What Do Green Jobs Look Like?

What do Green Jobs Look Like?

Green Brand Manager

Companies that are making moves to reduce their carbon emissions want credit for those (maybe painful) efforts. To do that these days, you’ve got to be able to talk the green talk.

http://earth2tech.com/2007/10/18/top-10-cleantech-jobs/



Biodiesel Vegetable Oil Pickup Man

An environmentally friendly way to make biodiesel is using vegetable oil from restaurants to produce commercial amounts of fuel. It’s also a sign of the times that we’re replacing delivery men dropping off energy with pickup men carting it off.




Land Use PlannerMuch as West Coast types (like ourselves) hate to admit it, our cities aren’t dense enough to be energy efficient, no matter how much biodiesel we put in our cars. Figuring out how to reconfigure American cities for energy efficiency, while maintaining their positive qualities, is one of the major tasks facing the green world.




Eco-Brewmaster

Biofuel-producing algae are a hot investment trend right now, but they need concentrated amounts of CO2 to produce energy. It turns out that breweries are an excellent source of carbon dioxide. Visionary beermakers, New Belgium Brewing Co., are partnering with Solix Biofuels to feed the latter company’s algae in the process of churning out (the beer ever) Fat Tire.




LEED Accredited Builder

Given the complicated and often-frustrating rules surrounding the “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” standards, knowledgeable and accredited builders can command higher rates per square foot of construction.




Smart Home ManagerNow that green buildings come equipped with wind, solar, rainwater catchment systems, greywater recycling systems, and a host of other high-tech energy savers, there’s a need for a new breed of building manager, one as comfortable at a computer as on a ladder.




Composting Toilet Installer

You might laugh, but toilets that turn your waste into “humanure” are actually getting some customers, thanks to their cradle-to-cradle efficiency. New models like Sancor’s Envirolet provide most of the amenities of your passé flush toilet.




Solar Panel Installation Foreman

The most referenced job that the cleantech revolution is supposed to create is the solar panel installer. Like DirecTV’s (DTV) legions of contractors, they’ll fan out across America, clinging to roofs to bring you a better life. But if there’s one job that’s better than PV installer, it’s PV installers’ boss.




Corn (Ethanol) Farmer

Thanks to ethanol, corn farmers are rolling in green. Corn prices made it all the way past the $4 mark from a measly $1.86 at the end of 2005. Sure, prices are back down, but the USDA thinks ethanol production adds 30 cents to the price of a bushel of corn.




Guilt-Free Venture Capitalist

Now that the Internet is boring, and Google (GOOG) makes all the money, it’s time for VCs to move to the next big game. The moneymen have laid their spears to tackle energy, pouring something like $3 billion into cleantech in 2006.




Top Paying Green Jobs

Green Job 1:Venture Capitalist

VCs invest early in companies with potential to revolutionize an industry or create a new one, says a report by the Cleantech Group and Environmental Entrepreneurs. VCs work with the companies to help them grow, and sell their stake within a few years, hoping to make a handsome profit.

According to the Cleantech Group, in the third quarter of 2007, North American VCs invested close to $1.3 billion in clean technologies, a 50 percent increase over the second quarter of 2007 and a 36 percent increase over the third quarter of 2006.

"Probably the highest-paying jobs in the green arena are venture capitalists themselves. You can make probably $300,000-$400,000 as a venture capitalist in green," says Richard Stuebi, senior energy fellow at The Cleveland Foundation.

http://blogs.payscale.com/content/2008/02/6-top-paying-gr.html



Green Job 2:Chief Executive Officer

Annual median salary, 5-9 years of experience: $120,674

Skilled and savvy leaders are in high demand for green companies, and they can command sizable salaries, especially at outfits supported by venture capital, experts say.

"Most of this stuff is startups backed by venture capital firms. You have young people who see an opportunity and bring the idea to the investment community and they want what I call 'adult supervision'-someone who has done it before. So the demand for CEOs in this industry will continue," says Charley Polachi, a partner at Polachi, a Massachusetts-based executive search firm.




Green Job 3:Chief Technology Officer

Annual median salary, 5-9 years of experience: $102,280

As green technologies gallop apace, CTOs are highly sought after, and often hard to find, according to experts.

"You don't have a deep talent pool necessarily to dip into, so you have to pull talent from other industries that have some correlation to the technology or the process the company is going through. A lot of times you see the leaders or executives in startup energy companies coming from outside of energy," says Tim Conti, partner and energy and materials practice leader at ON Search Partners in Cleveland.




Green Job 4:Vice Presidents of Research and

Development; ManufacturingAnnual median salary, 5-9 years of experience: $125,202 (R&D); $80,158 (manufacturing)

Positions shepherding advancements in green technology and taking them to market are crucial, experts say.

"Like any industry with ongoing technology developments, the critical piece for companies to make something more standard is that you have to be able to take a technology out of a lab and put it into high-volume manufacturing capacity," Conti says. "VPs of research and development and manufacturing are critical to these companies. What you can do in a lab you can't necessarily do in a high-volume manufacturing environment."




Green Job 5:Vice President of Government

AffairsAnnual median salary, 5-9 years of experience: $96,816

As the U.S. government offers more funding for green initiatives, positions that interface between a company and Uncle Sam are increasingly important, Conti explains.

"It [the government] can provide a deep-pocketed source of capital for your company. You have to provide your business plan and continue to hit milestones, but folks that have those relationships with government, that can drive funding to their company, can be very valuable," he says. "You are seeing some companies with a VP of government [affairs] or VP of regulatory affairs trying to drive grants to their companies from the government."




Green Job 6:Vice Presidents of Sales; Marketing

Annual median salary, 5-9 years of experience: $96,541 (sales); $103,371 (marketing)

Keeping people apprised of initiatives, products and services is key to keeping green industries blooming.

According to Lawrence Comras, founder of Greenhome.com, an online green department store, "There's a ton of green products out there. There are tons of jobs in sales, and sales [are] well-paying, often highly professional jobs."

Kristina Cowan is the senior writer for PayScale.com. She has over 10 years of journalism experience, specializing in education and workforce issues. Email Kristina Cowan.




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