DuPage County analysis: most local clean-energy jobs are "green-enabled," not core renewable roles

DuPage County Environmental Committee members heard a presentation on a Lightcast clean-energy workforce analysis during their meeting, where staff said the county’s share of clean-energy job openings is small and concentrated in construction, manufacturing and building maintenance rather than in large-scale renewable projects.

The report, contracted under an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) and carried out by Lightcast from October through December 2024, was funded within a $25,000 cap and produced after a three-proposer request-for-proposals process, staff said. “The green-enabled jobs is where the bulk of the jobs are at this point,” Lisa (staff member) told the committee, summarizing Lightcast’s categorization of clean roles as core green, green-enabled and green-enabling jobs.

The analysis matters because it clarifies where training and placement efforts may have the most immediate effect in DuPage County. The nut graf: committee members and workforce staff said the report validates current workforce-development priorities while suggesting new training and employer-engagement steps to move more residents into middle-skill, higher-paying positions.

Lightcast’s methodology, as described in the presentation, used online job-posting aggregation (a “spider” technology) and a tagging system to classify positions that contribute to…