Green jobs are growing in N.C.

North Carolina’s green sector has expanded to 12,500 jobs, a 22 percent increase in the past year, a Raleigh trade group announced in its annual report.

The N.C. Sustainable Energy Association said green jobs now exist in all 100 counties, spread across private industry, nonprofits and government agencies.

Wake County leads the state in green jobs, with 128 organizations responding to the trade group’s survey. Mecklenburg County is second in total green jobs.

The trade group and lobbying organization represents the green industry in the state. Some of the 546 organizations that met N.C. SEA’s definition of green are members of the trade group.

The group’s report doesn’t identify any companies in its report, but most are small, with five or fewer employees. But N.C. SEA said the jobs are in research, manufacturing, building retrofits, renewable energy installers and retailers, and consulting.

Green outfits in the Triangle include solar panel installers such as Southern Energy Management…

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