Anyone who has shopped at their local grocery store, drug store, or hardware store has seen the variety of \u201cgreen\u201d products on the market.\u00a0 Are these \u201cgreen\u201d products creating new manufacturing jobs?\u00a0 For the most part, the answer is \u201cno\u201d because they are just more eco-friendly versions of existing products.<\/p>\n
Global companies like General Electric, Dupont, Alcoa, and Procter & Gamble are beginning to respond to the simultaneous increases in shipping and environmental costs with \u201cgreen\u201d policies meant to reduce both fuel consumption and carbon emissions. That pressure is likely to increase as both manufacturers and retailers seek ways to tighten the global supply chain as fuel prices and transportation costs continue to rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing green is in their best interests not so much in making money as saving money,\u201d said Gary Yohe, an environmental economist at Wesleyan University.\u00a0 \u201cGreen companies are likely to be a permanent trend, as these vulnerabilities continue, but it\u2019s going to take a long time for all this to settle down.\u201d (August 2, 2008, The New York Times) <\/sup><\/p>\n Pamela Gordon dispels the myth that environmental practices are bad for business in her book \u201cLean and Green: Profit for Your Workplace and the Environment.\u201d\u00a0 She presents evidence gathered from organizations around the world that environment protection and a profitable business can go together. Her book outlines four basic steps to creating a lean and green organization and presents stories of how 20 companies have enjoyed greater efficiencies and cost savings by utilizing these steps to pursue environmental leadership.\u00a0 Many of these companies are leaders in their field \u2013 IBM Corporation, Agilent Technologies, ITT Cannon, Intel Corporation, and Apple Computer.\u00a0 The stories show how companies saved money and increased profitability by utilizing \u201cgreen\u201d technology and practices.<\/p>\n Since her book was written in 2001, everything related to \u201cgreen\u201d has become more important because of concerns about \u201cglobal warning\u201d and acid rain.\u00a0 \u201cGreen\u201d has moved from the fringe to the mainstream of American life.\u00a0 More and more consumers are choosing to buy \u201cgreen\u201d products, even when it means paying more for them.\u00a0 Major corporations are featuring their \u201cgreen\u201d technology\u00a0and practices in their advertising campaigns.\u00a0 Some of the largest and most successful companies are now \u201cgreening\u201d how they do business:\u00a0 Coca-Cola, DuPont, General Electric, Ford, and General Motors.<\/p>\n For example, in August 2008, General Motors<\/a> announced that it would add a 1.2-megawatt solar power installation to the roof of its transmission assembly plant in White Marsh, Maryland.\u00a0 The installation generates about 1.4 million kWh of clean renewable solar energy, which is enough to serve the electricity\u00a0needs of about 145 households.\u00a0 In addition, the White Marsh plant reached landfill-free status in 2007, because it no longer sends any production waste to local landfills.\u00a0 All the waste generated at the facility is entirely recycled or reused.<\/p>\n San Diego business consultant and author, Glenn Croston<\/a>, advises companies small and large on green business strategy and best practices for becoming eco-friendly.\u00a0 He said, \u201cWhen people hear the word \u2018green,\u2019 they often think this means that something is expensive, hard to do, a luxury, impractical, and only for tree-huggers\u2026In fact, going green often saves money, whether by cutting down on costly gasoline use or by wasting less paper.\u201d\u00a0 His book, \u201cGreening Your Business on a Budget\u201d presents many low cost ways to go \u201cgreen.\u201d<\/p>\n At a time when consumer confidence in \u201cmade in China\u201d goods is at an all-time low, the opportunity is ripe for American manufacturers to feature how their products are made utilizing \u201cgreen\u201d manufacturing technologies.\u00a0 After the debacle of tainted and defective Chinese products, people are willing to pay more for products that are safe and made in an environmentally responsible manner.<\/p>\n Even when businesses are fighting for their survival in the tougher economic times, they are choosing to move forward by going green.\u00a0 \u201cIndeed, companies would be foolish to abandon their green credentials at the first sign of difficulty,\u201d said Solitaire Townsend<\/a>, chief executive of Futera Sustainability Communications, which advises companies on their green strategies.\u00a0 \u201cWhat is more, companies have much to gain from taking steps to improve their environmental performance. The guiding principles behind behaving in an environmentally sound manner are the same as the principles of thrift and economy.\u00a0 Using fewer resources is at the core of environmental sustainability, and leads to cost savings. Thrift and being green go hand in hand,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n <\/sup><\/p>\n More than 260,000 workers in California currently work in the green economy, according to the Employment Development Department.\u00a0 The Redwood empire north of San Francisco leads by percentage with 5.1% of it workforce employed in green jobs, but Southern California leads in actual number of jobs at 106,350 for 1.6% of its workforce.\u00a0 The border regions of San Diego and Imperial counties have slightly more than 21,000 jobs for 1.8% of their workforce.<\/p>\n Traditional blue-collar occupations, such as carpenters, electricians, and heating and air-conditioning technicians comprise the largest number of workers in the green economy.\u00a0 Greenjobs.org provides an online database of environment-related job postings, showing a growing demand for workers with \u201cgreen\u201d skills.<\/p>\n While it good that that \u201cgoing green\u201d is saving money for manufacturers, benefiting some traditional blue-collar occupations, and providing \u201cgreen\u201d products for consumers, the question is whether it is creating any new manufacturing jobs.\u00a0 While campaigning for president, Barrack Obama, proclaimed the goal of creating five million so-called \u201cgreen collar\u201d jobs\u00a0\u00a0 by restoring America\u2019s manufacturing base through clean energy technologies, innovation and less reliance on foreign oil.\u00a0 He said, “My presidency will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n Three years later, it appears that America is missing the boat in creating green manufacturing jobs. China\u2019s cheap labor, combined with free trade policies that afford companies with international portability, have propelled China to the top of the mountain in terms of clean energy investment.<\/p>\n One example is the manufacture of light bulbs.\u00a0 In July 2010, General Electric permanently shuttered its last major factory producing incandescent light bulbs.\u00a0 The closure cost 200 employees their jobs.\u00a0 These jobs were transferred to China, where the much more energy efficient bulbs known as compact fluorescents, or CFLs, are produced at a much lower cost.\u00a0 The incandescent light bulb was born in America and now has died in America, taking plenty of well-paying manufacturing jobs with it.<\/p>\n Despite the fact that CFL\u2019s were invented in America in the 1970\u2019s, virtually none are made in America. Because they require much more hand labor than your typical incandescent bulb and labor costs are much higher in the\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 U. S., many companies set up manufacturing in China to take advantage of its massive low-cost pool of available labor.<\/p>\n The same thing has happened with solar panels.\u00a0 China<\/a> tops the world in solar panel manufacturing.\u00a0 \u201cFive of the top 10 solar panel makers in the world are from China, a trend that took hold last year {2009} according to a report by Massachusetts-based greentech analysts GTM Research.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJenny Chase,<\/a> a lead solar analyst for the Long-based research firm New Energy Finance, says it\u2019s unrealistic for the United States to count on long-term manufacturing jobs in the solar industry, at least where a global oversupply is pressing solar-panel prices through the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n Plenty of others disagree.\u00a0 Several thin-film solar startups, such as PrimeStar Solar, Applied Quantum Technology and SoloPower are planning new factories now in the hope of catching a market upturn in the next couple of years.\u00a0 In April 2011, G.E. announced plans to build the nation\u2019s largest solar panel plant. \u00a0\u201cThe plant, whose location has not been determined, will employ 400 workers and create 600 related jobs, according to G.E.\u201d\u00a0 The factory would annually produce solar panels that would generate 400 megawatts of energy, the company said, and would begin manufacturing thin-film, photovoltaic panels made of a material called cadmium telluride in 2013.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2009, China became the world\u2019s leader in private investment in renewable energy, according to a report by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Even in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression, China invested $34.6 billion in green technologies.<\/p>\n America, meanwhile, has leaked clean energy investment and jobs like a sieve. According to the report, the U.S. has invested just over half the amount of China in clean energy technologies. For all of 2009, private investment in the U.S. totaled just $18.6 billion, down 48 percent from 2008.<\/p>\n