Smart Growth and Green Jobs

California unanimously approved its Green Building Standards Code dubbed “CalGreen,” making it the first state to enact a mandatory green building law.  Effective January 1, 2011, Calgreen requires that every new building reduce water consumption by 20 percent, divert 50 percent of construction waste from landfills, and install low pollutant-emitting materials and water saving plumbing fixtures.

As this Dispatch will highlight, the first step is to fund jobs that support long-term economic competitiveness, notably by investing in people and physical infrastructure.  While the economic climate for profit-making business opportunities is more limited, investments in education, health care, transit and energy efficiency can create immediate jobs while strengthening building blocks for long-term growth.

As California prepares to implement its own cap-and-trade climate change law, state officials are looking to ease the economic burden on consumers by using revenues generated to deliver a tax rebate to families, an approach called "cap-and-dividend."

An overseen benefit of public transit is the creation and retention of sustainable jobs.  On January 5, 2010, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, Smart Growth America, and U.S. PIRG released What We Learned from the Stimulus, a study that concluded that public transportation generates more jobs than highway construction, although highway construction received more American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds than public transit. 

With the new year, Progressive States Network is working with allies to launch a campaign to demand a new, federal job creation plan that includes fiscal relief to state and local governments in order to foster economic growth and create and maintain jobs. We are asking state legislators to sign onto a letter to promote this job creation plan, the full text of which can be seen at www.progressivestates.org/jobcreation. Legislators can sign the letter at www.progressivestates.org/jobcreation or by emailing jobcreation@progressivestates.org. 

On Tuesday, December 8th, President Barack Obama delivered an address to the Brookings Institution on the need for increased focus on the job crisis that is affecting so many working families across the country. 

Implementing more robust, or strengthening, state green building standards in new construction projects and renovations can help reduce the impact buildings have on our environment. Green building or sustainable building focuses on increasing the efficiency of resource use — energy, water, and materials — while reducing building impacts on human health and the environment during the building's life cycle, through better design, construction, and operation.

The Green Jobs / Green New York Act (A8901 / S5888), which passed both the New York Assembly and Senate, could be a model for other states.  The legislation sets the goal of implementing energy efficient retrofits in one million buildings over the next five years and creating approximately 14,000 family-sustaining jobs.  Efficiency measures will help reduce pressures on the electrical grid and provide "environmental, public health, and economic benefits."     

Car owners and fans of NPR's Car Talk know that when you get new tires or rotate them, the tires need to be balanced.  Often, those tires are balanced with lead weights, which either disintegrate over time from daily driving, releasing lead powder into our environment, or are knocked off by curbs and unkempt roads.  Maine, Vermont, and Washington have banned lead weights, and at least California and Iowa are considering similar action.  The Environmental Protection Agency has taken notice, recently signaling that it will work to institute a nationwide ban of leads weights as Europe has already done.

This Dispatch will focus on the long-term investments and policies that will be central to the creation of good jobs in a 21st century green economy.