The 5 Best Cities to Land a Green Job - Page 2

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Boston/Cambridge

Let's start with the fact that with its concentration of colleges --including MIT, Boston University, Harvard, Northeastern, Emerson and several more -- the metro area is a great incubator for green technology. Named the "best walking city" by Prevention magazine last year, Boston has had a major climate protection plan in place since 2002. Its number three fuel source, believe it or not, is wind power. Its new buildings have to be constructed to top LEED standards, and most of its municipal vehicles are either electric or run on B20 biofuel. Some 250 municipal bike racks recently went in. The Boston area is, not surprisingly, home to some cutting-edge green companies.

Boston Power, for instance, is helmed by the ambitious Swedish executive Christina Lampe-Onnerud, who pioneered a better lithium-ion battery for HP laptops, and is moving into the electric car market. When not changing transportation, she has time to lead a women's jazz chorus. And a local competitor is the fast-moving A123, which also makes lithium-ion battery packs and has Chrysler among its customers.

A posting on available green jobs in Boston is here. Boston (including Worcester, Lawrence, Lowell and Brockton) ranks as number four in the Clean Edge survey of 15 top U.S. metro areas for clean-tech job creation. EarthLab foundation ranks Boston as the third greenest city in the U.S. in terms of annual carbon output.

Massachusetts was the eighth most successful clean energy state in 2007, adding 1,912 clean businesses and 26,678 new clean energy jobs that year. Some $1.2 billion in investment capital went into clean energy.

Detroit

The Motor City makes few Top Ten lists. Its vaunted monorail goes practically nowhere, its downtown is still struggling, and political turmoil at City Hall -- added to daunting budgetary constraints -- has kept civic progress at a minimum. Michigan has the nation's highest unemployment rate at 15.3%, and it is also dealing with 3.6% job loss between 1998 and 2007. A Pew Center on the States report says that the state will have lost a million jobs by the end of the decade (a quarter in the auto industry, and more than a third this year). But help is on the way, in the form of federal Department of Energy green-tech grants that are funding factories and creating jobs to tap into the vast pool of skilled auto industry talent in the metropolitan area. The state had created more than 22,000 clean-tech jobs by 2007, but those numbers will jump impressively when the 2009 DOE funding puts spades in the ground.

Michigan did make one Top Ten list: It was number seven on a list of clean energy jobs compiled by Pew Charitable Trusts. Clean Edge identifies the green transportation sector as one of four growth areas, and that benefits the cluster of companies making hybrid and electric vehicles in the greater Detroit area. Even companies not based in Michigan -- such as California's Fisker Automotive and Ford battery car supplier Magna International -- have opened hubs near Detroit. A mechanical engineer working on plug-in hybrids and EVs can expect to make $63,600 median pay with a bachelor's degree, reports Clean Edge. A great example of what's happening in the Rust Belt is the transformation of the Ford Motor Company plant in Wixom, Michigan from a shuttered eyesore that had lost 1,500 jobs to an incubator for Xtreme Power (which makes power systems for wind and solar) and Clairvoyant Energy (solar).

A posting on available green jobs in the Detroit is here.

Michigan lost 3.6% of its jobs between 1998 and 2007, but clean jobs were a bright spot: Some 1,932 new clean businesses were started, offering 22,674 jobs. Some $55 million in venture capital was invested between 2006 and 2008. The state was 10th in the nation in adding new jobs in conservation and pollution mitigation in 2007.

Portland, Oregon

Many rate Portland number one in sustainability, a trophy it sometimes cedes to competitors like Seattle (but Portland has much better public transportation). What other city can boast of 200 miles of walking and bicycling trails (74 in huge Forest Park alone), a fast transit hub to the airport, fare-free light rail in the city core and free parking for electric cars? The city replaced a six-lane highway with a waterfront park. It has 50 LEED-certified buildings and one of the nation's highest rates of public transportation use. No American city is friendlier to bicycles -- which you'll see parked at municipal racks downtown and carried on the nose of transit buses. Initiatives like that give Portland citizens an average CO₂ production of 9.39 tons, the 10th lowest of any American city (Seattle was slightly better). Despite strong challenges from Colorado and Tennessee, Oregon was the number one performer in creating clean energy economy jobs, reports the Pew Charitable Trusts. Oregon had almost 20,000 clean jobs in 2007, many of them in the Portland metro area. More than 1 percent of the Beaver State's 1.9 million jobs are related to the clean energy economy. Oregon is also number three in providing environmentally friendly manufacturing jobs. A Clean Edge survey of the Top 15 metro areas for clean-tech job activity puts Portland/Salem at number eight, just below Seattle/Tacoma/Bremerton. Like other cities on this list, Portland struggles with high unemployment, but it's fighting joblessness with its prime weapon -- sustainability.

A posting on available clean jobs in Portland is available here. The EarthLab foundation ranked Portland the 10th greenest city in the U.S. in terms of annual carbon output.

Oregon added 1,613 clean businesses in 2007, and 19,340 jobs. Some $70 million in clean energy venture capital was invested in the state.

Other cities that deserve special mention here include the high-tech mecca San Jose, California in the heart of Silicon Valley (Tesla Motors is there); Austin, Texas (leading the way with plans for a smart grid); and Chicago (with more green roofs and LEED-certified buildings than any other U.S. city). Chicago could have 6,000 green roofs by 2020, from 300 today, and somebody has to install them. That's what green jobs are all about.

Photos this page: George Peters/ IStock, Courtesy Olivia Zaleski/CNNMoney, Leslie Pohl-Kosbau

From Yahoo Green: How to Find a Green Job

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