February 9,
2011 - Special Edition
St. Louis Climate Prosperity
Project
Time To Sign Up -- RCGA
St. Louis Green Business Challenge Starts for
2011!
The RCGA is now enrolling new
businesses and returning participants to join the St. Louis Green
Business Challenge for 2011. The Green Business
Challenge represents the "green savings" component of the
St. Louis Climate Prosperity Project by promoting
sustainable business practices. Companies work through a
scorecard of strategies aimed at forming green teams, increasing
energy efficiency, reducing waste, conserving water, improving
indoor environmental quality and providing clean transportation
options.
Last year, 58 companies, institutions,
and organizations successfully completed the Challenge. To see
the accomplishments of the inaugural Challenge class, click on
the below graphic.
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| St. Louis Green Business Challenge participants
celebrate their accomplishments at the 2010 Awards Ceremony last
December. |
The St. Louis Green Business Challenge
participants meet monthly to discuss topics related to the
Challenge scorecard, in addition to "lunch and
learn" meetings and tours at area green
businesses. The staff from the Missouri Botanical
Garden's EarthWays Center provides consulting services to
participating teams and helps to advise companies on implementing
their sustainability strategies.
The kick-off seminar for the 2011 RCGA
St. Louis Green Business Challenge is February
23rd at the RCGA's Regional Collaboration Center
at One Metropolitan Square. The deadline to enroll in the
Challenge is March 1st, and the entry fee for the
Challenge is $250 per company.
To sign-up for the St.
Louis Green Business Challenge contact Eric Schneider at
eschneider@stlrcga.org and
for more information, go to http://www.stlouisgreenchallenge.com/ |
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St. Louis Green Business Challenge
2011
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Companies complete a
scorecard to track their implementation of sustainable
business practices in the areas of energy efficiency, waste
reduction, water conservation, indoor environmental air quality,
clean transportation options and formation of "green teams".
Missouri Botanical Garden's
EarthWays Center provides consulting assistance to
Challenge teams. Seminars and green business tours are held
throughout the year.
58 businesses, institutions, and
organizations completed the Challenge in 2010 and were recognized with an award ceremony in
December.
Enrollment is open for the 2011
Challenge. To register and for more information, contact Eric
Schneider at eschneider@stlrcga.org
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RCGA Energy and Environment Council To
Discuss Missouri Environmental Issues with DNR Director-
Designate
The RCGA Energy and Environment Council will
host acting Missouri Department of Natural Resources
Director-Designate Sara Parker Pauley at their next meeting on
March 25th from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the RCGA's Regional
Collaboration Center (pictured right).  Ms. Pauley was named acting director in December,
replacing Mark Templeton who became Executive Director of the
Office of the Independent Trustees of the Deepwater Horizon Oil
Spill Trust. Ms. Pauley, who awaits confirmation by the Missouri
Senate, leads Governor Jay Nixon's efforts to grow the state
economy by accelerating the development of renewable sources of
energy, creating next-generation "green" jobs, and promoting
energy independence. She manages agencies and programs of the
Missouri's state parks and historic sites. She will present her
agency's initiatives and priorities to the RCGA membership.
The
RCGA Energy and Environment Council, chaired by Steve Poplawski, Partner at Bryan Cave (pictured
right), meets regularly throughout the year to discuss
energy and environmental policies and issues facing the St. Louis
region. If you would like to participate in these Council
meetings, please contact Eric Schneider at eschneider@stlrcga.org
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Green Confluence Presents RCGA's St.
Louis Green Jobs Report
The RCGA, in partnership with
Missouri Career Center, Southwestern Illinois workNet and St.
Louis University Center for Sustainability, organized the St.
Louis Green Confluence, a two-day event highlighting the
St. Louis green economy and workforce with a Green Economy
Symposium on January 26th and a Green Career
Opportunities Showcase on January 27th.
The conference was the culmination of the Green Labor
Market Information Project, the purpose of which
is to help align the St. Louis region's workforce to meet
the growing demands of the green economy.
The Green Economy Symposium
featured the release of the St. Louis Green Jobs Report
(click on graphic above for the full report) with
information on the skills needed by green employers, occupational
forecasts and career pathways in six sectors of the green
economy: building, salvage and remediation, energy, agriculture,
manufacturing and public administration. To build green jobs in
the St. Louis region, the report called for promoting the
adoption of green products and services, embedding sustainability
literacy into common workplace skills and strenghtening
regional collaboration around green workforce
training.
One of the RCGA's key strategic
initiatives for 2011 is the St. Louis Climate Prosperity Project
whose mission is to advance regional prosperity through the
cultivation of green savings, green opportunities, and green
talent. St. Louis is one of four pilot regions
across the country participating in this Project. The Confluence
and partnership with the Workforce Investment Boards and area
higher education institutions represented the first initiative in
the "green talent" component of the St. Louis Climate
Prosperity Project and built on previous research by the
RCGA into the St. Louis green economy. More than 750 people from
across the St. Louis region attended the program and discussions
over the two days.
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The luncheon and keynote address for the
Green Confluence filled the Busch Student Center at St. Louis
University.
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The green economy is defined as having
two interconnected sectors: (1) the "core green economy"
composed of businesses and services that conserve
natural and energy resources, provide clean alternatives, and
reduce pollution and re-purpose waste and (2) the
"adaptive green economy" , made up
of businesses founded on the principles of sustainability
and businesses that are intentionally "greening" their
production, processes and supply chains (see below graphic). The
St. Louis region has nearly 9,000 jobs in the core green economy
and thousands more in the adaptive green economy. Between
1995-2008, the core green economy grew by 54% compared to 4% for
the overall St. Louis economy.
To kick off the St. Louis Green
Confluence, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and Madison
County Board Chairman Alan Dunstan demonstrated the
bi-state collaboration of the Confluence and their interest in
advancing green jobs in our region with their opening
remarks. Dick Fleming, President and Chief
Executive Officer of the RCGA led a panel on the
national and regional green economies with John Melville,
President and Chief Operating Officer of Collaborative Economics
(a Silicon Valley research firm), Alan Spell, Research Manager of
Missouri Economic Research and Information Center and Leith
Sharp, Executive Director of the Illinois Green Economy
Network.
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(from left to right): Alan Spell, Missouri
Economic Research and Information Center, John Melville,
Collaborative Economics, Dick Fleming, RCGA, Madison County Board
Chairman Alan Dunstan, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, and Michael
Holmes, Executive Director of St. Louis Agency on Training and
Employment, who served as master of ceremonies for the Green
Economy Symposium.
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Tracy Hart, Chair of the RCGA's
Energy and Environment Committee and President of Tarlton
Corporation led a panel discussion of area green
employers, with Tim Gaidis, Sustainable Design Practice
Leader at HOK, Trey Goede, Founder and CEO of Affinity Wind and
Martha Schlicher, Bioenergy Technology Lead at
Monsanto. The panel explained how their businesses
are taking advantage of the growth in the green economy and how
it will impact their workforce needs.
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Tracy Hart of Tarlton Corporation (at
podium) leads the discussion on green businesses and workforce
needs with (from right to left) Tim Gaidis of HOK, Trey Goede of
Affinity Wind and Martha Schlicher of Monsanto.
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Between the panel discussions, videos
produced by the Nine Network of Public Media and introduced by
Patrick Murphy, Vice President of Production at the Nine
Network, provided visual context to the green
economy and workforce training in the St. Louis region. To view
the three videos, click on the images below.
The Symposium also featured presentations
by "green educators" and job training providers in our community.
Tim Keane, Executive Director of the Center for
Sustainability at St. Louis University, Dale Chapman, President
of Lewis and Clark Community College and Rod Nunn, Vice
Chancellor, Workforce and Community Development for St. Louis
Community College spoke about their institutions' green
curriculum and research activities. They also described how their
close relationships with employers and the community help to form
their programs. Abdul Adbullah, Project Coordinator
of the Green Impact Zone directed by Better Family
Life, presented the job training courses
offered to adults living in distressed areas of St. Louis City
and St. Louis County to prepare for careers in manufacturing,
green building, energy efficiency and bioenergy.
St. Louis Public Radio hosted a live
broadcast of "St. Louis On the Air with Don
Marsh" entitled "Finding Green in the Gateway Region".
Panelists Joe Abernathy, Vice President, Stadium
Operations for the St. Louis Cardinals, John Alberici,
Chairman of the Board for the Alberici Corporation and Phil
Rozenski, Director of Marketing and Sustainability for
Hilex-Poly stressed the importance
of increasing sustainability literacy for their customers
and their employees as critical to the expansion of the regional
green economy. To hear the radio broadcast click
here.
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Don Marsh, host of KWMU's St. Louis On The
Air (at podium) welcomes the live audience at the St. Louis Green
Economy Symposium with his panelists (from right to left) John
Alberici, Alberici Corporation, Phil Rozenski, Hilex-Poly and Joe
Abernathy, St. Louis Cardinals.
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A keynote address by Florence
Hudson, Energy and Environment Executive from IBM Corporate
Strategy (pictured below), tied the themes of the
Symposium together by showing how businesses can work
together to capitalize on opportunities presented by the green
economy and gave examples of successful partnerships in
New York and Philadelphia. She concluded with advice that regions
should adopt policies conducive to skills, creativity and
knowledge-driven growth to fully realize green savings and
opportunities. Her presentation can be downloaded
here.
The RCGA is proud that the
lasting legacy of the Symposium is a new website: http://www.stlouisgreenjobs.com/,
a one-stop access point for green jobs and education
programs in the St. Louis region. The website, part of
the StLouisGreen.com website, will have updated job postings and
green education and training resources from community colleges,
universities, and job training centers across the region.
On-going development and maintainance of the website will be
managed by StLouis Green.com.
On the day following the Green Economy
Symposium, more than 40 businesses, higher education institutions
and workforce training organizations exhibited at the Green
Career Opportunities Showcase at St. Louis University (photo
below). More than 300 people visited the exhibit hall to
learn more about green careers and businesses and
to identify education and job training resources to advance
their careers.
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| More than 300 individuals toured the St.
Louis Green Career Opportunities Fair at St. Louis University on
January 27th, visiting more than 40 exhibit booths from area
green businesses, education institutions, and job training
centers. |
The Green Confluence was funded by a
Green Labor Market Information Grant awarded by the U.S.
Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration, in
partnership with the Missouri Economic Research and Information
Center and the Missouri Career Center. The RCGA was selected to
manage the grant activities, due to the organization's strong
connections with employers and educational institutions in our
region.
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Key Findings of St. Louis Green Jobs
Report
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For the St. Louis region
to grow green jobs the following actions are recommended:
- Promote increased adoption of
green products and services by business and individuals.
- Embed sustainability literacy into
common workplace skills
- Continue collaborations between
businesses, higher education institutions, and workforce
investment boards.
A survey of 665 businesses revealed that
50% believe that the green economy presents opportunities for
their growth.
58% of businesses say that becoming more
energy efficient is important to their company's success.
The green economy will have the most
impact on these industry sectors in our region:
building/construction, salvage and remediation, energy,
agriculture, manufacturing and public administration.
Employers stated that there are
opportunities to expand training for their employees in basic
sustainability training, teamwork, management skills and safety
training.
For more information on green jobs in the
St. Louis region and occupational forecasts and career pathways
click
here to read the full St. Louis Green Jobs report. (note:
14MB file may take long to download)
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