Alston Park - Napa, California

Under the radar, Napa County Green Economy Report is announced.

Napa County Emerging
Green Economy

Even though this report received very little coverage when it was first unveiled January, I wanted you all to make sure you knew where you could downloaded a copy. The Emerging Green Economy report created by the Napa County Work Force Investment Board is available for download on the NCWFIB website http://www.napaworkforce.org/ .

The report is worth the review by both small and large businesses. It outlines the many efforts by local businesses to become more green through self-policing and various certification programs made available throughout the state.

Here’s an excerpt from the executive summary prepared by: Jim Cassio & Associates in association with Craft Consulting Group:

The emerging green economy is generating new job opportunities and a demand for workers with green knowledge, skills, and credentials. These job opportunities include both new jobs and traditional jobs that are adapting to changing market realities. While there is no single agreed upon definition of what constitutes the green economy, there is general consensus on the concept and scope. Broadly defined the green economy describes both: 1) products and services, as well as 2) business practices and processes that dramatically reduce the demand for energy and increase the efficient use of resources. In estimating the number of green jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics makes a distinction between establishments that: (1) produce green goods or provide green services and those that (2) use green business practices or environmentally friendly production processes.


Companies producing green products and providing green services cover a number of different market segments that have been described by the Cleantech Group, New Energy Finance, Environmental Business International, US Green Building Council, Next 10, and others. The production of green products and the provision of green services are considered by many to be the core green economy. This core green economy can be divided into various market segments covering clean technology, clean energy, green building, environmental technologies, and other sectors.


Over the past decade, organizations of all types and sizes in nearly every industry sector have started to adopt green business practices. By adopting green business practices businesses can improve their environmental performance while enhancing their bottom line. Third-party verification of green business practices validates a company’s claims that it has achieved a certain level of compliance and/or met the standards established by a credible third-party organization.


Napa County has adopted a certified green business program that is affiliated with ABAG’s Green Business Program and the Napa Green Certified Winery and Land program developed by Napa Valley Vintners. The certified green business and winery program is coordinated by the County’s Environmental Management Department which is responsible for providing information and technical assistance to local businesses about green business practices applicable to their industry. The goal of the Napa Green Business Program is to assist businesses of all types in complying with environmental regulations and going beyond compliance to adopt voluntary standards in four areas: energy-efficiency; water conservation; pollution prevention; and solid and hazardous waste reduction and recycling. Many of the certified green businesses fall into more than one market segment.


For the purposes of this study, to avoid duplication, companies that have adopted green business practices and also produce green products and/or services are listed in the later category and not listed as a certified green business. Green Vineyards and Wineries, for example, were listed only in that category. As a result, this study identified 174 green businesses located in Napa County spread across several green market segments. Green product and service businesses comprise 1.2% of all businesses in Napa County. This compares favorably with the nation (0.9%) and state (1.0%). Almost two-thirds of the green businesses are located in the City of Napa (62.5%) followed by St. Helena (17.9) a distance second, and Calistoga (6.5%) with the third largest number of green businesses. American Canyon has the distinction of being Napa County’s second largest city, but the city with the fewest green businesses per capita.


Almost 95% of the green businesses are small firms with fewer than 100 employees. Green businesses with the largest number of employees include green wineries and remediation firms.


There are approximately 3,687 workers employed in Napa County green businesses. Green business employment represents 5.4% of the total employment in the county. Employment in green businesses cuts across a broad range of industry sectors with manufacturing, business support, and hospitality sectors having the largest number. However, employment in green businesses does not imply all are green jobs. The largest numbers of jobs are in businesses utilizing green business practices and production processes, including sustainable agriculture, green wineries and certified green businesses. Most of the jobs in these sectors involve occupations where there is no significant change in the work or skill requirements.


In contrast, jobs in businesses producing green products or providing green services are nearly always considered to be green jobs. These jobs account for approximately 1% of Napa County’s total private sector jobs. This compares favorably with the Pew study of the nation’s clean energy economy (0.7%) and Next 10’s study of the state’s core green economy (1.2%).


Many of the employers we surveyed seem confident that they will continue to add jobs over the next six months to two years. Although the survey was conducted during tough economic times, the majority of green business employers expect the number of jobs in their company to remain the same, and nearly one in five employers expect to add new workers over the next six months.

Jump to page 7 where the meat of this document begins.
Of the 174 green businesses in Napa County, more than 72 are Green Vineyards or Wineries. This is an impressive number. For a program still in its' infancy, there is a lot of hard working people making this the norm.

The largest green winery employer is Beringer Vineyard and Winery, that claims to have more then 500 employees here’s in the valley. Second comes Rubican Estate, then Charles Krug with 200 and 150 employees respectively.

There’s just some much more to this report, you’ll have to download it yourself.