What is a green job?

It’s a question economists have been struggling to answer for years, but one thing is certain: we have a ton of them here in New England.

A 2011 study by the Brookings Institute estimated the number of green jobs in New Hampshire to be 12,866, in Maine 12,212, and in Massachusetts 43,207.

Those numbers still seemed low to Sarah Brown, who as Director of the Portsmouth-based Green Alliance works closely with 98 local green businesses to promote the benefits of using sustainable products and services to the greater Seacoast community. After some quick finger work on her calculator, Brown determined the nearly 100 businesses who form the Green Alliance community currently employ around 1,851 people.

“I was really inspired to see how many jobs Green Alliance businesses are creating locally,” she said. “Of course, these numbers barely scratch the surface of the total number of jobs created by the New England wide green economy.” 

Many of these jobs are found in sectors not traditionally considered green, which means they likely go uncounted by green jobs studies. Take, for example, jobs at Portsmouth’s Smuttynose Brewing Company. A longtime Green Alliance corporate partner, Smuttynose is in the midst of designing a new green brewery, with the goal of building a high quality LEED certified facility. 

“Smuttynose currently employs 36 people, but we hope to be hiring number 37 very soon,” said JT Thompson, the brewery’s Minister of Propaganda.

The national economy may be in the doldrums, but business is good at the local beer factory.  

“We just got our final sales numbers for 2011,” Thompson reported. “We shipped out 37,556 barrels, or 1,164,236 gallons of beer this year, which equates to 28.6 percent growth. We are currently expanding our Heritage Avenue brewery, while we've begun a bit of site prep for our new home in Hampton.”

Sustainability will remain a top priority for Smuttynose employees as the new year begins.

“One of our biggest sustainability projects for 2012 will be an outside-led sustainability review where we'll look at our big picture and small picture to see exactly how sustainable we actually are, which will give us a greater sense of what will probably amount to the next round of low-hanging fruit that we can pick,” Thomspon said. “With our new brewery on the horizon, we aren't exactly looking to reinvent the wheel here at Heritage Avenue, but if we can do more, so much the better.  One of the outcomes of this review will be to try and better educate our employees on the merits of being more sustainable in our practices.”

Another Green Alliance Business Partner on the rise is Earthtec, a company that takes empty plastic bottles and recycles them into fleece and fabrics to create eco-friendly outdoor apparel. They just opened up a new retail store on Congress Street in downtown Portsmouth.  

“Earthtec has doubled in size over the last two years and we are continuing to grow rapidly,” according Dennis Randall, Earthtec Founder and CEO. “The apparel we make from water bottles is encouraging people to rethink the lifecycle of things they buy. This could be the most exciting part of our job and maybe the greatest value we bring to the community. We are inspiring a smarter consumer, a consumer that rewards socially responsible companies with their dollars. This is the tipping point of change.”

Even as they taste success, the folks at Earthtec remain committed to their home state and local community.  

“The state has been very supportive of our growth and they continue to work with us as we ramp up and create more jobs,” said Randall. “It took a recent request from the State of Oregon to have us relocate our corporate headquarters to Portland for us to realize how committed to New Hampshire we are. This is our home and we have grown as a company because of the talented people that have put their heads together to grow this business here. They all live on the Seacoast because of the quality of life here. How could we possibly relocate and potentially lose this talented group?”

Then there’s Portsmouth Atlantic Insurance, who joined the Green Alliance in March of 2011.

“What we do at Portsmouth Atlantic Insurance may not be considered a ‘green job’ by many people’s standards,” said company owner Jon Merwin. “We’re certainly not ‘saving the environment’ just by selling auto & home insurance. However, our approach to doing business might be considered ‘green’ in the sense that we understand we have an impact on the environment and make business decisions that are mindful of that.”

“We have used green practices since we first opened our doors for business such as a paperless management system,” he elaborated. “We switched as many quotes and applications as possible over to electronic fax and email. This has reduced our paper consumption and cost substantially over the years. We also changed over to soy-based ink, use a sustainable paper and printing supplier, and recently purchased new office furniture made from bamboo. We donated our old furniture to another office.”

Of course, the Green Alliance also includes plenty of businesses creating jobs in clean energy.

“These are the kinds of employment opportunities people usually think of when they hear to term ‘green jobs’ used,” said Brown.

Simply Green Biofuels, for example, was the first business to join Green Alliance back in 2008.

“We started in 2007 with one employee, and now employ 8 people year-round” exclaimed Joel Bobbett, whose official title at Simply Green is Boy Wonder. Apparently green jobs are fun too. 

The company’s ongoing renovation of Regeneration Park, a commercial property located at 3612 Layafyette Rd. in Portsmouth that promises to be the area’s first Zero Energy Building, has kept another 15 people employed.

“We see the whole of Simply Green as being a green effort,” Bobbett said. “Obviously, the fuel we deliver has its own sustainable impact, but that doesn't get communicated without the people on the phone or behind the wheel of our delivery trucks making sure people see those choices.”

“Hopefully, we've engendered the feeling that ‘green’ isn't just a segment of the workplace, or a committee meeting,” he said. “Green is a way of working. It's paperless. It's creating smarter delivery routes to become more fuel efficient. It's saving energy. It's educational. Sustainability really is a cultural aspect of the workplace at Simply Green.”

Few sectors have been harder hit by the economic downturn than the construction industry, a trend defied by the success of Green Alliances businesses who specialize in green building and design.

“We’ve grown from three to six employees in the last year,” said Chris Redmond of Little Green Homes in Greenland. “People definitely seek us out for the green element.”

“We just added a new designer, plus a new showroom and new clients,” said Nathan Johnson, who co-owns the Hampton-based Visions Kitchens & Design with partner Ernest Proper.  

“We’ve definitely experienced growth,” concurred Shane Carter of Ridgeview Construction. “We hired four new people this year, bringing us up to eight employees and myself. I fully expect to hire two to three more people next year. My business is 100 percent green building and remodeling. That’s the main thing that drives people to us, along the quality of our work.”

All three builders agree that being a part of a green business is about more than just making money.

“We have great employees because they know we are part of something special and different. They are excited to go to work because what we are building is energy efficient and high quality, and that fills all of us with pride,” as Carter put it.

“For us being green isn't just something you buy, it's a way of life,” said Johnson. “It's doing the little things, from turning off a light when you're not using it to making sure the companies you buy from provide healthy work environments and do their part to reduce waste. We are a small local company, but we take these steps in choosing who we work with and what products we sell. A portion of our profits goes to non-profit organizations that help support our local community and those in other communities who are less fortunate.”

For Brown, the success of so many Green Alliance businesses holds similar meaning. 

“It shows me that consumers care about sustainability and are committed to buying green and shopping local,” she said. “That’s good news for the local economy and the environment.”