GSI’s CleenNW program conducting workplace surveys

A fledgling energy industry group at Greater Spokane Incorporated is completing studies that will show the Inland Northwest’s green energy strengths and needs. The Consortium of Leading Energy Efficiency Northwest, or Cleen NW, was created three years ago to create awareness, networking opportunities, educational opportunities and more in the areas of clean energy and energy efficiency in Spokane County. “It is now larger than that,” says Gary Mallon, technology industry manager at GSI. “If you look at Eastern Washington and Spokane County, we have some globally and nationally significant companies here,” he says. “And there are opportunities to create new companies here and help them grow … network them. We’ve seen that come together a bit.” Cleen’s founding members are GSI, Avista Utilities, CH2M Hill, McKinstry, Paine Hamblen LLP, Sirti, and the city of Spokane. Other organizations have joined the group as an advisory council, Mallon says, including Lee & Hayes PLLC, the city of Cheney, the Spokane Area Workforce Development Council, and One Earth Starch. “There’s a lot going on in our community that’s clean and green,” says Kim Pearman-Gillman, Spokane-based business-development director at McKinstry. “There’s good collaboration in terms of sharing what’s going on in the field.” McKinstry is a Seattle-based design-build company with offices throughout the Inland Northwest that offers consulting, mechanical engineering, construction, and facility management. On the surface, Cleen might look like just a loose-knit group of companies. “Spokane has some amazing clean green energy companies,” Pearman-Gillman says. “Every time we’ve worked as a community on things, they’ve started to grow. … You look at common messages. Are there policies that we need GSI to address? … We’re in the formative stages in talking about different workforce issues. GSI has done a great job in getting the parameters set up.” Through Cleen NW, a consortium of businesses conducted a gap and opportunity analysis of the clean energy sector in 10 counties in Eastern Washington, Mallon says. The analysis had three phases. In one, the Spokane Area Workforce Development Council did a skills panel and survey of skills and education, looking at best practices and taking inventory of companies. For phase two, 40 surveys were completed by both private and publically held companies, the majority of which were from Spokane County. In another, Ecowell Inc. of Pullman, Wash., identified organizations providing mentoring, like Sirti, and Washington institutions doing research to help determine how to move technology out of the universities and into companies to create real jobs, Mallon says. One component of the gap analysis was to convene a skill panel to explore companies’ workforce needs and determine how the Spokane region’s educational and workforce training system can better provide businesses with the skilled workers they need, says Mark Mattke, executive director of the Spokane Area Workforce Development Council. “Over the next 18 months, the Skill Panel will continue to meet and expand the scope of businesses studied to encompass 10 counties across eastern Washington and get an accurate picture of where development is occurring and what knowledge, skills and abilities are needed for workers to succeed and help businesses prosper,” he says. The agency plans to work closely with Cleen NW to coordinate outreach efforts and ensure that both new and established companies in the energy and energy-efficiency sectors have the necessary workers they need to grow. Cleen NW plans to share the findings of the gap analysis Sept. 13 at GSI that will be open to the public. Since its launch, Cleen has sponsored events, featuring speakers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, on smart-grid technologies, and more. It also manages a Web site at www.cleennw.org that has a searchable database of members, facilitates networking between companies, and finds speakers. In the future, it may be able to “identify areas of policy” the group could advocate for, Mallon says. In addition, the program administers the nomination and balloting process for Green Organization and Green Company of the Year categories for the Catalyst Awards. “In the next five years, I’d like to see an emergence in the clean tech sector in both energy efficiency and clean technology companies,” Mallon says. “I think there’s a tremendous opportunity for Eastern Washington, maybe Spokane, specifically around sustainable aviation, fuels. Spokane International Airport is a driving force, along with Washington State University, Boeing, and Alaska airlines.” Our region is well positioned to produce biofuels because we are an agricultural hub, producing feed stocks like rapeseed and canola, and have end users like airlines and the military, he says. “We’re a transportation hub. We have strong, inherent capabilities in manufacturing. We have a lot of existing strengths.” While the recent gap analysis focused on public and private industries, CleenNW may look specifically at education and municipalities in the future. Perhaps green certifications will be more of a requirement in the manufacturing industry eventually, Mallon says. Another question involves future workforce needs in relation to the energy sector. What kind of engineers will be needed more? “We know that one day in the future energy sources are going to be a challenge, whether you do or do not believe in the climate change, petroleum sources are finite,” Mallon says. “We’re sending a lot of money overseas that we’re not getting back.” Increasing energy efficiency and spending money on local resources is an opportunity to create wealth and grow jobs, he says. “I just don’t see a downside to it.” One of Pearman-Gillman’s hopes is that better definitions in the green industry emerge and that people understand just how large the industry is. “Clean is about how you take clean tech into all sorts of industries, not just the energy industry.” In the future, there will be new windmills, more solar power, increased use of smart-grid technologies, and things that haven’t been invented yet, she says. “We’re all going to be better off with less of a carbon footprint. I believe we can do better in the choices that we make,” Pearman-Gillman says. “We can all do with less and probably not even notice it.”