The organizations E4TheFuture and Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) released a December, 2016 report titled Energy Efficiency Jobs in America – A Comprehensive Analysis of Energy Efficiency Employment Across all 50 States (“Report”).
The Report provides an estimate of the number of full or part time jobs associated with energy efficiency in the United States.
Information regarding the number of energy efficiency jobs in Arkansas are included.
By way of summary, the Report concludes that energy efficiency accounts for approximately 3 out of 4 American “clean energy” jobs. Further, it states that such technology supports almost 1.9 million jobs across the country. 889,000 of the employees are stated to spend the majority of their time supporting the energy efficiency portion of their business.
The firms that install or sell energy efficiency systems are also analyzed. Approximately 40% are stated to be installation firms and a quarter of the establishments are in trade and distribution. The remainder of business activity is estimated to be evenly distributed across professional services (11%), manufacturing (8%), engineering and research (8%), and other value chain activities (7%).
The Report also assesses energy efficiency employment on a state by state basis.
As to the State of Arkansas, the Report concludes that energy efficiency related jobs number about 10,500. It estimates that approximately 75% of these employees primarily work with traditional HVAC technologies.
The Report ranks the State of Arkansas 27th in the nation for energy efficiency policies and programs. This is an increase of 4 places from 2015. It further opines that the state of Arkansas is strongest in utilities. Arkansas is one of the four states in the southeast states without energy efficiency standards.
The leading counties for energy efficiency employment in Arkansas are:
- Pulaski County, 1,904;
- Benton County, 785;
- Washington County, 753.