Vermont Environmental Consortium

And

BRATTLEBORO REFORMER

#44, February 10, 2008
Environmental Jobs Training and Education in the Spotlight
by
Daniel Hecht

It’s not harmonic convergence -- there are logical explanations for the sudden, universal focus on green workforce training and environmental education. Still, it’s remarkable, and it bears directly on Vermont’s response to the economic impacts of climate change – what will happen to the ski industry, sugaring, farming? – and fossil energy depletion.

It’s just the arc of history, of environmental conditions, population growth, market trends, technological development. We’ve been messing up the natural world for too long, and the Piper is hammering on the door, demanding to get paid.

Environmental industries, especially in renewable energy and efficiency, are growing fast and are projected to grow faster still. This is because we must replace an economy based on oil and coal with one based on renewables, turn a society that spews greenhouse gases into one that doesn’t. It’ll require creating an entirely new infrastructure of energy and resource supply, manufacturing, and distribution.

And with all its new, unfamiliar technologies and practices, who will construct and operate this infrastructure?

We’ll need people who know how to build renewable energy generation systems and erect or retrofit buildings using new designs, techniques, and technologies. Who can manufacture goods in ways that consume less energy, extract natural resources with less waste, make furniture in ways that preserve carbon-sequestering trees. . . .

Moving toward a sustainable economy will create jobs of every kind, at every level, and the new “green collar” workforce will need to master a wide range of new skills.

According to many green industry leaders, the lack of trained workers is already impeding sector growth; limited access to education and training is the bottleneck.

Canada provides an instructive example. As a signer of the Kyoto Accord, it’s been undergoing the green revolution and dealing with the labor market transition for several years. The environmental sector is growing twice as fast as the rest of the economy; Grant Trump, president of the Canadian sector council for environmental human resources, said recently, “The environmental industries are crying for appropriately-trained job applicants!”

The need is so acute that Canada has instituted national online education and certification programs to lure foreign environmental practitioners to the country and help them get the credentials they need to work there.

The problem is that it takes time to build training and education programs – usually two years, at a minimum – and then it can be more years before their first students graduate and enter the job market.

Which is why there’s such a rush to construct a green educational “pipeline” in Vermont. Here are a few of the initiatives in the works:

The U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 includes many forms of stimulus to renewables development. Thanks in large part to Sen. Bernie Sanders, its Title X authorizes creation of a national program to train three million people for green collar jobs. The bill focuses on positions in renewable energy and energy efficiency, but defines these broadly, to include employment related to wind and solar power; biofuels; green buildings; fuel-efficient vehicles; deconstruction and materials reuse; and green manufacturing.
S.331, “An Act Relating to Workforce Development in Green Industries” is now under early-stage consideration in Vermont’s legislature. Geared toward secondary students, the bill would improve Vermonters’ ability to find jobs in the new economy and would provide qualified employees to help grow our green industries. S.331 also defines energy jobs inclusively, as positions in renewable energy generation, efficiency, carbon capture, efficient transportation, green building, sustainable forestry, and value-optimizing materials/waste management.
Vermont Technical College’s new bachelor’s degree program in Sustainable Design and Technology offers concentrations in energy, buildings, and landscape/site engineering. The program channels VTC’s two-year students into four-year tracks and trains them for environmentally-responsible applications of their skills.
The Dept. of Education’s “Aligning Education with Economic Cluster Development” initiative is intended to help design programs that prepare students for emerging job markets and provide promising sectors of Vermont’s economy – green industries being one priority focus -- with needed human resources.
A Vermont Agency of Natural Resources task force recently advocated creating a new Center for Environmental Education. While focusing primarily on improving the general public’s environmental literacy, the center would also “promote and encourage environmental careers.”
And more: Vermont Environmental Consortium identified environmental education as key to sector growth in 2001. In 2008, VEC will be working to strengthen programs at Vermont colleges and universities by fostering inter-institutional collaborations and creating statewide green internships and jobs coordinating programs. Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation’s recent initiative, “Building the Green Economic Sector,” also identifies green workforce development as key to a viable state economy.

If there’s any silver lining in the dark clouds of looming environmental problems, it’s that – provided we take timely action – the jobs imperiled might well be replaced by new jobs in the burgeoning green economy.

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Daniel Hecht is a novelist and executive director of Vermont Environmental Consortium. For more information on any Green Grapevine topic, contact vec@norwich.edu.

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