November 14, 2008

Green Jobs On The Rise

Sustainability initiatives are leading to the rise of the environmental manager, the Independent reports.

Russell Foster, chief executive of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, told the Independent that “there are more and more people getting into the environment as a career and more and more companies realizing they have to do more to demonstrate an environmental conscience.”

IEMA’s membership has risen from around 4,000, when the institute was founded in 1999 to 13,400 now. The organizations’ members are predominantly employed in environmental roles at corporations.

Chris Kernan, from the recruitment firm Cobalt, told the Independent that there are two factors leading to the rise in green job openings. One is the development of environmental legislation and the other is the growing corporate awareness of the financial implications related to environmental risk.

In Europe, plans to slash GHG emissions were passed in October. In the U.S., president-elect Barack Obama has discussed a cap-and-trade program to reduce the nation’s GHG emissions 80 percent by 2050.

Earlier this year, Dynegy and Xcel Energy agreed to disclose their financial risk associated with climate change to the S.E.C.

A report from the American Solar Energy Society showed that as many as 1 out of 4 workers in the U.S. will be working in the renewable energy or energy efficiency industries by 2030.

In May, the East Bay Express reported that green sector jobs were booming in California.

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