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 the green economy even when their job titles do not explicitly contain “green” language. Staff said Lightcast identified three largest occupational slices for the county’s clean sector as construction, manufacturing and building maintenance, and noted that overall job counts remain a small share of the county labor market. Lisa said the highest single industry cluster in the report—green building and construction—peaked at about 1,400 job postings in the county, and cautioned that percentage growth figures can be misleading when starting from a small base.

The report distinguished between “core” green jobs (for example, building wind turbines or installing large solar farms) and “green-enabled” jobs (for example, HVAC technicians trained to install heat pumps). Jamie Brown, workforce board manager, said the county’s job-demand picture is heavier on green-enabled and green-enabling occupations. “On the low end, they would want five years of experience,” Brown said of local employers’ expectations for electric-vehicle technicians. “On the higher end… at least 10 years of experience.” Brown said many dealerships and shops rely on on-the-job progression rather than a single defined EV training certificate.

The county presentation listed top clean-occupation postings (page references cited during the meeting): project management specialists (404 postings), environmental science and protection technicians, recycling and reclamation workers, civil and environmental engineers. Staff noted that some of these are entry-level and lower-paying (for example, recycling workers and environmental technicians), while others require bachelor’s or higher degrees (engineers), which limits the county workforce program’s direct ability to place attendees into those higher-skilled roles because the county’s WIOA-funded programs do not cover bachelor’s or master’s degrees.

Staff described follow-up steps already underway: adding a new training provider to the state-approved list for Building Performance Institute (BPI) energy-auditor credentials; exploring incumbent-worker training grants to reimburse employers for upskilling current employees; and working with local HVAC training providers to add heat-pump and energy-efficiency modules. Lisa said these steps respond to both the report’s findings and stakeholder feedback from employer outreach.

Committee members raised broader workforce-alignment questions. Member Lynn LaPlante urged the county to consider outreach that encourages younger people and non-college pathways into environment-focused careers. Member Heather and others pressed staff on whether short-term trainings can lead to EV technician jobs; Brown and Lisa said employer feedback indicates significant experience is typically required before technicians are trusted with EV work and that some automotive programs are beginning to incorporate EV content but that on-the-job progression remains common.

The presentation also referenced historical federal efforts—the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009—as an example of past training investments that did not fully translate into sustained employment for some trained workers, a cautionary note staff used when assessing training design and employer demand.

Ending: Committee members and staff said they view the Lightcast report as a validation of current workforce priorities and as a prompt to expand employer partnerships and short-term credentialing where feasible. Staff recommended continuing to pursue state listing for the new energy-auditor training, incumbent-worker grants, and targeted employer outreach; committee members suggested exploring broader awareness campaigns to position green careers as an identifiable pathway for residents.

Votes at a glance: The committee approved procedural items earlier in the meeting, including permitting a member’s remote attendance and approving the March 4, 2025 minutes; staff also announced that the DuPage County 2024 waste-and-recycling annual report and the 2025 document-shredding events will be received and placed on file, with questions to be directed to staff.