The greening of the jobscape

Canada's environmental and energy concerns are translating into new jobs, and new kinds of jobs

GREG MCMILLAN
Special to The Globe and Mail
November 14, 2008

Mike Johnson is an outdoors kind of guy who used to have an indoors kind of job.

About two years ago, the lure of energy conservation got the better of him and he completely switched his employment focus. The former custom framer at a downtown Toronto art gallery is now field manager for a small organic landscaping company.

"My job was unfulfilling and it felt like a job - I wanted a career," says Mr. Johnson, 36, who enrolled in a two-year environmental landscape management program at Seneca College to prepare for his new line of work.

"I wanted to immerse myself into something that I could continue to learn and grow with," he explains. "There seems to be a large market for enviro-related work."

His new employer, Green Gardeners, emphasizes low-maintenance landscaping using native plants, butterfly gardens and rainwater irrigation. Staff use fuel-efficient trucks and bike-powered trailers to haul materials, and gasoline-powered tools are banned at the four-year-old company.

The fledgling firm, and Mr. Johnson's career shift, are prime examples of the greening of the Canadian jobscape.

About 530,000 Canadian workers, about 3 per cent of the labour force, are employed in an environmentally related job, according to a report from the Environmental Careers Organization of Canada (ECO).

Energy and environmental conservation as an economic driver is being felt in every part of the country and in all industries, from developers who build ultra-green, self-sustaining homes (such as the award-winning, $700-million Dockside Green housing development in Victoria) to big companies that switch to alternative fuels and cleaner technologies.

Many types of work - such as consultants who assess your home for energy rebates, or companies that measure your carbon footprint - didn't even exist a generation ago.

HOT JOBS

Grant Trump, president and chief executive officer of Calgary-based ECO Canada, says there's no question that environmental and energy concerns are translating into jobs - and new kinds of jobs.

Mr. Trump says hot careers include environmental engineers, environmental technician and technologists, conservation biologists, environmental communications officers and geographic information system analysts (people who use digital mapping techniques to measure such things as air and water quality or logging rates).

"The fields that are the key drivers for growth in the sector are water quality, waste management, land quality and restoration, and reclamation operations," Mr. Trump says.

Another key environmental sector, however, is showing the strain of the current global economic downturn.

Renewable energy companies, especially those in the biomass, solar and wind power sectors, are taking a hit as investors and venture capitalists hunker down.

Some observers, such as former Talisman Energy CEO Jim Buckee, think the clean-tech boom is going bust. But others, citing the commitment of governments and citizens around the world to find sustainable energy sources, believe the sector will pick up once the financial storms settle.

Meanwhile, even with the strong public desire for a greener, cleaner planet, it's a challenge for some employers to find the right workers for enviro-jobs.

CHANGING TRADES

Mira Shenker, editor of ReNew Canada, a Toronto-based magazine devoted to infrastructure renewal, says a major hurdle is getting young Canadians interested in new types of skilled trades.

"The majority of our skilled labourers are nearing retirement," she notes. "The young people who could take their places are not interested in becoming trades workers. But it is a well-paying, specialized job to have."

Mr. Trump believes young people will step up to meet the needs of the new labour landscape, especially as industries, manufacturers and government policies increasingly go green.

University and college programs are producing "vastly improved skill sets in Canadian workers within these emerging fields," he says.

"In addition, skilled and experienced workers with transferable skill sets are being transitioned from declining sectors such as manufacturing to help fill the unyielding demand," Mr. Trump says.

"Many of the skills that have been gained in other industries can be directly applied to this work with a relatively short learning curve."

Andrew Roy, president of Green Gardeners, says finding qualified employees is becoming easier all the time for his company, which has 12 full- and part-time employees in peak season.

"We generally have fantastic success recruiting really talented dedicated and qualified staff," he says.

"There are many ecologically driven, university-educated people looking for green jobs, which gives us a great recruiting pool for potential staff."

Mr. Roy, 37, expects his company, which has its own nursery specializing in native and perennial plants, will expand its services to include roof-top and indoor gardens, edible landscaping, and commercial services.

NEW MARKETS

Green Gardeners is just one of thousands of Canadian companies aiming to carve out a market niche for their green products and services.

Ener-West Geo-Energy Services Inc. is another, specializing in geothermal heating and cooling systems. These earth energy systems collect and transfer heat from deep in the ground through a series of buried, fluid-filled pipes running into buildings.

Don Bateman, president and CEO of the five-year-old Calgary company, says that while geothermal heating is relatively new in Canada, it is increasingly catching on with consumers and builders.

"Ener-West operates in an industry that really did not exist in our marketplace until a few years ago," says Mr. Bateman, 41.

"It started with a single residential installation, but the shift in thinking by the general public has allowed the growth to occur."

His company has installed more than 200 geothermal heating and cooling systems and recently completed a 93-unit housing subdivision project in Fort McMurray, Alta., demonstrating that geothermal systems can handle large-scale demands.

Ener-West also introduced lower-cost, gas-powered, heat pump and pipe installation technology to Canada.

Mr. Bateman sees growth opportunities in commercial and institutional projects, as well as big housing projects.

"We are also seeing a lot of growing interest for some of our combined technology projects, where we utilize two or more renewables, such as geothermal and solar thermal," he says.

As public awareness grows about geothermal systems, Mr. Bateman says it is also becoming easier to find qualified employees, who see long-term opportunities in the business.

Ener-West, which operates across Western Canada, has a dozen employees and is looking to hire four more immediately.

"It's still a challenge to find experienced employees, but the good news is that the enthusiasm level is growing with those we interview," Mr. Bateman says.

"And the recent slowdowns in construction will likely offer a larger pool to draw from for our kind of business."

Special to The Globe and Mail