Net Zero buildings can spark a jobs bonanza, study finds

In the study, Schneider Electric and Boston University found that over two million new jobs and up to 141 million additional job years can be created in Europe and the United States by adopting clean energy technologies in new and retrofitted buildings. In total, 247,000 of those jobs would be in the UK.

The results come from a research collaboration between the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS) and the Schneider Electric Sustainability Research Institute (SRI). Their findings are detailed in an open access paper published in The Electricity Journal.

Taking a micro-scale view, the study estimated the global employment outcomes for low-carbon building archetypes spanning residential, hospital, hotel, office, retail, and education in regions of North America, Europe and Asia.

The data focused specifically on the potential around deploying rooftop solar panels, heat pumps, and energy storage batteries for self-produced (or prosumer) renewable energy.