Finding Green Jobs (Part 3): Future Green Jobs

Parts one and two of the Finding Green Jobs series focused on identifying current opportunities.  The last article in this series examines strategies for identifying green job opportunities that may become available in the future.

Part 3: Future Green Jobs

1.) Follow the Money

One method to identify potential future green jobs is to identify where investments are being made today.  This can be a productive strategy as these investments may lead to the development of new enterprises that have jobs. Specific approaches include:

• Identifying private sector investment.  Venture capital firms, private equity firms, and corporations are all making significant investments in existing or new enterprises in the green sector.  The recipients of these investment may be sources of future (or even current) job opportunities.  Sources to learn about these investments include The Cleantech Group, Earth2Tech, GreenBeat, Greentech Media, and Green VC.
• Identify public sector investment.  As with the private sector, the public sector is investing in the green sector and the recipients of these investment may also be sources of current or future job opportunities.  Sources to learn about these investments include the ones mentioned above as well as directly reviewing government websites such as the U.S. Department of Energy.

2.) Follow the Law

A second method to identify potential future green jobs is to identify federal, state, or local legislative, judicial, or regulatory changes that impact the green economic sector.  Government action can include providing funds for new initiatives (such as the approximately $8 billion in expanded funding for weatherization in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) that can lead to new employment opportunities or rules that may lead to new business opportunities.  Sources for identifying these legal developments include those mentioned above as well as organizations such as the Apollo Alliance and Green For All.

3.) Follow the Startups

New enterprises can be a source for potential future job opportunities.  Some strategies for identifying these are:

• Green and Social Venture Business Plan Competitions.  These programs are organized by business schools and other organizations and are generally geared to ventures that are at an early stage in their development. These include programs such as the Clean Tech Open and the Global Social Venture Competition.  Job seekers can review the list of entrants and winners of these competitions as potential future sources of jobs.  In addition, job seekers may consider entering a competition or joining the team of an entrant (some of these competitions offer mixers to facilitate team recruitment).  A list of some of these competitions is available on Green VC.
• Green and Social Entreprenuership Awards and Fellowships.  These program vary and include cash prizes for one-time contests, seed funding for new ventures, and later-stage funding for existing organizations.  These include programs such as Echoing Green and the Skoll Award for Social Entreprenuership.  As with business plan competitions, job seekers can review the list of winners of these programs as potential future sources of jobs.  A list of some of these programs is available on Green VC.

This concludes the Finding Green Jobs article series.  We hope this information is useful in your job search and we welcome your feedback on this series.

Comments

[Teri]

Thanks, this is a very helpful series!

[Gordon Barnes]

Your readers may be interested in my DC Public Affairs + Communications Jobs blog - http://publicaffairsjobs.blogspot.com/ - there are usually environmental jobs in the mix, and I have run a couple enviro special posts in the past as well - here's the most recent (it's form early June, so most of these jobs are probably spoken for at this point - but it might give you some ideas): http://publicaffairsjobs.blogspot.com/2009/06/environmental-special-2.html

[lloyddabbler]

I couldn't have articulated my needs as well as this series fulfilled them. I can't thank you enough! The time spent to document these connections may well be a life-changer for me and I'm so grateful!

[Lback63]

I am thrilled to see I am on the right track and have a good start towards my career transition. The MBA in Sustainability I am going after should help too!
Thanks for the great post! Good luck to all on our searches!

[Anne Frances]

Any suggestions for an educator wanting to transition into teaching "green" courses at the j.c. level?

What training can I get online or at j.c. level to do this?

[Liliana Kaminski]

Great overview to the question I get all the time as a career coach specializing in the green economy and green jobs: "Where are the jobs?" Thanks for this succint go to articles.

[Shubha]

I am a newbie in this field.. graduating in August and beginning to look for jobs. Thanks for this article.. it made my work a lot easier . Great!