By Hemant Patel, Senior Clean Tech Education Consultant, CleanEdison, Inc.
Employment opportunities in renewable energy and energy efficiency are available, but there is a “green skills” gap that could limit the economic and employment growth of these industries, as well as present an additional obstacle in efforts to fight climate change. To avoid this, there must be a consensus on what these “green skills” are, and the best way to provide the tools necessary to succeed in a changing economic landscape. Green jobs include much more than manufacturing solar panels and wind turbines. Economic factors such as rising energy costs are creating opportunities for “greening” traditional industries.
One example of this is Healthy Buildings Inc., which was started in 1980 as an Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) firm for the commercial real estate world. Approximately five years ago, when green buildings began to gain real traction, Healthy Buildings saw an opportunity to help its commercial real estate partners take the necessary steps toward making their buildings more energy efficient. The company now offers a Sustainability service that includes LEED program management and Corporate Sustainability Plans, and an Energy and Resources service that includes energy auditing and renewable energy feasibility studies. These two additional business units, along with their traditional IAQ service, have allowed Healthy Buildings to expand into the competitive New York and Los Angeles commercial real estate markets.
Professional Certifications
But where do companies turn to train their current employees on these new opportunity areas and where do they find new employees with a working knowledge of these systems? According to Joel Ritschel, director of East Coast Operations for the Energy and Resources Group at Healthy Buildings, “It’s impossible to expect anyone to be able to do the job on day one. No matter how many mechanical engineering classes you have taken, there is nothing like being in the field and touching the equipment, changing computer settings, and seeing the resulting effects in a real-life scenario.”
Still, he adds, “it is important to be able to ‘speak the language’ when applying for jobs and for seeking work once in the field.” One way to learn the language of these new industries is to enroll in training courses that are connected to specific professional certifications. Ritschel and three of his colleagues at Healthy Buildings enrolled in one such program through CleanEdison Inc., a clean tech training provider, by hosting a four-day training course at their headquarters in Fairfax. The course focused on performing energy audits on multifamily buildings, which are far more complex than smaller residential homes. At the conclusion of the course, the trainees took their certification exam for the BPI Multifamily Building Analyst certification, the gold standard in the industry.
The demand for these certifications is being driven by both the market and regulatory forces. Ritschel points out that the “New York City market is notoriously difficult to get a foot in the door, and we recognized that a BPI Certification had the credibility behind it to help increase visibility for Healthy Buildings.” An energy audit on a large commercial or multifamily building and resulting improvements might deliver energy savings of 10 to 15 percent. While this might not seem like much, these buildings generally cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to run every year and the market for these services is growing rapidly. Moreover, regulation such as NYC Local Law 87 is requiring that all buildings over 50,000 square feet have an energy audit performed by a professional with an energy-related certification such as the BPI Multifamily Building Analyst.
Hands-On Training
Rather than replacing existing jobs with different green jobs, it is the content of jobs, the way the work is performed, and the skills of workers that will change. As Ritschel puts it, “Construction is the oldest industry in the world; the only thing that has changed is the level of sophistication.” As jobs are transformed, replaced, or created, skills requirements will put pressure on workers at all levels. On one hand, low- and medium-skilled workers will have to enroll in training to upgrade their capacities and professional certifications. On the other hand, the integrated approach of sustainable design and operations is creating management challenges that require the development of new perspectives, awareness, and managerial capacities.
Traditional education may provide important skills that any business would find useful. Ritschel says “critical thinking, independence, and creativity” were the most important qualifications for potential hires. Yet even while traditional education starts to realize the “green” trend and offers courses and degrees in fields such as green construction and energy management, the only way to gain the necessary skills is through specific hands-on training and experience. Companies now are taking the leading role in closing the “green skills gap” by providing the tools and training to allow their current employees and new hires grow into these emerging fields. In addition to hosting training courses on location, Healthy Buildings also ensures that experienced professionals in each area of practice can mentor new hires/established employees.
The demand for workers possessing these new skills is expected to increase dramatically in the years to come. While traditional skills will be similar to those required for non-green projects, they must be supplemented with specific knowledge of sustainable materials, efficient processes, and better integration of different trade areas. In most cases, the new jobs created by the growth of the green economy will require a mix of both traditional and new “green skills.” More collaboration between traditional education, skill-specific training providers, government workforce investment programs, and businesses will be necessary to continue to address this issue. Advanced energy technologies and efficiency services have the potential to be an economic boon, but only if we can provide enough skilled workers to support the build-out.
Hemant Patel is a senior Clean Tech Education consultant at CleanEdison, Inc., which trains and certified people through an open enrollment clean technology program.For more information, visit www.cleanedison.com or e-mail hemant.patel@cleanedison.com.
