Melanie Turner, Sacramento Business Journal

“Green” jobs increased at close to three times the rate of total jobs in the state between 1995 and 2008, with the Sacramento region leading the state with 87 percent job growth in the green sector, or 4,743 jobs added, according to a report released Wednesday.

Green jobs range from those in air quality emissions monitoring and control to other jobs in the fuel cell and renewable energy industries.

The report, “Many Shades of Green: Diversity and Distribution of California’s Green Jobs,” was released Wednesday by the nonpartisan organizations Next 10 and Collaborative Economics. Next 10 works to educate, engage and empower Californians to improve the state’s future. Collaborative Economics is a research and consulting firm in Mountain View.

According to the report, as the economy slowed between 2007 and 2008, total employment fell 1 percent, but green jobs grew by 5 percent.

Between 1995 and 2008, total jobs in California grew by 13 percent, while green jobs grew by 36 percent, from 117,000 to 159,000 jobs, and green businesses increased by 45 percent, according to the report.

Sacramento led the state with green job growth of 87 percent between 1995 and 2008, from 7,019 jobs in 1995 to 13,102 jobs in 2008. Sacramento was followed by San Diego (57 percent), the Bay Area (51 percent) and Orange County and Inland Empire (50 percent), according to the report.

“Data show that green sector businesses are taking root across every region in California, generating jobs across a wide spectrum of skill levels and earnings potential,” said F. Noel Perry, a venture capitalist and philanthropist who founded Next 10, in a news release.

“While green jobs clearly cannot solve the state’s current unemployment challenges, over time these jobs could become a growing portion of total jobs in California,” he said.

Rick Wylie, president of Sacramento’s Beutler Corp., said in the release that “volatile energy prices combined with the recession have increased demand for our energy products and services because customers need to save both energy and money.”

While the absolute green job numbers are not large, according to the report the numbers are comparable to the biotech and software sectors.

In Sacramento, the jobs that saw the highest employment growth (157 percent) were in the “air and environment” segment, which includes jobs in environmental consulting and remediation, and emissions monitoring and controls.