Green Jobs in Tennessee

Executive Summary

Although no clear definition exists, the term green jobs has been widely used to describe jobs in businesses that are particularly related to renewable energy, energy efficiency, or environmental sustainability. Both federal and state governments have invested significantly in efforts to define and measure the extent of the green economy in the United States. As part of these initiatives, the Business and Economic Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University has partnered with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development to estimate the economic impact of six ground-breaking green investments in Tennessee: Hemlock Semiconductor, Wacker Chemie AG, Volkswagen, Nissan Leaf and Storage Battery Manufacturing, Tennessee Solar Institute and West Tennessee Solar Farm, and eTec Battery Charging Stations.

The purpose of this study is to estimate the economic impact of the investments on Tennessee's economy. This study addresses the following major research questions.

• Where can the six major green investments be classified within the national and local green activity frameworks?
• How many green jobs will be created with these investments?
• What are the major occupations associated with these green investments?

This study used multi-region IMPLAN models to estimate the economic impact of these investments.

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* Murat Arik is associate director of the Business and Economic Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University.

Table of Contents

Entire study

• Green Jobs pdf