Forum: Job Futures Look Green in Western Mass.
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It's a revolution, akin to the Industrial Revolution, to "completely reinvent our economy and how we live and work," said Alex Risley Schroeder, a green careers counselor working in Franklin and Hampshire counties.
And it's an opportunity to strengthen the local work force and communities as well as secure the nation's energy supply, said state Sen. Bejamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield. "The challenges are interconnected ... we're making sure we lock into the clean economy the people who were locked out of past economic growth and expansion."
Environmental justice equals economic justice, he said.
That was the message Saturday at the Green Jobs Now forum at Berkshire Community College. The forum was organized by Richmond native Shaun Chapman of the Vote Solar Initiative, an effort to bring solar power into the mainstream, and Ezra Small of the Climate Crisis Coalition in South Lee. It was one of 700 events across the country to raise awareness of the potential of going green.
Risley Schroeder said Massachusetts, and Western Mass., were poised to reap the benefits of going green. Referencing Peter Senge's "The Necessary Revolution," she said, "a sustainable future will involve all of us in creating it.""Clean energy is the 10th largest industry in our state, growing 25 to 30 percent the past year, and will continue over next few years," said Risley Schroeder, though green jobs can also be found in transportation, waste, renewable resources, recycling, architecture, energy efficiency, purchasing and more.
Downing said clean energy was growing at such a rate that it is expected to be among the top 5 state industries within the next decade.
Rising energy costs — electricity rates, gasoline, fuel oil — over past couple years has spurred the growth of alternative energies. Once rarely seen, solar-power collectors are now heavily in demand.
Robert Wilson of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 7 said the combination of public grants and rebates and soaring energy costs are creating a booming business in photovoltaics. IBEW members are now being trained to install and service the new energy collectors.
"We have a vested interest in ensuring these jobs are done locally," said Wilson.
Those green jobs are union jobs, noted Downing, like painters, glazers and others in building trades and manufacturing. Jobs that can help a middle class that's seen its wages deteriorate over the past eight years.
"We're growing jobs that provide benefits, that provide a living wage, that provide a dignity that has been stripped from our economy," he said, adding you can't retrofit a building for energy efficiency by sending it to China — it has to be done here.
The state is addressing green careers through measures like the green jobs bill and pathways out of poverty, initiatives that are offering funding and creating partnerships between unions, employers, higher education entities, municipalities and community groups.
Other intiatives include $68 million in grants to support solar power for residential and commericial buildings through the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. The MTC is also collaborating with IBEW to install solar flagpole lights in towns around across the state.
Jenny Gitlitz of Dalton has been working in the environmental field for years, first as an advocate and researcher and now in building supplies. She's the director of product merchandising for Green Depot Inc., which offers environmentally sound building materials for home and commercial construction.
"I would just like to use my company to show how quickly green jobs can grow from zero to 30 in three years," said Gitlitz. Established in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 2005, Green Depot is about to open its sixth store in the next few months in Albany, N.Y.
The company's products support a wide range of industries, she said, from insulation to drywall to cabinets to paints and finishes.
Only a couple dozen people attended the forum, and many seemed more interested in energy rebates then the possibility of jobs. The organizers weren't disappointed though; the message about Earth-friendly future was getting out.
Mary Domenichelli of North Adams was there not for herself but for her boyfriend, an electrician. "Maybe he should be looking at solar."
Risley Schroeder, who was instrumental in setting up renewable energy and energy efficiency certificate programs at Greenfield Community College, said forecasting the number of green jobs to the workers needed to fill them was an equation "that keeps work-force developers up at night."
Still, "I like to say that in a few years I probably won't have a a job doing green job career coaching," she said, "because all jobs will be green jobs."
