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| Green Jobs for Today and Tomorrow |
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| Family & Education |
| Written by Jennifer Streisand |
| Wednesday, 06 January 2010 00:00 |
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By now, most people have heard the term green jobs, but an abundance of examples in Indiana still are hard to find — perhaps because energy consumption and everyday lifestyles are just beginning to transition to green here. 
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Bona fide green jobs do exist in Indiana, and all of the signs point to more in the future. Many of the jobs are new positions created in organizations to facilitate using more renewable energy or to educate Hoosiers on how to conserve energy. Energy Savings One such job belongs to Caleb Steiner, a graduate of the Indiana University School of Public Environmental Affairs. As a renewable energy specialist, Steiner seeks to educate customers by searching for the most efficient and least expensive renewable energy methods to offer them. Four or five other positions also involve working with cooperative members to help them make lifestyle changes to cleaner energy. That includes educating consumers on ways to reduce overall energy consumption, which is the cleanest energy of all, Steiner said. “It’s what they call the negawatt,” he said. A negawatt “is not using energy,” which reduces or eliminates the need for solar panels or wind turbines. “You are just not using power, which ultimately curbs demand.” Recyled fuels One of the city’s green initiative positions was used to help start the program in February 2009, said Morris. “The program has been overwhelmingly successful. It gets the community involved in understanding biodiesel fuels through green initiatives, as well as being a savings to the city on diesel operating costs.” Wastewater plant generates energy One person or organization determined to help the rest of society make the transition to using cleaner energy can make a significant difference. Jobs in Agriculture Building up the local and regional food infrastructure with more uniform processing standards will enhance the marketplace for local food distribution, and ultimately produce more revenue and jobs, said Annie Schmelzer, program manager for Entrepreneurship and Diversified Agriculture at the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. Schmelzer also expects more jobs in the area of cellulosic ethanol production, which means converting plantbased material to ethanol, she said. “It’s kind of the next step in the evolution of biofuels, and so we are right on the cutting edge of new jobs being allocated for that development.” Potential not yet realized Indiana is primed to become a hub and a center for renewable energy — perhaps the best potential in the country — given its resources and its proximity to eastern load centers, which distribute power, according to the study’s author Martin R. Cohen, an independent energy analyst. In this respect, it is more competitive than other Midwestern states, including the Dakotas and Nebraska. Cohen said, “Indiana has some of the richest land in the world,” which is a perfect blend of agricultural areas and urban centers for manufacturing. The transformation could generate thousands of renewable energy jobs. New Technologies Advanced thermal conversion takes waste, such as plastics and rubber, and turns it into energy, specifically, a synthetic gas that can be turned into electricity or a liquid form of fuel. Although the technology uses high heat, there is no incineration involved, and it’s clean technology that accelerates the decomposition of wastes, said Kirkendall. The retrofitted facility will manufacture the equipment necessary to use the technology, and that equipment will be sold to organizations and institutions around the world. The equipment will be licensed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Indiana, he said. Energy-Inc. chose Indiana and Elkhart County because of its manufacturing workforce and its location. Elkhart was thrust into the spotlight when President Obama made it his first stop outside of Washington in early 2009 to promote the legislation that was to become the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Elkhart and Goshen metro areas have the highest unemployment rate in the state, hovering around 16 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “It’s simple,” Kirkendall noted. “They have a tremendous need there, and it is centrally located between the major metropolitan areas of Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit and Toledo, where we need to get our materials.” Incentives Key “Around 40,000 clean energy manufacturing jobs could be drawn to the state due to our ability to retrofit various manufacturing sub-sectors, like automobile components to produce clean energy manufacturing components, such as gearboxes for wind turbines,” Kharbanda said. Energy analysist Cohen suggested those incentives may include tax, spending and regulatory policies to create a marketplace for renewable energy, and that marketplace would create jobs. Solar Options Economic incentives don’t mean cheaper labor, but stronger corporate and governmental policies that make the best financial sense for manufacturers, Pinto said. With solar, several different kinds of manufacturing jobs will be necessary. “One is at the factory itself, but then from the factory upstream, there are jobs to produce the glass and the materials that would go into the factory. There are jobs on the solar installation side, as well as jobs to produce other materials necessary including the electronics,” Pinto said. Wind Energy At High Speed More customers of Indianapolis Power & Light Co., will have electricity generated by wind as a result of the Hoosier Wind Project, which began construction in Benton County in April 2009, said Sandra Briner, marketing manager at EnXco, a California-based company. It will operate the wind farm and will sell the electricity generated to Indianapolis Power & Light Co., for use by its customers. EnXco operates wind farms in at least seven other states. The company estimates that 200 jobs were created during the construction. The wind project also involves landowners and farmers, who will receive payment for the space allocated for wind turbines to be built on their property. “The turbines use up less than a quarter of an acre on the properties. We do build access roads to each turbine for our maintenance group,” said Briner. Between 400- to 500 construction jobs were necessary to build phase one of the Meadow Lake Wind Farm, north of Lafayette, said Stout of Bowen Engineering, contractor for phase one of the project by Texas-based Horizon Wind Energy. Mass Transit The high-speed rail, part of the ninestate Midwest Regional Rail Initiative, is just in the planning stages, but it will have a significant positive impact on the environment because it will reduce road congestion, Childs said. At the time of publication, it appeared that Indiana saw the Chicago-to-Fort Wayne-to-Cleveland rail service as a higher priority than a Chicago to Indianapolis to Cincinnati route. More Jobs Loom “How fast do we want to make this change? It will happen over time, no matter what, I think, because the costs will come down, but we can accelerate it by a number of years.” The key is better incentives and examining the impact that traditional types of fuel have on our environment, he added. If you are interested a green-related job, here are some links:
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Jennifer Streisand a freelance writer based in West Lafayette, Ind., has written more than 100 business articles and taught undergraduate courses in communications at Purdue University. A former broadcast journalist, she holds an Indiana teaching license in English and journalism.
