Multifamily Affordable Housing Decarbonization Toolkit
Attracting and Building a Workforce
Leveraging Localized Workforces to Support Community Development
Building code and emissions requirements are pushing the building stock to decarbonize, whether through retrofits or new construction. The clean energy transition is an emerging landscape and will require a robust workforce to carry out this work. Hiring, training, and retaining a workforce that is equipped with the knowledge and skill sets needed to decarbonize buildings, such as the installation and maintenance of heat pumps, panelized envelopes, and on-site renewable energy, is critical to this transition. To effectively cultivate a skilled workforce, several pain points must be addressed. These encompass fostering job growth across the construction industry, gaining a more diverse workforce inclusive of women and people of color, and ensuring proper up-front training for incoming and existing workers to execute decarbonization-related upgrades. With a demand for workforce comes opportunities for job creation and economic growth, which when carried out strategically, can directly support community investment.
Attracting and Building a Workforce
The construction industry is currently not as attractive to potential workers as it needs to be to support the projected influx of building decarbonization work. Although construction wages nationally have gradually increased by 40 percent between 2014 and 2024 (outpacing a 32 percent inflation rate), variations in regional compensation and worker benefits persist, contributing to labor shortages. The construction field also grapples with stereotypes that present substantial obstacles to workforce recruitment. Nonetheless, there are opportunities to cultivate new perspectives on construction work that embrace the shift toward clean energy and decarbonization and can support more successful recruitment efforts. Proposed solutions include:
- Forgive Education Loans: The adoption of government-subsidized low- or no-interest education loans could be further explored to support individuals who opt to build their trade skills or open their own business instead of pursuing continued education. This type of loan could support job security through ongoing skills training and rapidly evolving technologies and economic changes.
- Adopt High-Road Clean Energy Job Principles: Competitive compensation will be critical to attract a larger workforce needed to support decarbonization projects. Yet, striking a balance between fair worker compensation and project feasibility is critical to ensuring projects happen. Adopting high-road labor policies and practices that ensure workers receive fair and livable compensation, health and retirement benefits, and access to personal growth and upward mobility in their profession will be vital across the industry moving forward. Quantifying co-benefits such as health, resilience, and quality of life to demonstrate the value of the work using social return on investment models can also aid in attracting more workers to these roles.
- Rebrand Construction Jobs: Rebranding construction work as career oriented and purpose driven can help debunk traditional misperceptions the industry faces. This rebranding can be achieved by exploring the following:
- Promote Advanced Construction Technologies: As the construction industry evolves to incorporate advanced technologies, such as design and building software systems, drones, computer modeling, and on-site automation such as 3D printers and lasers, there is a growing demand for a technologically proficient workforce. Positioning construction as a dynamic and innovative career choice with a strong technology focus can help attract younger workers.
- Attract a Diverse Workforce: Debunking the traditional perception that construction work is significantly white male dominated, especially in licensed trades, and attracting a more diverse workforce will be vital in meeting growing workforce. Given changing US demographics, enacting more inclusive hiring practices and training opportunities that prioritize the recruitment of women, people of color, and people with disabilities will be essential in meeting retrofit demands across the real estate industry. Moreover, recent studies found that a diverse workforce can bring new perspectives and innovative solutions to the construction sector, while also enhancing overall productivity.
- Showcase Mission-Driven Aspects of Construction Work: It will be vital to position construction careers as purpose driven in order to attract younger generations to the workforce. Studies show that Gen Z, for example, places significant value on solving societal problems and addressing climate change. Therefore, emphasizing and showcasing the ways industry efforts can promote community prosperity by reducing carbon footprints and promoting eco-friendly building solutions is a pathway to recruiting emerging, environmentally conscious workers.
Workforce Development
As clean energy technologies are more widely deployed, the industry lacks sufficient contractor expertise relating to recommending, estimating, selling, installing, and maintaining these technologies. This expertise plays a crucial role in fostering trust and reliability among contractors and owners in clean energy technologies — an essential factor in accelerating market adoption. Workforce development can be fostered by the following approaches:
- Target Workforce Development Programs in Schools: Generating awareness in clean energy careers is critical to cultivating a new workforce capable of gaining expertise in clean energy technologies from the outset of their careers. Investing in career technical education programs in schools that prioritize skills related to energy efficiency and decarbonization is a critical first step. Existing apprenticeship and training programs, such as those offered by Soulful Synergycan also aid in equipping young workers and students with the necessary expertise, training, and certifications needed to implement green building upgrades.
- Develop Contractors: Training and education are vital to ensure contracting businesses, especially smaller-scale ones, are equipped with administrative and operations support, negotiating skills, and financial knowledge to successfully sell and carry out projects. Capacity building, coupled with continuous technical trainings for contractors and subcontractors, is crucial for maintaining a thorough understanding of construction innovations, new materials, regulatory and safety compliance standards, and operations expertise necessary to successfully execute projects.
- Advance Technical Trainings for Property Owners and Managers: Developing programs that support and guide property owners and managers on how to navigate the complexities of working with contractors in implementing decarbonization measures will be beneficial in streamlining projects and communication efforts.
- Provide Training for Building Operations Staff: It is essential that engineers and other building operations and maintenance staff understand how to manage, service, and optimize building energy systems, including the building envelope, from an energy usage and carbon emissions perspective. Many utilities, community colleges, and other institutions offer building operator certification programs that include significant content on energy-efficient building operations.
- Develop Knowledge-Sharing Practices: Knowledge-sharing platforms and training resources can help keep industry professionals, especially contractors, involved in retrofitting projects updated on changing laws and best practices to ensure current knowledge and compliance.
Leveraging Localized Workforces to Support Community Development
As decarbonization projects build up in the pipeline without enough workers to carry them out, there is a growing opportunity to build upon localized workforce development initiatives, which, in return will boost local economies. In many cases, workers will be outsourced and brought into a community for decarbonization projects, which is a missed opportunity to drive local reinvestment. Attracting a robust and diverse workforce is desperately needed. By fostering representation among traditionally marginalized groups, community members are empowered with a greater sense of agency, pride, and ownership over decarbonization solutions deployed in their communities. Solutions for integrating local workforces into community-based decarbonization projects include:
- Enact policies to support local hiring requirements: Implement local hiring requirements to ensure that communities affected by climate disasters have access to employment opportunities in rebuilding efforts.
- Develop Community Benefits Agreements: Use community benefit agreements to maximize the positive impact of decarbonization projects across residents and neighborhoods.
- Increase Access to Union Apprenticeship Programs: In overburdened communities where the goal is to cultivate thriving decarbonization jobs, union jobs need to be made more accessible and in alignment with that goal.
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