The Greening of Orange County
Interesting factoids about the growth of the Green economy in California, thanks to Next 10:
- There are 18 million jobs in California. 159 thousand are in green technologies, 52 thousand in biotech, 228 thousand in software (Next 10, 2).
- The GDP of California is $1.8 trillion with a 2.8% growth rate.
- The population of California is 38 million, with a 1.5% growth rate.
- There is a green value chain, from R&D, through manufacturers, suppliers and service providers. The bulk of the employment is in service providers (Next 10, 15) .
- Orange County employment in green jobs has grown fifty percent since 1995; the highest growth rate is eighty-seven percent in Sacramento (next 10, 21).
- Energy generation jobs in OC have grown 176%; highest is 200% in Central Coast region (Next 10, 23).
- Energy efficiency jobs have grown seventy eight percent in OC; highest is 194% in Sierra region.
- Green transportation jobs have grown 1,875% in OC; highest growth is 2,655% in San Diego region (Next 10, 27).
These are basically percentage reports. Employment is up. This clearly is a industry. Growth at 2.4% trails the general economy, interestingly. Investments could be considered in sectors with faster growth rates, like transportation (although you'd want to examine the real growth rates, as well).
Next 10 with Collaborative Economics. Many Shades of Green. Diversity and Distribution of California's Green Jobs. Next 10. 2009. http://www.next10.org/next10/publications/green_jobs.html