Filling the labor pool

EnergySmart Jobs trains workers from the California Conservation Corps. Photo credit: Tony Finnerty

A California program to help businesses cash in on energy efficiency retrofits handed out its first rebate checks in March. That may be good news for the individual businesses saving money of their electricity bills, but the program’s administrators say the bigger story is that they’re building a skilled labor pool to fuel the energy efficiency sector’s projected growth.

In the next decade, the market for commercial energy efficiency retrofits is expected be worth $190 billion, according to a 2010 report from the Urban Land Institute. But along with sorting out financing, getting an army of skilled auditors and contractors out in the field is key for retrofits meeting their potential. 

That’s where EnergySmart Jobs comes in ­­­– the program aims to create jobs while also providing manpower for efficiency retrofits for commercial retailers.

“The energy efficiency industry is sorely lacking a skilled workforce,” says Allison Bially, associate director of PECI, the Portland- and San Francisco-based energy resource management non-profit that’s administering the jobs program.

EnergySmart Jobs hires surveyors from the California Conservation Corps, a state agency that trains and employs Californians between the ages of 18 and 25 in environmental jobs. After additional auditing training, surveyors go out in the field to assess businesses’ energy saving opportunities. They submit their findings via iPhone to a central database, where it can be accessed by program-approved contractors.

The first two businesses to complete retrofits through the program were a supermarket and a liquor store. Both got LED lighting retrofits in their stores, with rebates and incentives covering more than 80 percent of project costs for one of the stores.

EnergySmart Jobs aims to conduct 25,000 surveys, and hopes about 5,000 of those business owners will complete retrofits based on their audits, with an estimated $41 million in avoided energy costs. The program could also provide job training to about 400 people, according to PECI.

Of course, beyond retrofitting California’s retailers, there’s still residential and other commercial and industrial building stock waiting to be upgraded. The jobs program is part of Energy Upgrade California, a $275 million collaboration between state energy regulators, utilities, local governments and the private sector that also includes residential energy efficiency retrofits.

“We have a very defined focus,” Bially says. “We’re just tackling a little corner of the market.”