Comment by Peter Truesdale for October / November CCB 114
Flimsy evidence for green shoots.
According to one US-based survey sustainability professionals are happy as Larry (see the Greenbiz story), for them everything’s coming up Roses and Buttercups.
Another story (see the Clean Edge story) claims that three million green jobs are in place but that China is stealing a march on the US.
The evidence for this is thin.
It is claimed that: “The Renewables 2010 Global Status Report… shows that total jobs in renewable energy industries exceeded three million globally in 2009.” But hold on a minute, Wal-Mart employs 2.1 million worldwide, so three million green jobs is nothing to write home about! It gets flimsier. The top ‘Clean-Tech’ employer turns out to be Vestas Wind Systems of Denmark with 20,730 employees. (They did have more but have just closed their factory on the Isle of Wight).
What is going on?
The answer becomes apparent from the authorship of the report. The report is the progeny of the Center for American Progress and the Political Economy Research Institute. These are left-leaning US think tanks of the sort that get Tea-Partyers fingering the trigger of their (second amendment to the US constitution protected) revolvers. The paper’s prescription for further Green job growth is a carbon tax and wide scale government intervention. (Presumably at this point the Tea-Partyers pull the trigger).
Jokes aside, there is a lesson here for those who are willing to learn. The proponents for action on climate change suffered a serious reverse through the Climate-gate scandal and the IPCC retreating glaciers row. Unsubstantiated headline claims about green jobs growth can be just as damaging. If there is convincing evidence let’s have it on the table. Unconvincing pseudo-studies like this risk harming the very causes they seek to promote.
Peter is an Associate Director at Corporate Citizenship. Email him at peter.truesdale@corporate-citizenship.com to discuss reporting, assurance and external standards.
Sustainability professionals hit by pay freeze
Cutbacks continue to hamper pay and prospects for sustainability professionals based in the UK, according to the annual careers and salary benchmark report by Environment Analyst and Allen &York. The report is based on a cross-section of “green collar” workers, ranging from environmental consultancy directors and corporate sustainability managers to scientific officers and graduate trainees fresh into the industry. 52% of those surveyed did not receive any increase in their salaries over the last year, with around one in ten actually having their pay cut. It is the second year running where a similarly high proportion of the green workforce has experienced static or declining pay packets.
Salary survey provides insight into the world of sustainability professionals
The GreenBiz Group have released a report that takes a close look at how sustainability professions spend their time. Based on a survey of more than 500 sustainability professionals in the GreenBiz Intelligence Panel, the first GreenBiz Salary Survey shows that sustainability executives by and large are well paid, enjoy high job satisfaction and an optimistic outlook. Interesting trends detailed in the report include an increasing headcount for environmental and sustainability roles in large companies: in early 2009, 27% of large companies reported hiring freezes and only 8% planned to increase headcount for environmental departments. Today, only 11% report hiring freezes and over 28% plan to increase headcount, a major swing.
The Clean Tech Job Trends 2010 report on the state of clean-tech jobs in the U.S. and globally has highlighted the key role that China is now playing in the future of clean-energy. “China is now home to six of the top 10 global clean-tech pure-play employers, up from just three a year earlier. China has become the country to watch, analyse, and, at times, emulate” says Ron Pernick, cofounder and managing director of Clean Edge. The report also highlights clean-tech’s hottest sectors, cities, and employers, based on an analysis of job postings, investment, and patent activity.
Nordic countries Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden continue to demonstrate the greatest equality between men and women according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2010. According to the report’s index, the level of gender equality in France has sunk as the number of women in ministerial positions has fallen over the past 12 months. The United States closed its gender gap, rising 12 places to enter the top 20 for the first time in the report’s five-year history. The increase reflects the higher number of women in leading roles in the current administration and improvements in the wage gap.
A coalition of global investors, managing over US $73 billion in assets, has called on companies across the world to increase representation of qualified women on boards of directors and in senior management. The announcement by Pax World, Calvert and Walden Asset Management, came in response to a survey of 4,200 global companies that found only 9.4% of directors on corporate boards were women. Building on the Women’s Empowerment Principles recently developed by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the United Nations Global Compact, the initiative is designed to help companies take specific steps to advance and empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. 54 selected companies from across the business spectrum have been asked to provide greater clarity about gender balance within their organisations.
Employers urged to do more to hire people with disabilities
A new survey has found that although corporations recognise that hiring employees with disabilities is important, most are hiring very few of these job seekers and few are proactively making efforts to improve the employment environment. These results, from the Kessler Foundation/National Organisation on Disability 2010 Survey of Employment of Americans with Disabilities, show that although 70% of corporations polled have diversity policies or programs in place, only two-thirds of those with programs include disability as a component. Only 18% of companies offer an education program aimed at integrating people with disabilities into the workplace. The low figures are particularly notable given that a majority of employers perceive the costs of hiring a person with a disability to be the same as hiring a person without a disability.
On 12 October, Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) released a report highlighting working and living conditions of workers at Foxconn factories in China. The report argues that despite the wage increases announced when suicide cases among employees reached a climax in May, workers have not been informed of the wage increase plan. There was no formal announcement from Foxconn, and many workers who are eligible have not participated in the evaluation procedure. SACOM urges organisations, consumers, investors, and the government to join the workers to pressure Foxconn and its buyers, including Apple, Nokia,HP, Dell, Sony, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola, to deliver decent working conditions in the electronics industry. Specifically, they demand that Apple and other buyers should ensure that all workers can understand their rights.
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