Regional Dashboard
Clean Jobs - Job Creation
photo: Irene Tena. CommNexus
How are we doing?
In 2011, environmental technology jobs represented 8 percent of all new jobs created in San Diego regional technology start-ups, a slight increase from 2010. The City of San Diego hosted 44 of the 96 new environmental technology start-up jobs in San Diego County over the last year.
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Why is it important?
- Clean technology represents a growing sector of San Diego’s economy and is central to our region’s strategy for maintaining global competitiveness.
- The clean economy produces and generates demand for new goods and services that benefit our environment, fosters new supply chains, and allows innovators to generate new business models.
- The clean tech sector creates jobs of all education and skill levels and offers higher median wage than many other sectors. According to CONNECT, the average annualized wage for environmental technology jobs is $72,517.
What is the measure?
Percent of new clean technology jobs out of the total number of new technology jobs created in the county.
Ideas for Change
Policy Makers
- Create workforce training programs for lower skilled workers that align with clean tech employer needs and market demands.
- Work with local organizations such as the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, CONNECT, and the San Diego Regional EDC to attract new clean tech business to San Diego.
- Encourage Angel investment in start-up clean tech businesses.
- Encourage local companies to hire from San Diego universities in order to retain top talent.
Residents
- Support local policies that encourage the use of clean and efficient technologies, such as water and energy efficiency upgrades in your community.
Business Leaders
- Upgrade facilities to include more energy efficient and clean technologies.
Bright Spots
The San Diego Street Light Working Group focuses on saving energy and saving taxpayers money by retrofitting less efficient streetlights with newer LED technology. The collaboration, which includes 13 of San Diego County’s 18 municipalities, has retrofitted 55,000 streetlights, saved cities $3 million, and generated more than $25 million in local job creation for electrical contractors, suppliers and lighting manufacturers.
The Balboa Park Cultural Partnership, with the support of the National Science Foundation, is working to develop a STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) “innovation incubator” to enhance collaboration amongst professionals, the public, and students in order to foster creativity and innovation in the community.