WHAT A GREEN JOB IS

It's All in the Count: The Vexing but Critical Challenge of Green Jobs Accounting
Ron Pernick, March 1, 2011 (Clean Edge)

"…There have been dozens of projects at the national, state, and metro level designed to track and quantify clean-tech jobs…But for all these efforts, the reality is that the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), the standard used by federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments and tracking jobs, does not account very well for green industries and their myriad distinctions…[F]or instance, [it] currently lumps things like solar, wind, and tidal into one “Other Electric Power Generation” category and has no categories for hybrid electric vehicles, green buildings, recycling, and many other key sectors. Not exactly the best way to track the emerging industries of the future.

"Past efforts to provide a more accurate accounting of clean-energy jobs include The Pew Charitable Trusts’ 'The Clean Energy Economy' report and IHS Global Insight’s 'Current and Potential Green Jobs in the U.S. Economy' report prepared for the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Both of these reports had very similar results, reporting a total of more than 750,000 green/clean-energy jobs in the U.S. in 2007 and 2006, respectively. But these reports, for all their positive contributions, were unable to do a completely accurate accounting because so much of the required underlying data just wasn’t available yet…"

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"Later this year, The Brookings Institution and Battelle will be releasing a new report that picks up where Pew and IHS left off…[with] data on “clean jobs” in more than 100 metropolitan areas, including a trend analysis for the period between 2003 and 2010…[In the spring of 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) plans to release its first national survey of green jobs…[and] is working diligently to overhaul the NAICS codes…The BLS currently defines green jobs in five distinct areas: 1) energy from renewable sources, 2) energy efficiency, 3) pollution reduction and removal, greenhouse gas reduction, and recycling and reuse, 4) natural resource conservation, and 5) environmental compliance, education and training, and public awareness.

"…[Agreements and definitions in the 1990s] enabled the Internet of today, with its open protocols, shared language, and agreed-upon standards…[S]imilar agreements today on what constitutes a green or clean economy…[will] make sure we are creating the right NAICS codes to track the entire clean-tech jobs value chain…[B]roadly-accepted accounting methods for clean-tech jobs are critical in enabling the growth of the broader clean-energy economy."

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"One of the big areas of contention revolves around just what constitutes a clean, green job? Do you include nuclear power and waste-to-energy, or not? How far down the value chain do you go? Do you include users of clean technologies, or just producers? What about the thousands of people working on sustainability and energy efficiency in heavy manufacturing, retail, and scores of other non-clean-tech industries? These thorny issues will need to be debated and resolved, and the broader clean-tech community should chime in now and offer advice to the BLS and others who are presently laying the critical groundwork.

"…In the next three to five years, the clean-tech industry should finally have the tools in place to accurately account for clean-tech jobs growth via commonly accepted classification codes…[adding to work] done by green-jobs tracking pioneers at Pew, Brookings, Battelle, BLS, state governments, and elsewhere…[C]onsidering both political and economic needs, the day of defined and clearly understood green NAICS codes can’t arrive too soon."