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Building Opportunity: New Jersey

The Jobs and Economic Benefits of Decarbonizing
Buildings Across the Garden State

SUMMARY

The Garden State is home to nearly 33,000 people who are employed in work directly related to constructing high-performance, climate-friendly, decarbonized buildings capable of running on 100% clean power. The work they engage in includes activities like installing electric induction stoves in kitchens in Hoboken, replacing old insulation in drafty attics of single-family homes in Hunterdon County, or fitting new pipes for geothermal heating and cooling systems in offices in industrial parks along the Jersey Shore.

To better understand how decarbonizing New Jersey’s buildings is impacting the state’s labor market, E2 took a deeper dive into the state’s overall building decarbonization employment data.

By looking at five employment areas — technology; value chain; residential and commercial sector employment; electrification, building envelope and other energy efficiency; and specific occupational analysis —we found that:

• Northern New Jersey is home to the highest concentration of the state’s building decarbonization jobs but every other region in the state is home to thousands as well.
• More than half of New Jersey’s building decarbonization jobs were in construction-related fields, which can include tasks like erecting scaffolding and other temporary construction site structures, loading or unloading building materials, operating on-site equipment, and digging trenches and earthworks to prepare construction sites.
• Statewide, there are more than 21,000 workers involved in residential building decarbonization; another 16,000 work in commercial building decarbonization, with some overlap between the two. This suggests broad opportunities and transferable skills for people who work on everything from single-story ranch houses and barns, to high-rise office buildings in urban centers.
• In 2020, the average annual wages for five select occupations within building decarbonization in New Jersey ranged from $56,700 (for workers who are involved in insulation, floors, ceilings and walls) to $75,800 (plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters). Introduction
• The education required for entry-level jobs and the on-the-job training that workers receive varies depending on the occupation. This suggests a wide range of opportunities for workers with various experience levels, backgrounds and education.

Job Highlights by Technology, 2020

Wage, Education, and Training Highlights by Occupation, 2020

The wage data shows how significant of an opportunity building decarbonization represents to workers in New Jersey and to the overall economy. In five of the most common building decarbonization occupations, average annual wages in New Jersey range from $56,700 to $75,800.

Demographic Highlights by Race and Ethnicity, 2020

The majority of workers within each occupation in the state are white, followed by Black and Asian. Hispanic or Latino workers make up the majority of insulation workers and construction laborers in New Jersey and are approximately one-fifth of the overall workforce in the state.

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BACKGROUND

This is the first Building Opportunity: New Jersey report produced by E2 based on analysis of the USEER, which was first released by the DOE in 2016. E2 was an original proponent of the DOE producing the USEER and was a partner on the reports produced by the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) and National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) after it was abandoned in 2017.

Clean Jobs North Carolina 2022

Summary:

Clean jobs in North Carolina grew by over 4 percent in 2021, more than double the growth rate of the state’s total workforce for the year. That growth also demonstrates the clean energy economy’s strong recovery from the COVID-19 economic downturn and sets North Carolina up for even more clean energy job opportunities in the years to come — especially with the right policies in place.

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Other Key Findings

• Black and African-Americans are under-represented by nearly 60% in North Carolina’s clean energy economy. Black workers occupy more than 21% of all jobs in the state, but less than 9% of clean energy jobs.
• North Carolina was home to 3.2% of the nation’s total clean energy jobs, 9th in the nation.
• More than two-thirds of the 27,217 clean energy jobs lost in North Carolina during the COVID-19 economic downturn had been regained by the end of 2021.
• Small businesses (<20 employees) accounted for almost 4 out of every 5 clean energy jobs in North Carolina, ranking 2nd among all 50 states.
• North Carolina ranked 1st among all 50 states in rural clean energy jobs, with 25,563 clean energy jobs in rural areas.

Figure 4 // U.S. Clean Energy Employment by subsector 2021

Figure 1 // Clean Energy Employment by year 2017–2021

Figure 3 //Clean Energy Employment by value chain 2021

Previous Clean Jobs North Carolina Reports

• Clean Jobs North Carolina 2021
• Clean Jobs North Carolina 2020
• Clean Jobs North Carolina 2019

Policies Matter

North Carolina has long been a regional leader in clean energy jobs. That distinction is due in large part to its early adoption of smart clean energy policies like the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard, which passed the North Carolina General Assembly with bipartisan support back in 2007.

But as other states in the Southeast and throughout the country continue to pass policies that will drive growth in their clean energy economies, North Carolina must build on past successes to maintain its leadership status. The bipartisan passage of the Energy Solutions Act (HB 951) in 2021 was a huge step in the right direction, kicking off much-needed utility reform and establishing ambitious carbon pollution reduction targets for the power sector—70 percent by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

Now, North Carolina’s policymakers need to implement HB 951 as intended and pass additional policies that send a clear, long-term signal that the state is committed to a clean energy future. In turn, that will empower clean energy companies in North Carolina to continue to invest and grow jobs in the state.

REPORT: Record-Breaking Losses, Extreme Weather Trends Threaten Economies In Red And Blue States Alike

Analysis identifies historic and future trends by disaster type and region, down to the state, county, and congressional district Economic costs of climate change are growing alongside economic opportunities for action As Florida rebuilds from Hurricane Ian and the Midwest and Southeast recover from this summer’s flooding, a new report by PSE Healthy Energy for […]

Billion Dollar Losses, Trillion Dollar Threats: The Cost of Climate Change

Summary:

Billion Dollar Losses, Trillion Dollar Threats: The Cost of Climate Change reviews the escalating toll of billion-dollar disasters over the last forty years and provides insight into how these disasters—from hurricanes and flooding to wildfires—are compounded by other extreme weather events, such as record-breaking drought, heat waves, and rainfall.

The trends identified in the report are concerning for America’s economy. Every state in the country has been impacted and faces risks from rapidly escalating  weather and climate disaster damages, with a third of all losses since 1980 occurring in the last five years. From 2017-2021, America experienced its four most expensive wildfires, two of its three most expensive hurricanes, and its most expensive winter storm with economic losses from all disasters totaling $765 billion.

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Findings

Billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the form of hurricanes, severe storms, drought, flooding, wildfires, winter storms, and freezing have led to $2.2 trillion in losses since 1980 (see Figure 1) (NOAA, 2022). Across the United States, climate change is exacerbating extreme weather events and severely damaging infrastructure, buildings, roads, and cropland. Annual losses from billion-dollar disasters during the last five years—totalling $765 billion in losses and more than 4,500 deaths from 2017 to 2021—were nearly eight times higher than in the 1980s (NOAA, 2022). While billion-dollar disasters are responsible for an estimated 80 percent of total disaster-related losses, the combination of smaller disasters, heat waves, and ongoing business disruptions that are not captured mean the overall economic turmoil is even greater than this analysis details.

Climate change is not the sole driver of natural disasters, but it contributes to their frequency and severity. The world has warmed nearly 1.1 ˚C since 1880 (NASA, 2022), and warming is likely to exceed 1.5 ˚C in the near term, even with significant efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions (Pörtner, 2022). Each year from 2001 through 2021 were among the 22 hottest years on record (NASA, 2022), and record-breaking temperatures led to a new high of 130 ˚F in Death Valley in 2021.1 These extreme weather events have widespread impacts: a recent analysis from the Washington Post estimated that in 2021 alone, a federal disaster emergency was declared in the home county of more than 40 percent of Americans (Kaplan et al., 2022).

The frequency of climate-related disasters are rising, too. Between 2017 and 2021, the United States experienced its four most-expensive wildfires, two of its three most expensive hurricanes, and its most expensive winter storm (NOAA, 2022). The percentage of state’s total historic weather and climate disaster losses that occurred in the last 5 years is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 1 // Billion-dollar disasters across the U.S. are growing in number and severity

(data source: NOAA, 2022).

Figure 3 // Percentage of state’s total historic losses from weather and climate disasters in last 5 years (total losses shown in text)

(data source: NOAA, 2022).

Figure 2 // Billion-dollar climate- and weather-related disasters accounted for 80 percent of disaster-related losses, totaling $2.2 trillion from 1980-2021 (shown in $billions below).

(data source: NOAA, 2022).

About this Report

This report reviews the historic and projected economic toll of weather and climate disasters across the United States since 1980. It assess trends related to specific types of disasters—such as wildfires or hurricanes—as well as across regions, sectors, and over the course of decades. Such an analysis inherently reflects uncertainty associated with both historic impacts, for which data can be limited, as well as for future projections, which depend on future emissions scenarios and complex climate modeling. This analysis largely discusses total economic impacts of these disasters, but this metric is somewhat limited as well: it may be much harder for a low-income household to recover from the flooding of a less expensive house than for a wealthier household to recover from damage to a more expensive house, even if the total monetary damage of the latter is larger. Given these limitations, the report still aims to summarize the scale of weather and climate damage across the United States, the risk of escalating costs in a warming climate, and the need to rapidly invest in both climate mitigation and adaptation.

Disproportionate Impacts

Low-income communities, communities of color, and other historically underserved and overburdened face elevated risks from climate change. Recent research has found that future flooding is more likely to occur in low-income neighborhoods, communities of color, and places with a disproportionate share of industrial pollution (Marlow, 2022). Historically redlined communities which are still disproportionately home to people of color are more likely to be heat islands today (Plumer & Popovich, 2020), increasing risks for these populations as temperatures rise. Not addressing these inequities in climate policy risks exacerbating environmental health and socioeconomic inequities (Shonkoff et al, 2011), but targeted investments co-designed with communities can help reduce the disproportionate impacts of extreme weather (NASEM, 2022).

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E2 California Action Alert: Advanced Clean Fleet Rule

On Climate Action, We All Did This

“You did this,” the president told me as I thanked him on behalf of E2 for creating and signing into law the most important climate and clean energy policy in history. “No, I really mean it,” President Biden said, still squeezing my hand in a firm shake after a long day of hand shaking. “This only […]

Let’s Get Federal Climate Action Done!

This is it! Starting this week, Congress is going to vote on the biggest climate and clean energy package in US history. THANK YOU for making calls to get this essential climate package across the finish-line!

It’s quick and easy, and the program will walk you through step by step. At the end of the call the staff may ask you for your address to verify you are a constituent. Once you have made one call stay on the line to be connected to the next office.

Climate economics: Costs, opportunities – and your pocketbook

Climate change is a serious and growing threat to the U.S. economy, and North Carolina is no exception. Climate-related disasters inflicted nearly $150 billion in damage to the national economy last year, including up to $1 billion in damage in North Carolina alone. And those figures are just one piece of the puzzle, with rising […]

Ask President Biden and Members of Congress to Pass $550 billion in clean energy and climate investments

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Building Opportunity: New York

The Jobs, Economic and Equity Benefits of Decarbonizing
and Electrifying Buildings Across the Empire State

Summary

New York State is home to more than 120,000 workers engaged in work directly related to decarbonizing and electrifying buildings across the state. This includes work like installing electric induction stoves in apartment buildings on Staten Island, replacing old insulation in the attics of single-family homes in Plattsburgh and fitting new pipes for geothermal heating and cooling systems in commercial buildings in Rochester.

To better understand how decarbonizing and electrifying New York’s buildings would impact the state’s labor market, E2 took a deeper dive into the state’s overall building decarbonization and electrification employment data.

By looking at five employment areas — technology; value chain; residential and commercial energy efficiency; electrification, building envelope and other energy efficiency; and a specific occupational analysis — we found that:

• In New York State, building decarbonization and electrification employment is 2.2 times greater than employment in fossil fuels as they relate to buildings.
• While New York City, Long Island and the mid-Hudson Valley are home to the majority of the state’s building decarbonization and electrification jobs, Western New York, the Finger Lakes, Central New York, the Southern Tier, the North Country and every other region in the state is home to thousands of building decarbonization workers, and all counties and regions stand to gain from stronger building decarbonization and electrification policies.
• Statewide, there are 73,000 workers involved in residential building decarbonization; nearly 48,000 work helping to decarbonize commercial buildings, suggesting broad opportunities across the state’s building stock, from ranch houses to apartments and high-rise office buildings to commercial buildings and industrial parks.
• In 2020, average annual wages for five occupations within building decarbonization and electrification in New York State ranged from $48,800 (for workers who are involved in insulation, floors, ceilings and walls) to $81,200 (electricians)
• The education required for entry-level jobs and the on-the-job training received varies
  depending on the occupation, suggesting a broad range of opportunities for workers
  across New York State.

Building Decarbonization and Electrification Employment by Technology, 2020

Jobs Growth Potential 

While 120,000 workers represent a sizable segment of New York State’s current overall labor force, the number of people who work on building decarbonization and electrification is expected to dramatically increase in the coming decades. By 2050, over 400,000 New Yorkers could be expected to work in building decarbonization and electrification — nearly four times as many as today.

Policy Leading the Way

Power sector policies have helped put New York at the center of the nation’s rapidly growing clean energy industry. In 2019 the state enacted the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which sets targets and timelines for economy-wide emissions reductions, requires at least 35 percent of climate action benefits directly impact environmental justice and disadvantaged communities, and establishes the New York Climate Action Council (CAC) to oversee the efforts required to meet these nation-leading climate and equity commitments.

The state is already on track to meet CLCPA goals of sourcing 70 percent of its electricity supply from renewable energy by 2030, and making it 100 percent emissions-free by 2040. With buildings now representing a significant portion of economy-wide emissions, additional policies that could help equitably accelerate this shift include: better building codes; standards that help make appliances and other equipment found in residences and commercial buildings more efficient; statewide legislation that helps modernize new buildings; facilitating more disclosure of how buildings consume energy; eliminating fossil fuel subsidies while aligning incentives with state and local climate goals; and scaling up green, affordable housing.

Credit: NYSERDA.

DOWNLOAD

Download the complete report at at this link.

BACKGROUND

This is the first Building Opportunity: New York report produced by E2 based on analysis of the USEER, which was first released by the DOE in 2016. E2 was an original proponent of the DOE producing the USEER and was a partner on the reports produced by the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) and National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) after the Trump administration abandoned it in 2017.

E2 Federal Action Alert – Build Back Better Letter to President Biden

Please review this E2 action alert letter and add your e-signature by using the fields below and clicking the ADD YOUR SIGNATURE button. Note that you are signing on as an individual and not as a representative of your employer.

Deadline to sign on is Tuesday, February 22, 2022