Green Jobs Are Growing
March 22, 2011
As I mentioned back in February, we expanded Green Horizon to a new office in Charlotte. The expansion went great, our new office on Old Statesville Rd is open and our new General Manager, Kent Priddy is (when we let him out of the office) enjoying meeting with our Charlotte homeowners.
When we were hiring for Kent’s role, we were both really pleased and a little surprised to see how much interest there was in a “green job” amongst seasoned contractors and building specialists.
Energy efficiency and sustainable building are both relatively new concepts in the building industry, and most college are have just started getting on board with green degree programs in the past 2 years. A veteran contractor with 20 years experience may still remember the days when insulation and utility efficiency was an afterthought to home design, instead of one of the core driving principles that we’re seeing today
Why It Make Sense
Most builders and contractors have gotten into their business because they love building great homes. Building great homes which are also easy on the environment and offer significant energy savings to homeowners is a logical step.
It’s similar to the change we saw in the automotive industry in the late 80’s and early 90’s. In your parents’ or grandparents’ generation, buying a car used to be about getting a vehicle that was bigger, faster and more roomy. Then families realized that bigger cars came with a high gas cost, and quickly “great fuel efficiency” and “high miles per gallon” became significant selling features.
We’re seeing this tipping point in home building as well, and as more and more “blue collar” jobs become “green collar” jobs, both the economy and the environment stand to benefit.
How Long Until We See Green-Collar Jobs Become the Norm?
It’s probably going to be sooner than you think. Last year in the state of North Carolina, Governor Perdue announced large-scale funding for energy efficiency programs. President Obama has said that he wants to create 5 million green collar jobs by 2019. The result is that green jobs are on the brink of being the next big thing and colleges have responded not only by creating immediate demand by introducing energy efficiency into their campuses, but also by adding more and more sustainable building courses to curriculums.
To all our current high school Seniors in the Durham, Raleigh and Charlotte areas – consider looking at building programs that offer great “green” curriculums. And in a few years, we’ll look forward to having you join us here at Green Horizon.