After the Victorian election result, predicated so strongly on sustainability and climate issues, expect the green economy down south to flourish. Especially with the solar energy and battery storage mooted for up to 1 million homes, and just as importantly housing upgrades for low income people so less energy is needed in the first place to reach reasonable indoor comfort levels.
Industry should do very well in the slip stream of consumer demand plus its own growing workbook.
Already we’ve run stories recently of Geelong starting to find its new mojo with a nascent rebuild of former heavy manufacturing industry to green economy manufacturing.
And this town, so depressed a few years ago, might be finding it’s a good alternative to living in the Melbourne burbs. It seems people have realised you can now catch the train and be in the CBD in an hour and 19 minutes, or so the timetable told us on Tuesday afternoon. That’s still a lot of travel a day and it’s quite a burden on young families, but imagine if they made the train even moderately fast.
Elsewhere, you’d think with the romping win of the Andrews government on Saturday and its unashamed focus on sustainability and climate issues that the conservatives in Canberra who are clinging for dear life to their coal heritage, will soon choose to jump onto the fast moving train to progress. Former foreign minister Julie Bishop certainly seems to be leaning that way and you’d think there’s a nice big split approaching as the saner Libs see where “jobs and growth” really are. So watch out for the transition.
For numbers, it’s hard to go past Jonathan Jutsen from A2EP in the fabulous formula he’s devised for moving Oz to a clean energy transition.
Here are his figures:
The Enliten program “could potentially deliver over 300,000 jobs over the next 10 years.
“To put this in perspective, coal power generation employs 10,000 people and the coal industry less than 50,000.”
In California there’s an estimated 520,000 green jobs, 310,000 in energy efficiency, 155,000 in renewable energy, 30,000 in smart grid and storage, 20,000 in clean vehicles and 5000 in renewable fuels, he says.
“This is 430,000 more jobs than in the fossil fuel industry. Scaling by population this would scale to 325,000 Australia green jobs.”
In Germany it’s estimated there are 1.2 million green jobs created – 848,000 jobs in energy efficiency and 371,000 jobs in renewables.
In the UK, it is estimated there are about 235,000 green jobs, most of which are in energy efficiency.
“There are no accurate statistics on existing employment in these industries in Australia, but are estimated to be around 50,000 jobs, most of these in energy efficiency,” Jutsen says.
So what’s our pick of the jobs this week?
NABERS – (Not really a job, as such, but a great entrée to work) Aficionados of NABERS have until 14 December to tender their interest to sit on an expanded panel of experts for Independent Design Reviews. Members of this panel will be the only professional permitted to conduct Independent Design Reviews for NABERS Commitment Agreements for the next three years. Check out the website here
Wyndham City Council is looking for a sustainability officer, in a post just a day old. For those who don’t know it’s in Melbourne’s Western Suburbs.
Cromwell Property Group is looking for a sustainability administrator, which means helping out the susty team, paying up to $60,000 in Brisbane.
Cushman & Wakefield has also just listed a gig for a susty advisor also in Brisbane.
Arcadis Australia Pacific has a need for a sustainability consultant in Melbourne this time, to handle strategy.
And Sydney Airport Corp who we know would just love to say they are green as the driven lawn, is looking for a Head of Environment, which sounds like a gig that has a bit of strategy and clout. Hopefully, they’ll get an ideologue.