Green-collar jobs
Oh, yeah, no doubt, it’s about being green, being considerate of the environment and all of that. But the Staunton Green 2020 effort is as much about economic development as it is hugging trees.
“It’s not liberals sitting around in offices sipping coffee and pontificating. It’s jobs for blue-collar workers in this new economy,” said Erik Curren, who is helping lead the effort in the Queen City toward the development of a competitive green economy in the heart of the Valley.
The campaign aimed at attracting what we could call green-collar jobs to the area gets under way in earnest on Feb. 4 with a public forum at the Spencer Center at Mary Baldwin College at 7:30 p.m.The idea is simple. Somebody is going to figure out that the talk about investing $15 billion a year into green-focused development over the next 10 years emanating from Washington and similar-styled talk coming out of Richmond under Gov. Tim Kaine’s Renew Virginia initiative is for real and take steps to capitalize.
“It might as well be Staunton,” said Curren, whose idea has spurred me into action in Waynesboro with some initial discussions with Curren about taking the effort regionwide by including Waynesboro and Augusta County in what the folks in Staunton want to try to do.
“We feel like because of what is happening in Washington, because of what Gov. Kaine is doing, this could be a very promising source of jobs, good jobs, in Staunton. Jobs for blue-collar folks who may have been laid off from jobs in manufacturing. There’s going to be lots of work in blowing insulation, in caulking stuff, in installing double-glazed windows. We feel the city should help these jobs get going,” Curren said.
The base would be the local market. As businesses and home and property owners claw their way out of the economic slowdown, among the first things they’re going to want to do is retrofit their properties to cut on energy costs for the long term. You can almost bet on at least a short-term boom in that first level of greening in local economies across the country. A second wave is likely to come in the form of local and state government agencies doing the same once they emerge from their shortfalls back into having some working capital to use conservatively for future savings.
The longer-term trend is macro green – as changes brought on by systems engineering and basic architecture adjustments pave the way for the development of processes that meet the needs of the new green way of building buildings and homes and designing and paving roads and other public infrastructure both nationally and worldwide.
“I would see communities like Staunton and Waynesboro that are losing their traditional manufacturing jobs look at this as a way to replace those jobs,” Curren said. “I know here in Staunton we’ve had a pretty good run with tourism, but I’d like to see our city develop a clean energy capacity that we could export. You know, Toyota talked about bringing an assembly plant here a few years ago. Why not get BP Solar or GE to bring an assembly plant here to put together solar panels or wind-turbine parts?” Curren said.
“I’d love to see our economic-development folks make this a priority, that it shouldn’t just be about the old school and turning it into a senior center. That’s great. But what we need to do is get these dynamic industries in here so our young people can have jobs,” Curren said.
It’s a good idea times three. Staunton Green 2020 is leading the effort, but I want to see Waynesboro and Augusta jump in feet-first with them.
“We have capacity, and we have a workforce out there that’s ready for something new,” Curren said. “Whether it’s light manufacturing or something else. We’ve also got a lot of people in this area, particularly in Staunton, who are interested in the environment and interested in the economy. And by now everybody should know that those two things go together, that you shouldn’t have to choose one or the other.
“There’s a business opportunity out here for those who are willing to grab it. And if our area doesn’t grab it, somebody else will,” Curren said.
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- Story by Chris Graham
