Arizona leading in Green States

Arizona has been quietly engaged in the new green economy for almost a decade when a handful of people joined together to ignite innovation and ingenuity in the design and construction of green buildings. And finally, it's really paying off for the entire state.

In just eight years, the Arizona chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council has grown to more than 1,200 members who represent every facet of the built environment, from architects to landscapers. They know that what we build matters.

In the United States alone, buildings account for 72% of our electricity consumption and 38% of all carbon-dioxide emissions. Working together, Arizona's advocates for a green economy are advancing practical and effective solutions to offset adverse environmental impacts.

When the Arizona chapter was organized, Arizona had just one building certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, rating system that is used to assess green-building practices. Today, there are 52 LEED-certified projects and 355 LEED-registered projects that are advancing toward this certification. The impact for Arizona's green economy is tremendous.

Our cities are helping drive this change. In 2005, Scottsdale was the first city in the nation to adopt a policy to construct its buildings to achieve a LEED Gold Certification level.

In 2006, Phoenix adopted the policy that new city-owned buildings must meet the requirements of LEED-certified ratings, and that same year, Tucson committed itself to constructing city-owned buildings to LEED Silver standards.

Recently, Tempe made history by constructing the new Tempe Transportation Center, which is one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the nation. The project stars a three-story, 40,000-square-foot office and retail complex, which is also a bus and light-rail hub. It's designed to be 52 percent more energy-efficient than traditionally constructed buildings and has the first vegetated desert green roof on a commercial building in our state.

Like the Transportation Center roof, decisions to adopt green practices usually start at the top. As more businesses factor in the savings in water and energy costs that these buildings deliver, corporations and entrepreneurs alike are realizing it makes good financial sense to adopt a green approach.

This November will be a milestone for our state as it plays host to the prestigious 2009 Greenbuild International Conference & Expo. It is expected to bring 30,000 professionals to Phoenix in the fields of construction loans, energy, community planning, product development, sustainability and other related fields to hear top international speakers and see the latest technology.

Being chosen to host Greenbuild '09 confirms that Arizona is recognized for its leadership in green building. All this action indicates that we are at a tipping point where sustainable practices and building green are becoming mainstream.

Green-Collar Jobs in 2010

Blue-collar and white-collar are familiar jobs—from plumbers and builders to lawyers and stock traders. Now, the buzz is building for green-collar jobs, the millions of job opportunities created by the green economy. But just what are these green jobs? There are many existing jobs that will be re-purposed and expanded in the new green economy, and others that are entirely new occupations.



A recent report from the Center for American Progress and the Political Economy Research Institute proposed a $100 billion investment in green infrastructure spread out over two years. The study found that an investment like this will result in over 2 million new jobs in six areas: retrofitting buildings to improve energy efficiency, expanding mass transit and freight rail, constructing “smart” electrical grid transmission systems, wind power, solar power, and next-generation biofuels.

New York City is scheduled to have 1700 hybrid-electric buses on its roads by 2010. As gas prices rise and demand for mass transit increases, there will be a greater demand for new bus drivers, civil engineers, rail track layers, locomotive engineers, rail conductors, welders, and dispatchers trained in the new technology of mass transit and freight rail.

Green Jobs in a Growing Lending Area

Recently I upgraded my lending areas to include the following states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Maryland, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington. Info203k is also one of those companies that is trying to make an effort to adopt environmentally safe business practices. So in light of that newly adopted green effort as well as expanded lending area, today's blog post is about green jobs in Oregon.

According to an article in the Portland Tribune, as well as a new state report, Oregon had more than 50,000 “green” jobs in 2008, and employers across the state expect to add many more in the next few years.

Oregon Employment Department’s “Greening of Oregon’s Work force: Jobs, Wages and Training,” reported that the state had 51,402 jobs in energy efficiency or renewable projects and a handful of other environmentally related fields. That accounted for about 3 percent of the state’s total employment.

By 2010, employers say they’ll add about 14 percent more green jobs, according to the state report.

Oregon’s Employment Department released information about the report Monday morning, June 29. The report was based on a survey of employers and found that "green jobs" consisted of 226 different occupations.

A green job is one that "provides a service or a product by increasing energy efficiency; producing renewable energy; preventing, reducing or mitigating environmental degradation; cleaning up and restoring the natural environment; and, providing education, consulting, policy promotion, accreditation, trading and offsets or similar services for related environmental projects."

Construction, wholesale and retail trade and administrative and waste services were the leading industries for most green jobs, about 47 percent of the total, according to the report. The amount of construction loans so first-time home buyers could make home improvements will spike dramatically and become a much larger part of the entire process next year.

The five occupations with the most green jobs were carpenters, farm workers, truck drivers, hazardous materials removal workers and landscaping and groundskeepers.

The average wage for green jobs in 2008 was $22.61 an hour.

According to the report, nearly a third of green jobs required a special license or certificate. The most common requirements were specific to occupations, such as an electrician’s license. Other common requirements were environmental cleanup or abatement certifications, equipment operator licenses and commercial driver’s licenses and prior on-the-job experience.

The report was funded, in part, with Employer Workforce Training Funds administered by the Oregon Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development.