Creating 'Green' Employment

Sept. 7, 2009— -- There was no shortage of suggestions when the National Clean Energy Summit convened in Las Vegas last month to contemplate how to build a new clean-energy economy and create millions of so-called green jobs along the way.

Among the most popular proposals, despite skepticism in some quarters, was a call to create construction, manufacturing and administrative jobs through a building-retrofit program.

"The low-hanging fruit is the simplest but least sexy thing, fixing what we are doing now and becoming more efficient," former President Bill Clinton told conference participants Aug. 10.

Retrofitting buildings with energy-efficient lighting, windows, insulation or climate-control systems, for instance, could put Americans back to work in the industries hardest hit by the economic downturn, according to a report released recently by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for American Progress, a public-research group headed by Clinton's former chief of staff, John Podesta.

About 1.6 million U.S. construction workers are without jobs, or 17 percent of the total construction workforce. The number reaches 25 percent in some of the hardest-hit areas of the country, such as California and Arizona. Additionally, 2 million U.S. manufacturing workers are unemployed, 12 percent of that workforce.

The report, titled "Rebuilding America," contends that if the United States committed to retrofitting just 40 percent of its commercial and residential building stock -- or 50 million buildings -- in 10 years, it can create 625,000 permanent jobs.