Earth Day 2010 Finds the Majority of Companies Doing Something to be More Environmentally Conscious, Finds a New CareerBuilder Survey

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Apr 21, 2010, 07:00 ET

CHICAGO, April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- For the last 40 years, Earth Day's mission has been to promote the importance of being environmentally conscious, and companies appear to be listening. One-in-ten employers say they have added "green jobs," otherwise known as environmentally-focused positions, in the last 12 months, and despite the tough economy, nearly 10 percent plan to add more in 2010, according to a new national survey of more than 2,700 hiring managers by CareerBuilder. The survey was conducted between February 10 and March 2, 2010.

Employers in the Northeast (14 percent) added the most "green jobs" over the last year, followed by 11 percent in the South, 10 percent in the West and 9 percent in the Midwest. Retail led the industries surveyed with 24 percent indicating they have added the "green jobs" over the last 12 months, followed by 18 percent of transportation and utilities, 15 percent of sales, 14 percent of IT and manufacturing, and 10 percent of financial services.

Companies are not only adding environmentally friendly positions within their organizations, they are strengthening their in-house "green" programs as well. Nearly 70 percent of companies say they have added programs to be more environmentally conscious in the last year. The most popular "green" programs include:

Recycling (47 percent)
Using less paper (43 percent)
Controlling lighting (40 percent)
Powering down computers at the end of the day (29 percent)
Purchasing office supplies made from recycled materials (25 percent)

"Green opportunities continue to grow as companies take advantage of increased government programs designed to spur job growth and reduce the country's carbon footprint," said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder. "The green category has expanded over the past few years and job seekers are finding environmentally friendly positions in virtually every industry and at every job level."

The following are examples of green job opportunities that can be found at www.goinggreenjobs.com, CareerBuilder's site designed to connect "green" employers and job seekers:

Hydrologist: The median annual income is $78,458.*
GIS analyst: The media annual income is $35,622.
Solar energy system designer: The median annual income is $65,160.
Wildlife biologist: The median annual income is $38,301.
Science teacher: The median annual income of kindergarten, elementary, middle and secondary school teachers ranges from $51,373 to $57,537.
Pollution control technician: The median annual income is $58,500.
Waste management engineer: The median annual income is $89,067.
Organic chemist: The median annual income is $53,199.
Environmental attorney: The median annual income for attorneys specializing in construction, real estate and land use is $99,579.
Urban planner: The media annual income is $65,768.

* Salary information from CBsalary.com.

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive© on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 2,778 U.S. Hiring Managers and HR professionals (employed full-time; not self-employed; non government); ages 18 and over between February 10 and March 2, 2010 (percentages for some questions are based on a subset of U.S. Employers, based on their responses to certain questions). With a pure probability sample of 2,778 one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 1.86 percentage points. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

About CareerBuilder®

CareerBuilder is the global leader in human capital solutions, helping companies target and attract their most important asset - their people. Its online career site, CareerBuilder.com®, is the largest in the United States with more than 23 million unique visitors, 1 million jobs and 32 million resumes. CareerBuilder works with the world's top employers, providing resources for everything from employment branding and data analysis to recruitment support. More than 9,000 websites, including 140 newspapers and broadband portals such as MSN and AOL, feature CareerBuilder's proprietary job search technology on their career sites. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), Tribune Company, The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com.