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Where Are the Green Jobs? Maps Are Worth Ten Thousand Words

By Carol McClelland

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 16Mar2009 Word count: 1069 Viewed: 150 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Thanks to the power of Google Maps, organizations such as The Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness (CGGC), are able to research the location of green companies with green jobs and the viability of the green economy. Using small bits of data, these organizations are creating maps showing the location of green companies. A icon is used to display the pinpoint location.

Recently, we ran across studies that include maps of manufacturing companies and CleanTech companies. If a picture is worth one thousand words, these maps are worth ten thousand!

Even if you aren't in the market for a manufacturing job or a CleanTech job, take a few minutes to click through to one of the reports listed below, or the maps. With one glance you'll get it! Green companies exist and their numbers are growing. As funding, policies, and incentives begin to happen, these operations are going to start humming! Some percentage of these small companies will grow into household names.

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Jobs in the Manufacturing Sector:

The Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness (CGGC), an affiliate of the Social Science Research Institute at Duke University, has been releasing their research on Manufacturing and Climate Solutions (http://www.cggc.duke.edu/environment/climatesolutions/) since November 2008. The report highlights the "direct linkages between low-carbon technologies and U.S. jobs."

In the series, the researchers ask, "In a new global economy increasingly affected by the threat of climate change, what are the U.S. job opportunities in technologies that can reduce carbon emissions?"

To conduct their research they looked at:

-- LED lighting

-- High-performance windows

-- Auxiliary power units to power long-haul trucks when they aren't on the road

-- Concentrating solar power

-- Super Soil Systems - new technology for treating hog wastes to create energy

-- Heat Pump Water Heaters

-- Recycling Industrial Waste Energy - harnessing discarded exhaust heat, combustible gases, and other "waste" energy to generate electricity

Each report contains an introduction to the industry, an overview of the product or system, and a full description of the value chain involved in producing and distributing the product or system. Charts provide an in depth description of all of the materials and supplies needed to produce the product or system. Furthermore they list and map the companies that already exist to provide the materials and supplies needed to get the new technologies in place to reduce carbon emissions.

The bottom line of this report reveals a multitude of companies in existence today that would benefit from providing for these new technologies. In addition, some of the technologies will require additional supplies and materials, which indicates additional job growth.

The Environmental Defense Fund is mapping renewable energy and energy efficiency companies in a number of manufacturing states. To see the proliferation of companies in these states, take a look at the maps (http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=33427) for Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Scroll below the map for a list of the companies and their location. Click on the blue or green icon to read more about the companies. If the company name is listed in bold, there's a bit more information when you click through.

This report was sponsored by

-- Environmental Defense Fund, the Building and Construction Trades Department (AFL-CIO)

-- Industrial Union Council (AFL-CIO)

-- International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, and

-- United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters.

101 CleanTech Startups (http://tinyurl.com/5oyu5v):

Recently, we ran across a fascinating map of CleanTech start up companies around the United States. Thanks to Google Maps, you can see at a glance where the companies are and what CleanTech sector they represent.

As you scroll down the left side of the page you'll see the companies that fit under each of the categories. Each category has a distinctive, intuitive icon making it easy to identify separate categories. The categories are:

-- Solar Lighting

-- Energy Efficiency

-- Energy Storage

-- Clean Coal

-- Hydropower

-- BioPlastics

-- Biofuels

-- Electric Vehicle

-- Green Building Materials

-- Wind

-- Water

Want to explore the details? You have two choices:

1) Click on the link on the list on the left, or click on an icon on the map to discover the following information:

-- Company Name: With a live link to the company's website

-- Sector: The CleanTech focus of the company

-- Founded: Date the company was founded

-- Key Players: Who is in charge of the company

-- Why They Matter: What the company is doing that's important

-- Investors: Who has invested in the company

-- Earth2Tech Coverage: Links to blog posts Earth2Tech has written about the company

-- Get Directions: How to drive to the company location

2) Zoom down to your state or region to explore which CleanTech start ups are in your area. By zooming in, you'll be able to click on the icons in your region to read the same information listed above.

ACTION STEP:

By knowing the names of manufacturing companies or CleanTech start ups in your area, you gain some important knowledge for your own job search.

You'll identify potential future employers in your area. Although start ups may not be ready to hire you now, they are certainly worth watching. When they are ready to go to market, you'll be well aware of what they do, who they are, and the journey they've taken to get there.

You'll know who to watch for in your local media. Even if the company is not in your target industry area, you can still learn from them.

-- How is your community covering their progress?

-- What hurdles are they facing?

-- What successes are they having?

With the interdependent nature of the green economy, you never know when something that is happening in another industry will have an important role in the development of your industry. You may even see the opportunity to partner with a growing company to provide them with a solution to a problem they face.

You'll identify other companies that may benefit by the existence of this company in your area.

-- Will suppliers and vendors benefit?

-- Will the company become a big player that will need a strong infrastructure?

-- Will the company's waste become an input from another industry that will then thrive?

It's all about connecting the dots!

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