“Especially in New York City, buildings, particularly existing buildings, are one of our big challenges,” Uchenna Bright says. “Decarbonization and energy efficiency are still very much a huge market within the city, and there’s still a lot more work to be done there.”
The Economic Benefits of Advancing Clean Building Policies in the Windy CityChicago is home to more than 12,000 workers engaged in work directly related to making Chicago’s building sector cleaner and more efficient. This workforce includes workers who replace old insulation in the attics of single-family homes, fit new pipes for geothermal heating and cooling systems in commercial buildings, and install electric stoves and air source heat pumps in homes and buildings.
To better understand how electrifying and making Chicago’s buildings more energy efficient would impact the city’s labor market, E2 took a deeper dive into Chicago’s overall clean buildings employment data.
| Professional Services | 5,769 |
| Construction | 4,459 |
| Manufacturing | 1,726 |
| Wholesale Trade | 664 |
| Other Services | 104 |
| Total | 12,722 |
Policies that support electrifying and making Chicago’s buildings more energy efficient can create job opportunities and result in substantial economic and climate benefits for Chicago residents. With the Inflation Reduction Act incentives creating an unprecedented opportunity for cities, states, and customers to advance clean energy and building retrofits, the time to act is now. The City of Chicago must pass the following by early 2023:
Download the complete report at at this link.
This analysis of the United States Energy and Employment Report (USEER) was produced by BW Research for E2. The USEER survey includes workers who spend a plurality of their time working to improve the energy efficiency of a building, factory, residence, etc., without regard to the type of energy source used—including those workers who may still may still be installing high-efficiency gas technologies. As buildings transition from gas to all-electric these jobs will transition with them, as the skills required for both technologies are highly transferable.
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SUMMARYThe 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:
| Technology | New Jersey Jobs |
| Energy Star & Efficient Lighting | 7,167 |
| High Efficiency HVAC & Renewable H&C | 6,594 |
| Traditional HVAC | 10,181 |
| Other | 6,505 |
| Advanced Materials & Insulation | 2,433 |
| Total | 32,880 |
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.
| Occupation | New Jersey Avg Annual Wage | National Avg. Annual Wage | Education & Training: Typical Entry-Level Education | Education & Training: Typical On-the-Job Training |
| Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers |
$63,500 | $54,690 | High School diploma or equivalent | 2-year degree or certificate; long-term on-the-job training |
| Electricians | $75,100 | $63,310 | High School diploma or equivalent | Apprenticeship; long-term training |
| Construction Laborers | $58,700 | $44,130 | High School diploma or equivalent | Short-term on-the-job-training |
| Insulation Workers, Floor, Ceiling, and Wall |
$56,700 | $44,810 | High School diploma or equivalent | Short-term on-the-job-training |
| Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters |
$75,800 | $62,250 | Four-year degree | Apprenticeship; short-term on-the-job-training |
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.
| Occupation | AMERICAN INDIAN OR ALASKAN NATIVE | ASIAN | BLACK | NATIVE HAWAIIAN OR OTHER PACIFIC ISLANDER | WHITE* | TWO OR MORE RACES | HISPANIC OR LATINO** | NOT HISPANIC OR LATINO |
| Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers |
0.2% | 1.8% | 13.9% | 0.1% | 81.8% | 2.4% | 30.7% | 69.3% |
| Electricians | 0.1% | 3.7% | 11.8% | 0.0% | 82.4% | 1.9% | 26.2% | 73.8% |
| Construction Laborers | 0.6% | 4.1% | 13.0% | 0.0% | 80.0% | 2.3% | 51.3% | 48.7% |
| Insulation Workers, Floor, Ceiling, and Wall |
0.6% | 2.2% | 14.6% | 0.0% | 79.8% | 2.8% | 52.9% | 47.1% |
| Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters |
0.4% | 2.2% | 12.0% | 0.0% | 82.5% | 2.8% | 31.1% | 68.9% |
| NJ Clean Energy Statewide | 0.2% | 10.7% | 14.5% | 0.1% | 72.2% | 2.3% | 20.3% | 79.7% |
Download the complete report at at this link.
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.
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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:
| Energy Star | 36,005 |
| High Efficiency HVAC & Renewable H&C | 35,315 |
| Traditional HVAC | 32,520 |
| Other | 8,993 |
| Advanced Materials & Insulation | 8,128 |
| Total | 120,961 |
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.
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 the complete report at at this link.
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.
View Report »Passage of this bill will also significantly benefit Chicago’s Black and brown communities. A 2020 study from E2, or Environmental Entrepreneurs, showed that Black and Latino residents in Illinois are twice as likely to live in communities with the most lead service lines — yet another addition to the array of disproportionate threats to their […]
WASHINGTON – The House Ways and Means Committee unveiled its list of revenue priorities and tax reforms (or “pay-fors”) it will rely on to fund the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. Statement from Sandra Purohit, director of federal advocacy for the national, nonpartisan business group E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs): “The cost of going small is too high. […]
Based on the Biden administration’s plans to invest $45 billion to replace 100 percent of lead service lines in America, the findings from Getting the Lead Out: Employment & Economic Impacts from Replacing America’s Lead Service Lines, this report from E2 and the United Association of Union Plumbers & Pipefitters (UA) estimates that the $45 billion invested in this program will create and support 56,080 jobs annually for 10 years, or a total of 560,800 job-years. This annual estimate includes 26,900 direct jobs—construction workers, plumbers, pipefitters, heavy equipment operators—as a direct result of this activity. Another 13,600 jobs that last for 10 years are created throughout the value chain, and 13,800 jobs are created each year for 10 years as a result of workers spending their paycheck.
About 84 percent of all jobs created through this investment are in construction (52 percent), professional and business services (24 percent), and manufacturing industries (8 percent). Insofar as the bulk of these jobs involve high-skill construction occupations, the jobs created will provide good wages and training opportunities for local residents and promote economic benefits to affected communities.
This investment into cleaning up our nation’s water supply also would generate $38.3 billion in labor income, $11.7 billion in taxes, and $53.9 billion in additional value to the economy. That would represent a 120 percent return on investment.
In addition to the jobs created and value added to the economy from this activity, additional benefits like increased positive health outcomes would be generated. It has been estimated that an additional $22,000 of societal benefits are generated for every lead pipe replaced as a result of lower cardiovascular disease. Since in many areas lead service lines are more likely to exist in environmental justice communities, and since Black and Latino children have disproportionately high overall lead exposure, replacing these lead pipes will also greatly benefit low-income and minority households.
The scope of this work is massive and reaches every state. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) estimates that between 9.7 million to more than 12 million lead service lines are distributing water throughout our nation. About 700,000 or more of these service lines are found in Illinois, while Ohio, Michigan, New York, New Jersey Missouri and Wisconsin each contain more than 300,000 of the nation’s lead service lines; the top ten states total about 4 million.
* 56,080 jobs annually over ten years
** Includes $38.3B in labor income, $11.7B in taxes and $53.9B in additional economic benefits
BW Research used IMPLAN to conduct the economic impact analysis, resulting in the jobs, value-added, labor income, and taxes data. IMPLAN is an input-output modeling software that tracks spending patterns through the economy and their resulting impacts on economic indicators. The cumulative effects of the initial investment are quantified, and the results are categorized into direct, indirect, and induced effects. To capture interstate flows, direct and indirect impacts are results of national-level multipliers, distributed across states using state-level modeling. Induced impacts are the results of state-level multipliers, so as not to overestimate the impacts of household spending. Workforce data such as occupational demographics and wages are derived from JobsEQ by Chmura. JobsEQ is a workforce data software that derives data from Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau data, among other sources. Unionization rates are derived from unionstats.com.
This economic impact analysis was conducted by BW Research Partnership for E2 in partnership with the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters. It uses the Biden Administration’s stated goal of 100 percent removal of lead service lines (LSLs) from America’s drinking water systems, the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) national survey of LSLs, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) estimated LSL replacement costs.
Special thanks to NRDC and BW Research. For a description of the methodology used in this report, please refer to the explanation on page in Appendix A.
If you are looking for additional insight into Getting the Lead Out: Employment & Economic Impacts from Replacing America’s Lead Service Lines or E2’s other clean energy employment reports, visit e2.org/reports.
Electric pickup trucks are cool. But when it comes to building a cleaner economy and creating the jobs and other economic opportunities that come with it, so are heat pumps, Energy Star appliances and climate finance, the Biden administration showed this week. While up in Michigan the biggest game-changing electric vehicle since Tesla — the Ford F-150 Lightning — stole the […]
E2: Administration takes a “whole of economy” approach to climate action WASHINGTON (March 31, 2021) – President Biden will outline his plan for rebuilding America’s infrastructure in a speech later today in Pittsburgh. Biden’s American Jobs Plan will focus on how smart investments in priorities such as ensuring safe drinking water, modernizing the energy grid, […]
WHAT Profound change is afoot in the quest to meet California’s ambitious decarbonization targets and our state’s electric grid is a critical lynchpin; delivering zero-carbon electricity to California citizens and businesses is critical as we work to power our industries, buildings, and transportation sector with clean electricity. Realizing 100% clean energy and statewide carbon neutrality […]
Newly passed bill is type of policy California “needs to help its economic recovery” SACRAMENTO (September 1, 2020) – Late Monday night, the California legislature passed AB 841, a bill that swill streamline millions in investments to expand California’s electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure and make improvements to school energy efficiency upgrades. Following is a […]
