MEDIA RELEASE

www.greenjobshawaii.org

HONOLULU—The Hawai‘i State Department of Labor & Industrial Relations (DLIR) today announced that the Hawai‘i Green Jobs Initiative (HGJI) portal (www.greenjobshawaii.org) was recognized by C2ER, the Council for Community and Economic Research for outstanding achievement and excellence in Data Collection/Dissemination Efforts and Web-based Systems. “Recognition of the Hawai‘i Green Jobs Initiative portal highlights the excellent work and contribution of DLIR staff towards the goals of the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative and Governor Abercrombie’s New Day charge to Grow a Sustainable Economy,” said DLIR Director Dwight Takamine. “The recognition of the portal also gives us another opportunity to get the word out about a very valuable resource for our State that is available for employers, workers, training providers, business planners, economists and others in the community.”

The Hawai‘i Green Jobs Initiative portal was awarded high ratings for its support for business development, especially the recruitment of “green” workers with its innovative approach in providing a centralized and localized green jobs bank, which is the portal’s most prominent feature. The portal’s green jobs search engine “spiders” the World Wide Web for any green job postings by Hawai‘i employers. Job seekers are able to tailor their job searches using criteria such as their location to generate a list of green job openings.

Another innovation was the development and inclusion of the Directory of Hawai‘i Green Employers as a module of the HGJI portal. The Directory allows local green employers to post and update profiles that describe their operations, specify their core occupations, and describe the skills and education they want in employees. Jobseekers can easily view the employer profiles to learn about these companies and the workers they require. Training and service providers are also able to use this information to plan training programs and related services. Business planners, job developers, and economists can use the directory to scan the current state of green economic and business activity in their local areas.

The portal also houses a dashboard for customized green labor market information and trends, links to local green training programs and training providers, and a repository of related green workforce and economic research. It also includes career profiles of new and emerging green occupations and videos of green industry sectors.

C2ER is a non-profit organization representing over 500 community and economic development research and analysis organizations in the U.S. and Canada. Each year the C2ER Community & Economic Research Awards program recognizes the contribution of research activities to the success of local, regional, and state economic development initiatives with the purpose of increasing the quality of economic development research by identifying meritorious projects and promoting the diffusion of creative ideas for research activities.

The Hawai‘i Department of Labor and Industrial Relations’ Research and Statistics Office implemented the Hawai‘i Green Jobs Initiative with federal funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) through the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration to advance the State of Hawai‘i’s transition to a greener economy.