Where are the jobs?

“The Clean Jobs Index addresses the prevalence of clean jobs and takes a unique ranking approach to hot topics in the world of sustainability,” ~Colin Coyne, Managing Principal, The Coyne Group and LEED 2.0 Accredited Professional.

At first glance, the Clean Jobs Index might appear to be simply another “our state is greener than your state” national comparison. After all, it features a U.S. map and the greener the color of the state, the higher that state is ranked on a variety of sustainability factors, such as renewable energy portfolio.

But then as you drill down into the "Clean Jobs by State" indicator, and view the "Clean Jobs by Category" pie chart for the state of your choice, you see an interesting instruction: “Clean Jobs by Category - click a category to see individual job listings.” The listings even include handy hyperlinks back to the original job post, where you may read more or even apply.

It’s the cleantech equivalent of “show me the money” or “the buck stops here.” These actual recent green job postings are one of the main reasons your chosen state is the shade of green it is currently colored.

To determine what jobs are deemed clean jobs, Ecotech used the “green jobs” definition from the U.S. Department of Labor – Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which states that green jobs are either: (1) Jobs in businesses that produce goods or provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources, or (2) jobs in which workers’ duties involve making their establishment’s production processes more environmentally friendly or use fewer natural resources. We then took this definition and used data from Burning Glass International, whose patented job aggregation technology searches for job listings from more than 17,000 sources, to create the Clean Jobs Index list of available positions.

I’ve had the privilege of working with an all-star team developing this Clean Jobs Index over the past year, and to my knowledge there is nothing quite like it. Sure, new green comparison reports appear every month. And there are an increasing number of web sites specializing in green job listings. But to my knowledge, no one has ever combined a national sustainability index with actual monthly cleantech job listings.

The Index found that there were more than three million clean jobs available across the United States (3,014,785) in 2012. That’s approximately a quarter of a million jobs a month. In addition to providing objective information on jobs, the Index also looks at a variety of sustainability factors that affect citizens’ lifestyles, including alternative fueling stations, LEED projects, total energy consumption, energy efficiency, green pricing, net metering and state incentives.

More: State highlights from the Clean Jobs Index