North Carolina's green collar sector has grown to 12,500 jobs statewide, a 22 percent increase in one year, a Raleigh trade group said today.
The N.C. Sustainable Energy Association said green jobs now exist in all 100 counties, spread across private industry, nonprofits and government agencies.
The N.C. SEA also said that Wake County leads the state in green jobs, with 128 organizations responding to the trade group's survey. Mecklenburg County is second in total green jobs.
The trade group and lobbying organization represents the green industry in the state. Some of 546 organizations that met N.C. SEA's definition of green job are members of the trade group.
The group's report doesn't identify any companies in its report. But N.C. SEA said the jobs are in R&D, manufacturing, building retrofits, renewable energy installers and retailers and consulting.
N.C. SEA spokeswoman Julie Robinson said green sector companies in the Triangle include solar panel installers like Southern Energy Management, Carolina Solar Energy and Yes! Solar Solutions; smart grid developers like Elster, Cisco Systems and Consert; technology developers and manufacturers like CREE, Greenfire Development and Microcell; and energy service companies like BradyTrane and Noresco.
To participate in the N.C. SEA survey, employers had to allocate at least 50 percent of staff time to work related to renewable energy or energy efficiency, or generate at least 50 percent of revenue from such work.
Green jobs are projected to grow 20 percent by next year, largely driven by consumer demand and state energy policy, the N.C. SEA said.
John Murawski has been a full-time newspaper reporter since 1991, with stints at Legal Times and The Chronicle of Philanthropy (both in Washington, DC), The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Palm Beach Post (in South Florida) before arriving at the N&O in December 2004. At the N&O he covers energy (nuclear, coal, renewable, efficiency), hydralic fracturing (or "fracking"), public utilities (both electric and natural gas) and health care. His beat includes Progress Energy, PSNC Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, PowerSecure International, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Biogen Idec and others. You can reach him at 919-829-8932 or
Comments
greencollar jobs
Thu, 10/14/2010 - 17:17 — Prn13NormGreencollar job costs the taxpayers more than 4 times the cost of creating a regular job. They have caused the meltdown of economies in Greece, Spain and and Portugal and has resulted in the stagnation that is holding the US economy hostage.