CHICAGO – Everywhere you turn, “green jobs” are touted for their ability to pull the nation out of its economic slump. But what exactly is a green job? Is the U.S. creating any? Do they pay?

For the first time since the term was coined, someone has answers.

A seminal study released Wednesday by the Brookings Institution defines the term and has determined where such jobs exist. The report makes it possible for policymakers to see which industries are producing such jobs and where and how the clean economy is growing.

The information is crucial to policymakers, who have been throwing millions of dollars into a “green economy” with the hope that enough jobs will be created to offset the huge numbers that have been lost.

Brookings also examined green competition, not only between cities and regions but also globally, and determined that U.S. firms were losing market share to foreign competitors.

“Let’s be candid about this,” said Howard Learner, president and executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center in Chicago, an environmental advocacy organization. “There are a lot of cities and lot of countries who are competing. If we’re not aggressive, other competing cities and countries will eat our lunch.”

Until the Brookings report, the term “clean economy” hadn’t been defined. That made finding, counting and nurturing green jobs difficult, if not impossible.

It defines clean economy as “economic activity – measured in terms of establishments and the jobs associated with them – that produces goods and services with an environmental benefit or adds value to such products using skills or technologies that are uniquely applied to those products.”

Brookings pulled together data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and other sources to come up with a definition.

The report used only “direct jobs” and defines environmental benefits as those that prevent or minimize pollution or natural resource depletion.

“The great purpose of this study is to help policymakers understand what the clean economy is, to make it clear to economic leaders what the trends are and allow them to make good economic decisions,” said Mark Muro, senior fellow and policy director at the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings and co-author of the study.

The report recommends that policymakers tailor regional and local policies to the most promising areas of the clean economy.

For instance, 13 major wind companies are headquartered in Illinois. And while the industry is still small compared with other green job creators, it has grown 39 percent since 2003, second only to solar, according to Brookings.

“If we could develop more wind resources in Illinois, but also in Minnesota and Iowa, that could help support the region overall and drive investment,” said Steve Frenkel, director of the Midwest office of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a watchdog organization.

Over the years, the debate over green job creation has been fraught with politics and frequently short on facts. Controversy over the nature of global warming has some high-profile environmental groups backing off the green bandwagon altogether in an effort to reach some kind of bipartisan consensus.

One such effort, led by the Pew Charitable Trusts, is the Clean Energy Economy initiative, led by former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. In a recent meeting with the Tribune, Granholm said the group is reframing its focus on the economic benefits that clean-energy policy can bring rather than its environmental advantages.

In his State of the Union address this year, President Barack Obama touted the green sector as a way to create “countless” new jobs. But without a clear definition, states set their own green standards, often at conflict with one another.

“We’ve got different standards in different states. The U.S. needs a coherent and consistent national energy policy,” said Frenkel.

The Union of Concerned Scientists is expected to release a report next week urging Midwestern states to enact similar renewable energy policies. The organization said benefits would include the creation of 85,700 jobs by 2030 and that consumers would enjoy reduced utility bills.

Clustering similar or related industries drives growth, according to the Brookings report, which cited the wind industry in Chicago as an example. On average, clustered businesses grow 1.4 percent faster annually than isolated businesses, the think tank said.

Renewable energy clusters in Illinois have been a boon to manufacturing, Learner said. About 26 percent of green jobs are involved in manufacturing, according to Brookings, compared with 9 percent of jobs in the overall economy.

“What you’re seeing is a number of businesses pivot. Smart Rust Belt manufacturers are retooling,” Learner said. “We want to see renewable energy equipment that is going to power wind farms in Des Plaines (Ill.) being built in Chicago, not in China.”

The private sector will play the lead role in driving growth, according to Brookings, but the government needs to help that growth by investing in research and development and creating markets for green products and services.

Governments could purchase green products instead of traditional products. The federal government purchases $500 billion in goods and services annually, and state and local governments spend an additional $400 billion, according to Brookings. Not to mention the 500,000 buildings they occupy and 600,000 vehicles they drive.

“Any job where you can make a decision, you can make a green decision,” said Karen Weigert, chief sustainability officer for the city of Chicago.

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