What Green Economy?
Jan 24, 2010
9 Comments
Yesterday, as I walked up Pico Boulevard to the Los Angeles Convention Center, a sense of doom overcame me as I saw the crowds outside the entrance on Figueroa Street.Drat, I thought. It's 10:20, it started at 10, and I won't get into the Go Green Expo. The place is mobbed, so "green" really is the rage! There will be thousands of people accosting the exhibit hall for a handful of job openings--just like what we see in the newspapers when a new hotel opens and 3000 folks queue up for 100 jobs.
I could not believe all the tension in the air. People really looked down and out. It seemed half of them were smoking cigarettes. I saw many with determined looks on their faces. It seemed that most were with their families. Such is life in LA at a time when employment is over 12%.
Will I ever get in, I thought, as I approached the glass and steel entrance.
Never mind.
I had shown up for the America's Got Talent auditions.
So I was redirected to Exhibit Hall J.
We have been hearing much hype over "Green Jobs" and the panacea it could be for an uneasy economy. The hype, however, has not carried over into viable employment. I realized this when the "Green Jobs Expo" sign was off in the corner of the exhibit hall.
There were a few recruiters. One booth was manned by a fellow showing attendees how they could search for jobs on his firm's web site. Coca-Cola was there, full of brochures demonstrating that bottled water really is not a problem at all. Wells Fargo was there, and unfortunately, I embarrassed the poor chap at the booth when I asked him what his bank was doing as far as sustainability goes--did they have a Chief Sustainability Officer, was that hat held by one of its executives, or did they have a committee?
"Sustainability? What do you mean?"
"Green," I replied."Oh yeah, we love green. We recycle."
I did talk to a recruiter and a San Diego-based firm, the staff of which were lovely and smart people. And there were several solar companies who were looking for installers, which is great as this economy has really hammered the manufacturing sector.
But the sad truth is, the "Green Pets" section of the Go Green Expo was larger than the jobs expo. And there were plenty of booths pitching organic health products (for the stomach and skin), home improvement products, and there was a row of alternative energy companies (mostly solar) boasting their goods and services. I met a lot of interesting people, and gave out my cards while receiving many in return.The current outlook, however, is that the mania over green jobs far exceeds the reality. Troll through LinkedIn, and you see many bright engineers and scientists practically begging for experience. I have friends with stellar resumes who have worked at marquee firms like Disney, Boeing, and Thomson Reuters who want to break into this space but are becoming frustrated. Many factors are at play: a new presidential administration that has made several political missteps, the relative cheap price of fossil fuels, a regulatory climate that does not favor alternative forms of energy, and investors' reticence to invest in these firms, which require huge sums of capital. Finally, the Supreme Court's decision on the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case will not help--I cringe to think the kind of commercials we'll see here in the US as the November election approaches. Between ExxonMobil and the Teamsters, our Tivos or DVRs will get quite the workout this fall.
Friday morning, I attended a career and networking seminar at USC that dished out even more sobering news over the green job outlook. Carla Moore, Director of Business Development at Manpower, stated that the evidence towards a booming green economy just is not there. True, she said, there is growth, but we are talking about a very small sector in the economy. The statistics are analogous to the excitement I had during the week after I launched this site when my subscriber base doubled. Yes it did double: from 2, and that's because I added some other email addresses of mine to my subscriber base to test the emails out.
So what if your heart is set on that green job out there? Kevin Peters, a recruiter for Surrex Solutions, pointed out that this is a terrible time for a career transition. Adam Van Dyke, a Lead Recruiter at Northrop Grumman, summed it best, stating what is true for any industry: you have to talk and talk and talk to people, research the companies, network like mad, and speak with executives and recruiters at companies to learn for what kind of professionals these people are seeking. What is your prognosis about 2010 and the green job revolution? GreenGoPost welcomes your thoughts.
As a former employee for the recruiting firm Surrex, I can fully understand their complete ability to misquote and give poor advice for those seeking a career change. For many, this is the optimum time to change careers. With a recession, it is a time for industry to wipe out obsolete industries and career paths. The recession should be a clear indicator that if you are not in a sustainable line of employment, it’s time to move on. The challenge is that many people will have to work harder to get into a new field like never before, to the point that they may have to create their own company to establish themselves in the industry. For the last 6 months, though still employed, I have been working diligently to move out of Aerospace and into Neighborhood Electric Vehicles. I went to Go Green Expo and made excellent connections with several bicycle and motorcycle manufactures and industry education groups such as Plug In America and non-profits looking for support. Mr. Van Dyke of Northrop had it right, it is much more about talking and networking than propping up job fairs like Mr. Peters and recruiting agencies like Surrex recommends. Job fairs are dead and prospective employees looking to go green are going to have to look at less conventional and radical methods to find employment in the future.
Johnny:
Thanks so much for the feedback. I hear a lot on both sides whether a down economy is a good or toxic time to change careers–I keep going back and forth, and I (and others, methinks) really appreciate your insight. I’m glad the expo was a great experience for you! LK
Well written article. I believe you need to continue your search, follow the money.
I have a small business that markets water and energy saving devices to hotels, hospitals, college dorms and restaurants. Conservation of resources is acknowledged by many energy experts as the greatest return on investment. I and my business receive many updates from my state office of Energy Independence on the application of the Office of Recovery and Reinvestment (the so called stimulus package) Upon examination most of these funds are directed at theoretical applications from mostly large corporations, Universities or government agencies. These technologies have huge distribution and economic issues to overcome yet they get the funding while small business that offer products that can yield immediate results through conservation gets neat little media bits, and speeches. I think a person with your talents would do well to follow this money, billions of dollars this is where the green($$$) jobs are.
What an extraordinary rehash of the Expo (which I also attended) and its underlying hopes and disappointments. During the year following Obama’s inauguration, I have published about 100 articles (in print as well as online) on the topic of clean tech, sustainability and eco-friendly initiatives. Like most freelancers I know, the exhaustive process of pitching, revising and staying on top of the beats is a a 24/7 commitment. The likelihood of eventually securing a ’sustainable’ (ordinarily I steer clear of puns but in this case its impossible to resist) position in a company with a strong eco initiative in this economy, however, seems increasingly unlikely. Given my education, professionalism, blogging and social media expertise –not to mention the overall quality of my writing — I would be a green initiative communication department’s dream come true. Too bad everybody’s downsizing. My impression of the Expo was that a disproportionately high percentage of the representatives there were also waiting for the Green Economy Deus ex Machina to arrive. Lucky for me, I also freelance…
Time to create our own jobs, economy that are local. It is a paradigm shift back to sanity really when we look at how unsustainable everything we do it given peak oil. I really like what these gals are doing http://www.yourbackyardfarmer.com/ and would love to see franchises take off all over the country and world!
We all need some goals and leadership to guide us to new opportunities and jobs. Thus far we have promises but no action from government. As Tom Freidman has preached and written, we are having a party while the rest of world has gone through a revolution to become more sustainable. In a revolution, ways change and often times people get hurt. But the outcome is change, sometimes permanent and for the better. We need government to initiate change and to lead. Inflict the necessary pain, however politically wrong it may be, to get this revolution started. Once its in play the job market for green will have a foundation to work from. Need. Laws. Taxes. Incentives. How about a national can and bottle bill for starters. How horrible will it be to take back those empties. And Freidmans idea of promoting the development of alternate fuels by taxing crude. Now that hurts. But guess what.. the oil wells are now in our back yard, financed by Bankers with a gauranteed floor price established and subsidized indirectly by us. And that means jobs. This stuff really is simple, but it will be a discomfort to us all if it will ever have a chance to work. Lets suck it up and take our medicine now.
I can tell you what I am seeing from the perspective of a small solar company owner. I have been in the solar and alternative energy business since 1980. I have never seen the reality and the discussion so in conflict with each other. I do mostly solar thermal systems and predominately residential installations.
What is happening is that most of my traditional customers are very reluctant to spend money in this economic environment. There are a lot of people entering the solar field as competitors so my work load has dropped substantially. The very wealthy and very committed are still buying but the biggest segment of the market is in wait and see mode.
In Oregon there are quite a few really large installations (PV) going in because of the substantial State tax credits. The green economy will be very unequally distributed, so be careful if you are leaving a viable job to enter the green jobs field.
It is my opinion that in the residential field there won’t be a groundswell in installations until solar water heaters and small PV systems can be installed for a relatively small upfront cost.
The other thing that has to be considered is that 60% of the cost of these systems comes from tax credits and rebates. I don’t think these subsidies are sustainable. If installation volumes go up it will really start showing up in the budgets of these taxing bodies. Oregon is struggling right now with their business energy tax credit program. They had almost 10 times the expenditures for the program than anticipated and the legislature may have to trim the program.
All this to say there is a gradual shift toward conservation, alternate energy and sustainable technologies. It will be greater in the future than in the past, but it will not qualify as a paradigm shift. And it will be spread out through a vast area of services and technologies. Tax credits and rebates are tenuous at best because all taxing agencies are getting deeper into crisis and will have to answer for all the money flowing into these programs.
I hope the green jobs start showing up because it will be good for all of us, but I would advise against doing anything rash if you already have a viable job
I was intrigued by your experience at the show(s)… it does seem that entertainment is of more value / interest to Americans than survival or rebuilding our country. Oh well, I guess we will get what we deserve. I can’t tell you hoe many times people have told me that “doing the right thing” just isn’t feasible and is a waste of energy (I mean… time).
If we peek back in history we will see that other countries have fallen off their successful binges with a bang… England, China, Japan, Germany… the list is verrrry long. It looks like we’re kinda on that same track…and lack of greener jobs is just a symptom of something deeper. Good writing! Thanks for sharing your insights.
I have been trying to make the transition from technical automotive sales to the “green renewable energy” manufacturing industry, and it has been a depressing experience. The USA does not have an energy policy, making coal, oil, and natural gas still the cheapest source of energy. This means the tremendous investment costs of fuel cell, solar panel, and wind turbine systems do not have a reasonable payback period for the investment. The installations I have observed and investigated only work if the cost of the system is subsidized by business energy tax credits and rebates from the states. In any economy, especially this one, such help in payback periods to “go green” are not sustainable. Conservation is right now the best payback system to use; reduce your energy usage; not produce you own electrical energy.
The final insult is our federal government telling us that “green manufacturing” will be the next great manufacturing industry (replacing Chrysler, Ford, and GM?!) to create American jobs. Right. The green energy jobs are specialized and low volume at best. Even worse, like most manufacturing in the USA, we have already let foreign competitors become 5 – 10 years ahead of us in design and manufacturing since their governments already have energy policies, increased the price of coal, oil, and gas energy, and created viable green manufacturing companies. We have lost the initiative already and we have not even started. Sort of like the myth of “high-speed rail” in the USA. How do we vote for such systems naively thinking those systems will be built in the USA when the rest of the world already has the designs and manufacturing capability to supply these systems.
Did I cheer anyone up yet?