Guide to Green Jobs Development - ICLEI Local Governments for ...

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For more details on how to conduct public outreach and develop community stakeholder processes, refer to the following ICLEIpublications.ICLEI Outreach and Communications Guide: This guide is a tool to help local governments effectively communicate climateinformation to their constituencies. The Guide contains an array of steps and methodologies for communication and outreachefforts, as well as a compilation of best practices from around the United States. For access to the guide, visit www.icleiusa.org/action-center/engaging-your-communityNational Conversation on Climate Action: Visit www.climateconversation.org to access the following resources.• Discussion Guide: This guide gives sample worksheets and discussion activities that you can use to ensure an action-orientedand engaging event.• Citizens Guide to Local Climate Action: This guide is a simple primer on how everyone can be a part of local climate action.As an example of stakeholder involvement for green jobs creation, the Philadelphia City Council has resolved that it “must beginto promote a greater public understanding of the advantages of green jobs and encourage job-training organizations to partner withemployers and contractors that specialize in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, demonstrating that Philadelphia is committedto conserving energy.” 15Step 6: Assess Local Green Jobs OpportunitiesBefore charging ahead to develop a plan, it’s important to get a sense of the local potential for green job growth and development.Understanding the scope of green job opportunities will determine the scale of your green jobs effort.Understand the broader political context. Make sure to review state and federallegislation to understand how policies focusing on green initiatives, energy use orclimate change might impact your local green economy and the ease of implementinggreen jobs programs.Obtain local green jobs forecasting data. Work with your local MPO or COG,economic development agency and state department of labor to find out if any reportshave been performed that assess the green jobs development potential in your community.If not, consider working with these entities to fund such a study.Inventory existing training and education programs. Work with your educationaland workforce training organizations to identify the education and job trainingprograms that already exist within the locality. Determine their capacity to developskills in particular job sectors. In addition to investigating programs at educational andvocational institutions, also be sure to survey an apprenticeship programs run by localgovernments, local utilities, and unions. Use this exercise to help determine whetherexisting instructional programs can be modified to fit green jobs requirements and notewhich might need to be retooled. 16Review potential funding opportunities. Survey the same sources listed above toobtain an inventory of the current sources of workforce, technical education and jobdevelopment funding currently being used in the region. This analysis will help get asense of the size of the current effort, identify current gaps in funding and point youtowards new sources of funding.Assess collaborative potential. It is critical to assess the degree of collaboration thatcurrently exists between participating organizations and assess the degree of collaborationthat will be needed. Your green jobs effort will only be successful if educationalinstitutions, funding agencies, assessment resources, and worker recruitment, placementand support organizations can work together.A local government greenjobs plan can be a standalone document, a chapterwithin a general or masterplan, a sustainability plan,a climate action plan oran economic developmentplan. Because thisis an emerging area,governments are just nowdeveloping green jobsplans. Currently, manylocal governments havejust developed a seriesof related ordinances andpolicies focused on creatinggreen jobs.USA7www.icleiusa.org
Step 7: Develop a Green Jobs PlanConvene a leadership team. Select a steering committee to direct thework of all the organizations involved in the green jobs effort. If fundingis available, consider whether or not a third party organization canserve as the facilitator of this effort.Decide the format of the green jobs plan. Though this can be doneafter a work plan is created, sometimes envisioning the final product atthe outset will help focus the process.• A local government green jobs plan can be a standalone document,a chapter within a general or master plan, a sustainability plan, aclimate action plan, or an economic development plan. Because thisis an emerging area, governments are just now developing greenjobs plans. Currently, many local governments have just developeda series of related ordinances and policies focused on creating greenjobs.Create a work plan. List out all of the tasks of developing the green jobs program. (For a comprehensive list of the tasks involved increating a program and plan, see Table 1).Assign tasks. Divvy up the tasks among the partner organizations involved, and ensure that there is a consistent mechanism (meetings,online reporting, etc) to report back the progress of each task.Tools: Assessing the Benefits of Green Jobs ProgramsQualitative evaluation is an important first step in program and policy development. As many local governments already currentlyemploy a range of tools to conduct programmatic analyses, this will not be addressed at length in this guide. Qualitative analysis can beeffectively used for the following purposes.Determine basic feasibility and effectiveness of potential job creation plans.Narrow a list of potential measures and programs to those that seem most promising.Determine the partners most appropriate for managing or undertaking a particular project or program.The next step is to provide quantitative evaluation of proposed job creation policies and programs. This crucial effort will enablestakeholders to know the financial benefit from their investments. Some of the tools available to local governments will enable them toundertake the following analyses.Know the current cost of doing business. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration(www.doleta.gov) provides numerous resources to assist with such research.• Analyze available government incentives, tax credits, and assistance.• Use real-time information about workforce and career information, such as local wages and economic trends, industry competencies,and standardized training to inform your business decisions.• Estimate recruitment costs and increase retention through workforce solutions, such as screening and referral of job-ready candidates.Translate dollars spent into jobs created. The U.S. DOE has suggested the following rule of thumb for the Energy Efficiency andConservation Block Grant: for every $92,000 spent on conservation and energy efficiency, one job is created or retained. Localgovernments should utilize more specific or accurate methodologies if they are available.• DOE is currently developing a “job creation” calculator that will be available at www.icleiusa.org/stimulusfunding when it isreleased.Calculate the co-benefits of energy and GHG emissions savings. ICLEI’s Clean Air and Climate Protection (CACP) Software2009 is a one-stop emissions management tool that calculates and tracks emissions and reductions of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide,methane, nitrous oxide) and criteria air pollutants (NOx, SOx, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, PM10) associatedwith electricity, fuel use, and waste disposal.• CACP 2009 allows governments to quantify the associated co-benefits from a broad selection of energy efficiency, renewableenergy, and alternative fuel measures (to name a few). As with a climate action plan, CACP 2009 can be used to quantifythe energy and financial benefits of particular program proposals. The data produced would include the GHG,energy use and financial savings that you hope to achieve from each proposed measure. For more information onCACP 2009, visit: www.icleiusa.org/action-center/tools/cacp-softwareUSA8www.icleiusa.org
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