Are Green Jobs the Wave of the Future?

With president-elect Obama planning to pull together "a more energy-efficient economy," CE pros should watch for new green opportunities for their businesses.

To help them, sites like CleanTechies offer "jobs and information for the CleanTech space." The site's job board contains postings for positions for everything from "retail sales representatives" to "project managers" and "electrical engineers."

Ian Thomson, managing director and co-founder of CleanTechies, started the site as an information hub for innovators of energy-related.

As a venture capital consultant, Thomson was finding that there were many green innovations in need of funding. "They had some real human capital issues," he says.

So, Thomson starting blogging about the needs and also about possible solutions. "I started regurgitating what I had been saying, putting it out there on the Internet."

Just four months up and running in full, CleanTechies is starting gain traction and was recently nominated for "Best Business Blog" by the Weblog Awards.

"I think what's happening is that people are asking, 'Is my industry going to be here for a while?' They're starting to hear President Obama about financial opportunities," he says.

Thomson says professionals and job seekers make up a lot the traffic on CleanTechies, but there are also consumers with a strong interest in green buildings. About 25 percent, he says, are already involved in the community.

The remainder, he speculates, are financial professionals and investors. "There are a lot of people in real estate looking," he adds.

Energy-Saving Tech Requires Integrators

Companies like Project Frog, designers and manufacturers of net zero energy efficient buildings, and SunRun Solar Service, residential solar power providers, are inspiring a lot of new ideas in Thomson's readership.

Those ideas could mean additional opportunities for integrators -- especially associated with lighting and HVAC systems.

The legislative developments to occur over the next several months will go a long way in determining government's role in subsidizing and/or supporting green technology growth.

Green building consultant Jerry Yudelson says green projects will benefit from the new Obama presidency, with a strong focus on jobs in energy, efficiency, new green technologies and renewable energy.

"What we're seeing is that more people are going green each year, and there is nothing on the horizon that will stop this trend."