Up and Coming Businessess: The Many Shades of Green

The Next 10, an independent organization that "educates, engages and empowers Californians to improve the state’s future", recently reported the growth of green jobs over the last 14 years. In a wide number of areas, green employment, with an annual increase of 2.4% annually has far outpaced rates in other industries. Some of the highlights of the report..

• Between 1995-2008, green businesses increased 45 percent, green jobs grew 36 percent while total jobs in the state grew only 13 percent.
• Even in rural areas with a smaller economic base, green jobs are growing faster than the overall economy.
• Between 2007-2008, green jobs grew 5 percent while total jobs dropped one percent.
• Manufacturing represents 21 percent of all green jobs, and grew 19 percent, while manufacturing represents only 11 percent of all jobs in California (January 2008.)
• Half of all manufacturing jobs are split between Energy Efficiency and Energy Generation.
• Services accounted for 45 percent of all California green jobs, the largest portion in Environmental Consulting.
• With nearly 43,000 jobs in 2008, Air & Environment is the largest of California's green segments. While this segment's jobs remained steady, hovering around 35,000 from 1995-2005, since 2005 the number of green jobs in this segment has increased 24 percent.
• From 1995-2008, Energy Generation employment expanded 61 percent by nearly 10,000 jobs. Solar makes up the largest portion, and strongest growth (63 percent).
• Employment in Energy Efficiency increased 63 percent from 1995-2008.
• Employment in Green Transportation has increased 152 percent since 1995. Green Transportation Jobs are primarily in Motor Vehicles & Equipment and Alternative Fuels, with the latter growing faster at 201 percent, and representing 48 percent of all jobs in this segment.
• Green Logistics is an emerging field, only in the Bay Area at present, with employment growing by 1144 percent since 1995.

Although the research found that some regions fared better than others, each region found a place for itself for different green jobs. Sacramento, however, was the clear leader, with 87% improvement since 1995, with San Diego and the SF Bay Area coming in second and third, respectively, with 57% and 51% growth in green jobs in that time frame.

Global Warming Warning

The World Meteorological Organization has recently uncovered new evidence showing that, despite fluctuations in global temperature year to year that fueled claims of global cooling, a sustained global warming trend is showing no signs of ending. Dating back 150 years, the decade of the 2000's is likely the warmest decade on record. The secretary general of the international weather agency, Michel Jarraud, commented how the period of 2000 to 2009 has been "warmer than the 1990s, which were warmer than the 1980s and so on".
Global warming is one of the most complicated issues that world leaders are facing. Despite an increase in warnings from the scientific community about the increasing dangers of rising buildup from human-related greenhouse gases, coming mostly from the burning of fossil fuels and forests, technological issues concerning the resolution of these problems have become no less complicated themselves, especially in the face of the current economic slowdown.

Obama's Bailout

President Obama recently drafted a new proposal, that will hopefully not only stimulate job growth, but also give more help to Main Street consumers and businesses. In a speech he gave Tuesday at the Brookings Institution, he explained how he would like to give small businesses a tax break for both new hires, and for equipment purchases. In addition, he stated wanting to expand American Recovery and Investment Acts, and spend some $50 billion on roads, bridges, water and aviation projects. Although this in theory could be a solid plan, because of the already immense deficit that we are facing this might just create more problems than it would fix. However, assuming that the $50 billion worth of projects does in fact spur new job growth, I think this could possibly have potential, although we will see if it has the desired effect.