The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has gathered data from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and California’s Employment Development Department to create a new map that highlights California’s growing green economy. I’m not surprised that California’s green economy is growing despite the rather stagnant national economy. The state is always forward thinking when it comes to environmental issues and perhaps the programs in place in California will help lead our nation into a full-fledged green economy.

 

The customizable map allows users to search by several business types: green buildings, energy generation, energy efficiency, transportation, green practices, academic/government/non-profit, and carbon markets. The data can then be further refined by county, senate district, or assembly district.

 

A promising revelation is that California’s growing green economy is not limited to the major metropolitan areas. While the larger cities do have more green businesses, some of the state’s less populated areas are also getting in on the green business trend including Truckee with 10 businesses on the map.

 

The data presented by the EDF mirrors other reports that have focused on California’s green economy. In Late 2009, a report from Next 10 revealed that green jobs in the state increased by 36 percent between 1995 and 2008. During that same time period, overall job growth was only 13 percent.

 

In May, the staff at GreenJobSpider.com conducted a survey of online job search engines and discovered that California had more green jobs available than any other state in the country. The state is also home to three of the top 10 cities for new grads seeking green jobs: San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Sacramento.

 

Thankfully the political climate in the state is conducive to growing a green economy. With national political games putting a complete stop to climate legislation, which could create millions of jobs for Americans, it is nice to see a state political climate that is supportive of a clean energy economy. In California, this push for green jobs is being led by none other than Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

 

If you live in California and want to research businesses in your area, visit the EDF’s California’s Growing Green Economy website.