How We’re Tackling the U.S. Clean Energy Worker Shortage with Labor Unions, Influencers and AI
Grounded.org and the U.S. Department of Energy convene influencers in Pittsburgh to discuss IRA implementation.
The Situation
In September 2022, following passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Grounded teamed up with the U.S. Department of Energy to convene influencers and partners from the 2022 Clean Energy Freedom campaign. During a powerful summit at the Global Clean Energy Action Forum in Pittsburgh, we explored next steps for implementing the IRA. In a critical discussion with U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko, and Piper Perabo (Paramount’s ‘Yellowstone’), our partners learned about a significant bottleneck in accelerating the clean energy transition: a severe shortage of skilled U.S. workers, especially electricians, needed to install emerging clean energy technologies.
Our Approach
To address this challenge, Grounded engaged the research agency FiveStone in 2023 to investigate the root causes of the U.S. electrician shortage. This involved conducting focus groups with workers across the United States to understand what attracts people to the clean energy trades, the challenges workers face, and potential strategies to increase interest in these careers. After concluding expert interviews and worker focus groups in Q2 2023, we began briefing philanthropies, non-profits, government agencies, labor unions, and industry associations on the results of that research.
Results
Our research yielded profound insights. Two primary factors were identified as driving the U.S. skilled trade shortage: cultural stigma and lack of a centralized, easy-to-use platform.
Cultural stigma: Trades jobs are often perceived as low-status and poorly paid. Current media portrayals of trades as “dirty jobs” sharply contrasts with the reality of clean energy careers: many workers proudly earn six-figure incomes for solving complex problems with sophisticated technology. It’s not uncommon for workers to eventually own their own businesses.
Lack of a centralized platform: Workers who do find an interest in skilled trade careers face significant barriers when seeking information on training and jobs. The extreme fragmentation and hyper-localization of existing digital career resources and jobs platforms prevents many would-be workers from finding these jobs. As a result, 80% of union recruitment comes from word-of-mouth referrals. (This, in turn, drives a lack of representation of women and minorities in the skilled trades.)
What We Learned
This project was a revelation for Grounded. It not only identified a major bottleneck in the clean energy transition and opportunities to solve the workforce crisis, but also unveiled significant knowledge and funding gaps across climate philanthropy, government, industry, and labor sectors. Moreover, while our previous influencer campaigns have largely focused on winning policy, we now have an opportunity to demonstrate the role of influencer strategy in implementing policy. Our upcoming TradesForce campaign is uniting influencers, labor unions, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the White House to popularize clean energy jobs. In partnership with Climatebase, the leading U.S. clean energy jobs platform, we’re also creating the first centralized, AI-powered platform for workers to explore and connect to careers in the clean energy trades.
To request more information or explore partnerships, please direct all inquiries to the Office of the Executive Director at oxd@grounded.org.
