Green Industries

The County is committed to building a healthier, more sustainable future. This means creating good jobs, protecting the environment, and growing the local economy for residents, families, and communities. The Green Industries and High Road Jobs initiative is one way the County is putting this commitment into action.

This initiative will find and support industries that are well-matched with our region’s existing strengths and can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create jobs, and help local communities. The County is working with community groups, schools, and businesses to learn more about prospects for green jobs to identify training needs and help new industries grow here.

Your participation will help shape the future of green industries and job training priorities for the region.

Consultant Team

BW Research Partnership, ARKEN Strategies, San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation

July 2026 Update

Our initial research assessment is complete, evaluating nearly 30 industries related to energy supply, buildings, transportation, agriculture and working lands, and blue technology. We considered these industries based on their unique connections to the region’s primary assets: 1) innovation, technology, and research; 2) education and workforce; 3) physical infrastructure; 4) geopolitics; and 5) raw materials and feedstock.

What We’ve Heard From You
Several common themes emerged through a regional convening, focused workshops, interviews, survey responses, and comments submitted on this Engage page:

• Transferable green skills: Flexible, adaptable baseline “green skills” that apply across industries and support long-term worker mobility are needed as technologies evolve.
• Consistent government signals: Regulatory certainty, permitting process standardization, and visible long-term public commitment are essential to attracting and retaining emerging green industries.
• Reduction of infrastructure and capacity bottlenecks: Challenges include limited manufacturing readiness, constraints in apprenticeship capacity, coordination gaps, and high costs of doing business.
• Clarity of stakeholder roles: It is important for the County, education partners, workforce boards, industry associations, and others to work together without duplicating efforts.
• Education alignment: Formal and informal learning environments must harmonize with real-time workforce needs and reduce barriers to career entry.

Draft Industries & Jobs Roadmap for the New Economy

Building on stakeholder input and the research assessment, we have identified five emerging industries to focus the Roadmap:

• fusion energy
• smart microgrids
• solar technologies
• low‑carbon intensity biobased feedstock
• blue economy scale-up services.

The draft Roadmap will outline opportunities for each industry, as well as related skills and careers, existing regional programs, potential partners, and funding to help build scaffolding for new markets and the just transition.

How to Get Involved

• Review materials from our August 26 webinar
• Share the information about this effort with others
• Provide input and ask questions using the tools on this page