The Rise of the Green Collar Job | BTalk Australia

(8min 16) The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is forecasting an explosion of jobs in green industries, provided the government levels the playing field for carbon emissions.

The ACF and the Australian Council of Trade Unions say the proliferation of green collar jobs is contrary to the myth that action on climate change will destroy jobs and ruin the economy. In a report “Green Gold Rush: How ambitious environmental policy can make Australia a leader in the race for green jobs” they identify six sectors where new job opportunities will arise.

In today’s BTalk Australia Phil Dobbie talks to the ACF’s Phil Freeman about the size of the opportunity and how you can start transferring your skills to take advantage of this emerging opportunity.

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• Today’s Transcript

Phil Dobbie: Hello I’m Phil Dobbie and welcome to BTalk Australia. Today, have you ever thought of making a career out of being green?

Phil Freeman: In Australia it’s relatively small but what we do know is that in the two biggest economies in the world, US and China it’s probably the one part of the economy that continues to grow and continues to have opportunities. So if the Australian government gets it right this year and next year and puts its weight behind these growing industries there should be plenty of opportunities in Australia too.

Dobbie: And what sort of examples or what are the real opportunities? Is it largely to do with energy efficiency?

Freeman: There’s a full range of opportunities. We did a big report with the ACTU, the Council Trade Unions last year, and we focused on six key industries where Australia can be globally competitive and a global winner, in fact, and they range from the renewable energies to energy efficiency, waste and recycling is a big one for Australia and also sustainable water technologies is a big one where Australia has already a bit of a leading edge and there’s going to be plenty of demand overseas too.

Dobbie: So you’re saying that the opportunities are all there if the government puts its weight behind it. Have we got any idea about how big this sector could become in Australia both in terms of dollars but more importantly in terms of how many jobs it could create?

Freeman: Well we calculated in ‘06 industries alone that we worked on that we could generate half a million new jobs in the next two decades, so that’s an indication. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands if not millions of jobs. We’re talking about billions of dollars not millions.

Dobbie: Right and most of this hasn’t reached the mass adoption care. Do we believe that a lot of this can become commercially viable if the government can put the capital to get it to that stage or are we talking about industries that are always going to need government support to sustain themselves?

Freeman: Well first it’s about creating a level playing field and I guess that’s what the carbon emission reduction’s doing otherwise known as emissions trading is all about. We need a fair price on carbon and to give the new clean industries a fair go. At the moment we number one subsidise a lot of our traditional fossil fuels dirty industries, and we’re also not asking them to pay for the pollution they put into the atmosphere, so we need to remove those subsidies and put a fair price on carbon and then the new technologies will have a big boost and be in a very competitive position. We will, of course, need tailored R&D and commercialisation support as well from the government to get the new industries really pumping.

Dobbie: Now assuming we did get that level playing field dry I’d imagine part of the opportunity is it’s not all large businesses a lot of it can be smaller businesses that might have got seed capital to get to eventually where they can get to the stage where what they have is a workable solution, they just need to commercialise it. That’s the hardest part isn’t it? Is that where you see that there’s a need for the government to be putting some money in to help some of these smaller businesses?

Freeman: Yes I’d like an opportunity to say in an IT and communications fields where when new markets are created often it’s smaller more nimble players that can grasp at the opportunity most quickly and end up growing at phenomenal rates. Just like we’ve had to become computer literate most Australians consumers are going to become green literate in the coming decade, they’re already becoming green literate so there’s a whole range of opportunities out there and I think the smaller players are in a great position to grasp those opportunities and grow quickly into quite big companies.

Dobbie: So there’s an opportunity here for entrepreneurs isn’t there really, I mean I suspect what might be lacking currently in the industry is the attention for a lot of Aussie entrepreneurs, perhaps they see the Green sector as not being a commercial sector, not an area they’re going to make money out of. Do you think that attitude’s going to change?

Freeman: I think so and I believe there are plenty of entrepreneurs out there. The big question mark is capital, so they’re really waiting to get the full weight of Australian capital behind their ideas. And as I was saying before because we’ve had so much uncertainty over the last few years that where the government seriously was going to do anything about climate change and a move towards a clean economy and then once we got a government that said it was going to do that whether the government was fair dinkum about actually doing it and passing decent emissions scheme and throwing big dollars behind those technologies. So capital’s still waiting for the clear signal from government and once we get that signal I think that capital will flow and the entrepreneurs can go about their business. And come up with new business models and technologies and jobs that we haven’t even thought of yet.

Dobbie: So if you were somebody who had a wealth of management experience behind you, perhaps you’ve just found yourself retrenched given the economy the way it is today and you’re looking at the green sector and you’re thinking of transitioning into it, what would be your first steps?

Freeman: First of all become better educated and start to understand the changes that are happening in terms of the markets that have been created, what does carbon trading mean, how’s it going to work, what’s happening overseas, looks like in the US either this year or next they’ll pass an emissions trading scheme so that will influence us over here. And so it’s really spend a bit of spare time starting to track what this all means. Either individually or looking at some of the university booster courses that are out there, anything from a short course to a diploma or even a masters, I think, is a great idea. And I would say this, it’s not good enough to kind of try and blag your way or pretend that you understand and talk your way into this sector, there’s a lot of people probably trying to do that, but ones that will succeed are the ones who will put the time into really understanding what’s going on and what the opportunities are. Same as with the dotcom going bust, I’m sure there’ll be a lot of attempts and hype as well, but the businesses that come through will be the ones that have a real foundation, a stronger foundation if you like.

I would say to those in the financial sector probably the bright light for them in the next few years will be if we get a good carbon trading scheme up and Sydney therefore becomes positioned to be the trading hub for Asia, so they should be really right behind the government getting a proper scheme through.

Dobbie: OK, makes a lot of sense. Phil Freeman thanks so much for your time today.

Freeman: OK thanks Phil.

Dobbie: What do you reckon? If you’re listening regularly to these podcasts make sure you drop by and leave a comment in the comments field at the bottom of the post just so we know that you’re there. I’ll catch you again soon. For BNET.com I’m Phil Dobbie.