Green Jobs and Green Retrofits

Two articles of interest today - first up from Yahoo News, "Report: 4.2 million new 'green' jobs possible." A new report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors says that an aggressive shift away from fossil fuels and toward alternative energy could add millions of jobs to the economy.

From the article:

The report, being presented at a mayor's conference in Miami, predicts the biggest job gain will be from the increased use of alternative transportation fuels, with 1.5 million additional jobs, followed by the renewable power generating sector with 1.2 million new jobs. Another 81,000 additional jobs will be generated by industries related to making homes and commercial buildings more energy efficient, the study said. And it predicted an additional 1.4 million green jobs related to engineering, research, consulting and legal work.

Also in the news today, a great article from The Street about how retrofitting businesses to be more energy efficient saves significant money. The article discusses a survey of businesses that have gone green and how they've benefited not only from lower utility bills, but also from happier employees and reduced employee absenteeism.