'green' Jobs Go Against The Trend

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday June 2, 1995

REBECCA SCOTT

YOU MAY have seen the bumper stickers that read "Greenies Cost Jobs". It can also be said that greenies make jobs. A recent survey carried out by the ACTU and the Australian Conservation Foundation found that while total employment shrank between 1988 and 1993, "green" jobs went against the recessionary trend, growing by almost 40 per cent.

In certain environmental sectors, employment levels more than doubled. Waste management and clean-production industries reported a 107 per cent growth in green jobs in the five years to 1993.

Eco-tourism, which was just emerging as a niche category when the survey began, reported an increase of 131 per cent in the period. Tourism is Australia's top export earner and is tipped to continue to grow at the rate of 5 per cent a year.

In the industries surveyed, which included energy efficiency, recycling and water supply, the projections of the 2,000 businesses that took part were for a further 20 per cent increase in employment in the two years to 1995.

Louise Vickery, a research and industry development co-ordinator for the Green Jobs Unit (an initiative of the ACTU, the ACF and the Federal Government), says the survey identified a need for environmental "para-professionals", especially those who can help small- and medium-sized businesses to reduce waste and save on energy and water use.

Canada is training people specifically for this role, she says.

While the big companies are catered to by the bigger environmental consultancies, she says small- and medium-sized businesses in Australia have yet to embrace such practices.

Vickery predicts a growth in environmental accounting because of the increasing financial need to monitor waste and water outputs and energy use.

Overall, she says, the trend will be to add environmental skills to existing disciplines, as has already happened in engineering, law and economics.

The president of the Environment Institute of Australia, Helen Ketelbey, says the growth in environmental jobs has been influenced by four forces: increased community and government awareness of the need to understand the environment and issues arising from that; more environmentally demanding local, State and Federal legislation; increasing specialisation within the professions; and Australia's undertakings under international treaties dealing with issues such as global warming and biodiversity.

Ketelbey, a director of the environmental and management consultancy firm Manidis Roberts, says the spread of environmental jobs and the increasing importance of environmental considerations in almost every aspect of our lives have arisen from recognition of the need for ecologically sustainable development.

"That is, development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs," she says.

One organisation that has responded to the increased demand for environmental consulting services is the Australian Museum. It offers both environmental and archaeological services, mainly to councils, developers and mining companies.

Jonathan Pritchard, who manages the Australian Museum Business Services, says much of the work involves fauna surveys and impact statements. The unit is working on a statement for the Homebush Bay Olympic Village site, where the rare green and golden bell frog is found.

He says that since the unit began offering consultancy services almost five years ago, there has been a big increase in demand "because the NSW government laws are now being applied, and basically developers and councils are finding out the hard way that they need to follow the law and provide impact studies for threatened or endangered animals..."

Basically, anybody who wants to develop bush land has to go through this process. The unit includes two ecologists, an archaeologist, a business manager and a project co-ordinator.

One of the new jobs which has opened up in response to the growing appreciation of environmental values is that of environmental economist.

Dr Gul Izmir, who comes from an engineering background in Turkey, advises the Environmental Protection Authority on how to use economic incentives to help industry reduce pollution.

"We look to achieve the best environmental outcome at the least cost to industry," she says. "What we are trying to do is integrate environmental protection and economics, to get better results all round."

She says that in the six years she has been in Australia she has seen a huge attitudinal change.

"Three years ago I was talking to some of the peak environment groups and they were quite sceptical of the value of using any of the economic concepts in environmental protection. A lot of them have since come to the conclusion that if you use these concepts judiciously, they can help in achieving environmental outcomes."

The EPA is now linking the cost of discharge licences with the pollutant load. The more phosphates and nitrogen a company puts into the water, or the more nitrogen oxide or hydrocarbons it sends into the air, the more expensive the licence.

In the Hunter Valley, discharge rights for saline pollutants are tradable, which means that there is an economic incentive for industries such as coal mining and Pacific Power to reduce their pollutant load.

Jeff Angel, director of the Total Environment Centre, has been working at the centre for the past 22 years. Most of his colleagues are either in part-time paid positions or are volunteers.

Work within the environmental movement, he says, requires versatility and the ability to withstand pressure.

"Because we are fighting on many fronts, you have to develop a range of skills. The campaigns include fighting to save old growth forests, to reduce air pollution in Sydney, to reduce the environmental impacts and use of toxic chemicals in the home, workplace and the environment, and work on coastal protection such as the restoration of the water quality of the Cooks River."

In the past two decades, he says, the environmental movement has made its mark. "It has proven that it has a lot to contribute ... but humanity still faces its biggest battle, and we need everybody to help in order to stop the gradual and serious decline in the standard of living and our ability to sustain ourselves on the planet."