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Thursday, March 25, 2010
Study: Boston traffic curbs otherwise high environmental ratings
By Christine Cignoli, Special to Mass High Tech
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A recent study of green factors in urban areas found that Boston fared well on some environmental factors like carpooling and public transportation, but not so well on others, like traffic and travel times. Area recruiters say local tech workers take many of these factors into account when looking for a job.
The study, conducted by Mass High Tech parent company American City Business Journals, pulled numbers from a variety of sources, including the census, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Green Building Council and U.S. Council of Mayors data, to assign a “Green City Index” number to 43 metro areas. The survey considered Manchester, N.H., and Quincy as part of the Boston area.
“As the next generation assumes more corporate leadership roles, it’ll be important that the employer is environmentally friendly,” says Charley Polachi, managing partner and cofounder of Framingham-based recruiting firm Polachi Inc.
For recent grads starting work at Hopkinton-based EMC, “It’s important to them to know that a company is doing things to help the environment,” says Cindy Gallerani, director of worldwide university relations. “Students do get excited about the products that help our customers create greener data centers. Is that the No. 1 reason they want to come work for EMC? Probably not.”
In a tough economy, green factors aren’t deal breakers for most job hunters. “It’s kind of a second tier of concerns for candidates,” says Tom Hamilton, staffing manager at Cambridge-based Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research. “Right now the biggest thing on most of our candidates’ minds is stability.”
The Boston metro area comes in fourth nationwide for both the current (as of 2006) and future (expected in the year 2038) number of green jobs. “The term ‘green,’ there can be so many different levels of that,” says Jack Fellers, regional vice president of Robert Half Technology. “There are companies that will take portions or parts of what they do and look at it from a green perspective.”
Many of Boston’s green features overlap with saving money, time and headaches. The study ranked Boston 34th for both travel delays for workers and amount of fuel wasted idling in traffic. But Boston came in fifth place for carpooling — 69 percent of workers drive alone, lower than the majority of other cities. EMC saves favored parking spots for carpooling employees, as does Novartis.
“CEOs don’t care about carpooling,” says Polachi. “But they do want to leave a better world for their kids and grandkids.” Polachi heard those sentiments while vetting applications for the New England Clean Energy Council fellowship program, which sends IT executives for training in clean tech. The program saw a jump in applicants from 50 to 200 in its second year.
For many businesses, what they can tout as green initiatives start out as cost-cutting measures. “If you can get more efficiencies, that result usually has some kind of green impact,” says Fellers. He says technologies like virtualization can cut serious costs and also reduce a company’s data center, which saves energy use.
The biggest job growth will be in networking and security, according to a recent Robert Half survey of CIOs, says Fellers; The trend is directly tied to supporting remote employees. He says the work-from-home trend gained traction when gas prices peaked in 2009. “Results of that green move is definitely impacting tech workers,” says Fellers. Telecommuting and flexible work appeal to prospective Novartis employees, says Hamilton, especially to avoid traffic with an off-peak commute.
And Boston ranks very high for non-driving commuting options: nearly 12 percent of commuters use public transportation, trailing only Washington, D.C. and San Francisco in the rankings. Both EMC’s Gallerani and Novartis’s Hamilton say that Boston’s public transportation infrastructure is very attractive to candidates.
It may take a less competitive job market to put green factors front and center for tech job seekers. “Being green and clean is nice to have, but does it pay the mortgage?” says Polachi. “People need the reality of a job.”
Christine Cignoli is a freelance writer in Roslindale.
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