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Chicago Building Decarbonization 2023

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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Download the complete report at at this link.

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 Midwest 2022

A Return to Rapid Growth, with Clean Vehicle Jobs Driving Ahead

Clean energy companies employed more than 714,000 Midwesterners at the end of 2021, over a 5 percent increase from 2020 and a return to growth after an unprecedented decline in 2020. Approximately 55 percent of the clean energy jobs lost during the COVID-19 economic downturn were regained. In 2021, clean energy jobs grew almost 40 percent faster than the overall economy. More Midwesterners worked in clean energy than the number of lawyers, accountants and auditors, web developers, and real estate agents in the region combined.

The biggest sector of the Midwest clean energy industry is energy efficiency, over 67 percent of the region’s clean energy workforce. The 479,626 energy efficiency workers in the Midwest manufacture ENERGY STAR-rated appliances, install efficient lighting, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and install advanced building materials in homes and commercial buildings.

As more automakers and their suppliers continued to shift to electric vehicles, the advanced transportation sector saw an increase of 24 percent in the Midwest.

The sector added 21,939 new jobs for a total of 112,591 workers. Hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electric-vehicle sector jo

MIDWEST HIGHLIGHTS

• Energy Efficiency – 479,626 jobs
• Clean Vehicles – 112,591 jobs
• Renewable Energy – 88,898 jobs
• Grid & Storage – 25,279 jobs
• Clean Fuels – 7,928 jobs
• ALL Clean Energy Sectors – 714,323 jobs

OTHER KEY FINDINGS

• Clean energy occupations accounted for 23% of all construction jobs and 4% of all
  manufacturing jobs in the Midwest.
• Small businesses drive Midwest’s clean energy sector – in 2021, 69% of Midwest’s clean
  energy businesses employed fewer than 20 people.
• 11% of Midwesterners employed in clean energy are veterans

DOWNLOAD

The complete report along with interactive breakdowns for all states is available at this link.

PREVIOUS CLEAN JOBS MIDWEST REPORTS

• Clean Jobs Midwest 2021
• Clean Jobs Midwest 2020
• Clean Jobs Midwest 2019
• Clean Jobs Midwest 2018
• Clean Jobs Midwest 2017
• Clean Jobs Midwest 2016

E2 California Action Alert: Advanced Clean Fleet Rule

Victory! Thank President Biden & Congress for Historic Climate Win

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

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.

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.

Proposed California EV regs could be adopted by other states

“The strong policy leadership from Sacramento over the past 20 years has not only driven strong job growth but has helped California develop into a global hub of clean vehicle innovation and development,” said Andy Wunder, Western states advocate for E2, a national, nonpartisan group of business leaders, investors and professionals.

US must accelerate transition to cleaner, more secure, economy says E2 Exec Director

“President Biden’s executive order is the right thing to do and solidifies our support for the people of Ukraine” said Mr Keefe. “But it’s just a first step to lessen our dependence on oil and the foreign governments that control it. The best way we can reduce our dependence on oil and gas and the […]

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

A New Frontier for American Energy: The Economic Promise of Offshore Wind for North Carolina

Offshore wind is poised to play a key role in achieving a clean future for the Southeast. With several Southeastern states establishing ambitious climate goals, it’s clear that our region must pursue every viable avenue to generate clean power at the scale needed. And given its established success elsewhere in the world, its growing momentum […]

Clean-energy jobs split nearly equally between Republican, Democratic districts — this shows where the most jobs are

The nation’s more than 3 million clean-energy jobs are nearly evenly split across Republican and Democratic congressional districts, new research out Monday shows. Nonprofit E2, which tracks clean-energy initiatives, particularly jobs in renewable energy, electric-vehicle manufacturing and electric-grid modernization, conducted the research with outside firm BW Research. Democratic-led districts make up 54.3%, while Republican-led districts account for […]