The 10 Green Sectors for Jobs
Green sectors have progressed well, with many technologies now being commercialized or adopted in big scale. Many companies were also able to raise investment capital for expansions in the last few years, both from private and public sectors. These are the sectors that are likely to create many jobs.
1. Energy Efficiency Technologies
This is the sector that had raised significant investment capital last 2 years. Energy efficiency (technologies, process and applications) is very popular because these applications can be applied immediately to existing infrastructure, and able to generate than reinventing a new technology.
It’s about improvement, not about revolution, for instance, car companies have invested into new energy efficient motors or batteries instead of trying on new type of engine.
This sector is already creating a lot of new jobs in California and Florida, as well as in Michigan and Ohio.
2. Recycling technologies
There is a new wave and trends of recycling technologies, the industry is going through a major change with new technologies and also increasing outsourcing trend adopted by governments worldwide.
There are a lot of interests are coming from US, China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore regarding recycling technologies to address their garbage problems.
There have been quite a number of companies successfully developing new technologies for recycling, including companies that convert solid waste into energy, or recycle materials into packaging materials or building materials.
For professionals, you can look for companies providing recycling services or companies that have invented new recycling technologies, many new jobs are also created by environmental engineering companies as some of them had expanded into waste management services as well.
3. Green Building Materials
This is a sector that has been overlooked by the media. It is actually a very important industry, green building materials such as green cement can replace the traditional cement; which is one of the biggest pollutants invented by mankind.
Green building materials can also save significant amount of water for curing.
Private equity firms in Europe, Middle East and China are also investing into building materials that require less water have made investments; which are suitable for their markets due to scarcity of water in these regions.
For job seekers or recruiters, look for major building materials suppliers as many of them are rolling out new range of building materials, if you have international experience, this is also a sector that will have many exporting opportunities.
4. Water Resources Conservation
Countries like United States, Canada, Australia and Israel are particularly active in investing in water resources conservation and management technologies.
These include diagnosis, water treatment and irrigation systems. In Asia, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan have also placed water management technologies as one of their key industries to develop, Singapore has achieved remarkable success in this field and the industry was heavily invested by the Government and also its private sectors including venture capital funds.
In North America, many companies have developed new membrane technologies to improve water conservation; as well as new consulting firms established to provide testing and remediation for water resources.
5. Home Products
One sector that is quite interesting is the home products. These products can be easily replaced, and easily understood and accepted by the customers.
In addition, a lot of these products also receive rebates as part of their incentives to encourage environmental products.
This creates new opportunities for manufacturers, and investors have also backed products such as low water toilets, better windows, energy efficient furnace or air conditioning units as well as domestic use solar panels and water heaters.
Consumers are changing their buying behavior since these products are introduced. You can look for opportunities with window manufacturers, new lighting bulb companies, or companies that provide more efficient furnaces or air conditioners, as demand for these items has been growing because of their better efficiency.
6. Geothermal Energy Companies
Geothermal is a proven technology and resources have been identified, and compared to nuclear energy, geothermal energy is far less controversial, and relatively easier to develop. It is already a widely adopted energy option in the US, Canada, Iceland and New Zealand; as well as many parts of South America and Northern Europe.
There has been a significant renewed interest in the geothermal energy due to the nuclear disaster in Japan, which has prompted utilities companies to look for alternative sources.
Professionals can seek potential opportunities with mining and energy companies, many of them are based in North America but with operations worldwide; or with investment firms that invest in alternative energies.
7. Solar & wind energy
A number of investments made last quarter were relating to energy storage technologies specifically designed to boost efficiency for solar and wind energy infrastructure.
For example, we had helped 2 companies in Europe that had developed technologies to improve efficiency for wind farms as an example, also better batteries for solar power plants.
These technologies can enhance solar and wind energy generation and storage. It is part of the energy efficiency improvement.
Solar and wind energy companies became focus points in 2nd half of 2011, mainly due to the nuclear power issue in Japan, and decisions made by several European governments to cancel or delay their nuclear power plan and switch to solar and wind energy as the option.
Interesting job opportunities may exist with solar companies, wind energy companies, utilities companies and companies that provide energy storage solutions and technologies to solar and wind energy.
8. Cleantech Marketing Companies
Cleantech & green industries are not just restricted in the technology and energy sectors.
As we have seen recently, a number of social media websites were launched dedicated to the green industries.
Some of these websites and marketing companies have been expanding at very rapid rate. For instance, there are cleantech specialized public relations companies, they create campaigns for cleantech and green companies, or to reach the LOHAs communities, which are often more affluent communities with higher disposable incomes.
In addition, Green media companies such as cleantech news sites, cleantech investment websites or business matching sites. Green media will offer interesting opportunities for those with media or journalism experience and wish to enter into the green industries.
9. Household Green Services
Companies that help residential homes to become more energy efficient. We have mentioned improvements in window insulation as a good example. There are also specialists retrofitting homes to become more efficient in water, this is a new service offered by many plumbing companies, also insulation specialists as well as electricity contractors to rewire power distribution of your home, or residential solar or wind energy generations.
10. Green Investment Firms
Green financing is another area worth noting which has seen a substantial growth due to investors’ appetite in these opportunities. For example, green private equity firms also back some Green ETFs as fund of funds, either to invest in private companies or to invest in public listed companies.
Social Responsible Investments was an area of interest back in 2006 & 2007, and this may come back again in future as more companies are available for investment managers to choose now.
You can consider green venture capital firms, or green mutual funds as well as investor relations firms that specializes in helping cleantech or energy companies to reach investors.
Good examples include Google and Intel Capital or Virgin Group, all of them have cleantech venture capital firms attached to the company even though their core businesses are not related to the cleantech.
This provides good opportunities for finance professionals who want to be part of the fast growing green industries.
As you can see, the industry is not just about technology or energy innovations, but they can also expand into services and IT as well.
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