Green Jobs Initiatives

By 2020, Washington hopes to employ some 25,000 people in "green" jobs. Green jobs cut across virtually every sector of the state's economy, and green workers include engineers and construction trades people, chemists and agriculture workers. The vast majority of jobs in the green economy are found in the same areas of employment that exist today. They are defined by their common aim of working to develop products or services that promote environmental protection and energy security.

In order for Washington to remain economically strong, it is important to compete with other states for the good-paying, family wage jobs that are part of the growing green economy. There is reason to believe that a green economy will create an overall increase in jobs. But even for those jobs that remain the same, it is important for workers to receive new training in order to remain current with new technologies.

Washington's business and political leaders are already hard at work planning a strategy for how to transition to a greener, more sustainable economic model. AWB is playing a role in defining that direction, and will continue to lend a business perspective to that effort in the years ahead.