Todd BenDor–PI. The notion that what is good for the environment is not good for business is widely accepted by the American media. What has been almost entirely missing from the public debate is a detailed accounting of the jobs that would actually be created through conservation, restoration, and mitigation actions – the activities of the “Restoration Economy.” Although studies have identified ‘green job’ creation through renewable energy, energy efficiency, or recycling investments, the economic output and the jobs generated due to the protection and restoration of ecosystems have not been systematically tallied.
The purpose of this report is to synthesize the evidence and construct a framework for estimating the size of the United States restoration sector. This report is organized as follows: the first section defines restoration, while the second section attempts to define the restoration industry by the factors that drive demand for restoration. The third section reviews previous work to quantify the economic benefits, impacts and contributions of restoration. In the final section, we present our proposed methodology for further research to quantify the size of the restoration industry annually in terms of total economic output and employment.
Read the CURS working paper based on this research.