thirst for knowledge about alternative energies. Expensive health problems caused by chemical-laden cans, plastics and soil are fueling the organics movement. The American family's bottom line might end up being the greenlight needed to finally send the sustainability movement, and its attendant green jobs, into the mainstream.

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Captions:

Jerry Paytas

Paint and (below) cleaning products from Artemis Environmental

GreatGreenJobsforPA.org

(L to r): Andrew Butcher, CEO GTECH; Nathaniel Doyno, Executive Director, Steel City Biofuels; Chris Koch, COO GTECH; Maureen Copeland, Crew Leader, Student Conservation Association

All photographs copyright Brian Cohen