Cambridge Committee Reviews First Green Jobs Report, Eyes July Specialist Hire

CAMBRIDGE -- June 18, 2024, Cambridge's Health and Environment Committee reviewed the city's first annual green jobs report, required under the 2023 Green Jobs Ordinance, with staff flagging low resident awareness as the central obstacle to filling surging demand for electricians, HVAC technicians, and insulation workers. Committee Chair Patty Nolan and staff from the Office of Workforce Development, led by Sue Walsh and Susan Mintz, told the four-member committee that a newly hired green jobs specialist is expected to start next month and will launch systematic outreach targeting an estimated pool of roughly 3,000 underemployed Cambridge residents. Staff noted that 60 percent of projected new green jobs fall in the clean energy sector and that a Massachusetts Board of Apprenticeship rule limiting master electricians to one apprentice at a time is a growing policy barrier the council may choose to raise with state legislators. Walsh acknowledged a roughly 50-50 success rate when career counselors have connected interested residents to green training programs, but called those numbers small and largely incidental rather than the result of targeted recruitment. The committee adjourned 4-0, with Councillor Wilson absent.