The Top 10 Cities for Green Jobs

By Jacquelyn Smith

The San Francisco Bay Area is number one on the list.
The San Francisco Bay Area is number one on the list.

If you're a job seeker in Boston, Chicago or L.A. with experience in energy efficiency, environmental compliance or sustainable supply chain, you may be in luck.

Those are three of the top cities for green jobs right now, according to job aggregator site SimplyHired.com. Gautam Godhwani, the site's chief executive, says he's seeing an uptick in these types of jobs everywhere. There are approximately 45,000 green job listings on SimplyHired.com right now, and 2,215 of those are in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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"Although conventional wisdom suggests that 'green' hiring would be the slowest to recover from an economic downturn, we think this upward trend represents recognition of the role these kinds of jobs play in cutting costs," Godhwani says. "We see this as further proof of the inroads sustainability has made as a legitimate business value for the modern organization no matter the economic climate."

The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines green jobs as those in businesses that produce goods or provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources, as well as jobs in which workers' duties involve making their establishment's production processes more environmentally friendly or use fewer natural resources.

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San Francisco has the largest number of open positions that meet this description. Jobs there are particularly copious in the areas of clean technology, energy efficiency and energy storage, Godhwani says. "With Silicon Valley as the center of the technology industry, we see significant growth in the green jobs related to technology in this area."

New York City and Houston follow close behind, with 2,078 and 1,755 green jobs, respectively.
"In New York, we see a higher concentration of green engineer positions in the public and private sector, as well as positions related to the collection and analysis of environmental impact data," Godhwani says.

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New York is number two on the list.
New York is number two on the list.

Rounding out the top five are D.C., with 1,715 green job listings, and Boston, which has 1,132. In D.C. there are a large number of green scientist positions and other jobs with firms and public agencies focused on environmental research, Godhwani explains.

"More and more companies are focusing on sustainable practices as a business value, and the green energy and technology fields continue to grow," Godhwani says. "However, it's been a slow process through economic challenges, and we have seen fewer jobs than promised three years ago by the White House, given the green jobs and green energy initiatives put in place."

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Some examples of green jobs include sustainability coordinator, energy efficiency manager, and environmental compliance specialist. "Some of the most interesting jobs are in the sustainability management field, where an individual is tasked with implementing sustainable initiatives and business practices across all areas of an organization," Godhwani says. "They need a business background, combined with the technical skills and knowledge of these cutting-edge business practices, as well as the ability to lead and manage projects, and communicate cross-functionally across an organization."

There are currently 4,000 jobs with "environmental compliance" keyword on the SimplyHired.com site, which is an increase of 24% since August 2010. There are another 11,000 listings of jobs focused on "energy efficiency." These jobs increased by more than 500% since November 2009.

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