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The Evolving Definition of Green Collar Jobs

By Carol McClelland

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 01Nov2008 Word count: 889 Viewed: 217 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

A blog post entitled "What color is your collar?" caught my eye this week. In the course of the last year, the term green collar job has taken hold. Presidential candidates have used it, the media uses it in headlines on a regular basis, and a number of non-profits have taken on the idea as a way to jump start a green economy.

Unfortunately, there is no agreed upon definition for the term. As a result it's very difficult to estimate how many green collar jobs exist or are likely to be created with various green economy plans. According to the blog post for instance, the US Conference of Mayors states that 751,051 green collar jobs currently exist while the American Solar Energy Society's (ASES) claims that 8.5 million people work in the renewable energy and energy efficiency (RE&EE) industries.

To understand the discrepancy between these numbers, you need to dig into how each group defines green collar jobs. The US Conference of Mayors used a broad definition of green industries with a limited list of job titles while the American Solar Energy Society's numbers are based on two very specific green industries and an all inclusive set of job titles within these industries (from line jobs to infrastructure and administrative jobs).

At the moment, there are no definitive lists of the industries, job functions, or goals that come together to define the green economy. Some groups are even referring to jobs that represent varying shades of green. In other words, some jobs have more of an impact on the environment than others. Over time as technologies improve, even the way we think about how much impact a particular job has will change!

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Definitions and Distinctions

One of the distinctions that is coming to the surface is that green collar jobs are different from green jobs.

-- A green job is one that helps the environment

-- A green collar job is one that is good for the worker and the environment.

According to the blog post, two of the most vocal green collar job groups provide these definitions:

-- Apollo Alliance, a coalition of industry, labor, and environmental groups describes green collar jobs as those that "pay decent wages and benefits that can support a family. It has to be part of a real career path, with upward mobility. And it needs to reduce waste and pollution and benefit the environment." According to this definition temp jobs and sweatshop jobs don't qualify as green collar jobs.

-- Van Jones, author of the new best-selling book, The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, and founder of Green For All, defines green collar jobs as "good local jobs that pay well, strengthen communities, provide pathways out of poverty, and help solve our environmental problems."

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My Thoughts

I strongly support the work of Apollo Alliance and Van Jones' Green For All. I absolutely applaud their tireless lobbying, educating, and collaborating to jump start the green economy as a way to address the problems with our economy, our dependence on foreign oil, and global warming. Both groups see this new economy as a way to employ underemployed workers in urban areas and the trade workers in the rust belt. I've heard presentations by both groups and have been inspired and moved by both. I agree with them that green collar jobs can play a critical role in the birth of the new green economy.

That said, I also believe there's a category of green positions that aren't directly addressed by these groups. The jobs I'm referring to are the professional positions that must also be filled to launch the green economy. Can you imagine a green economy without:

-- Scientists and engineers who invent, design, and test new green products

-- Investors and financial analysts who provide funding to green businesses

-- Marketing and sales specialists who educate and motivate the public and other businesses to purchase new products and services.

-- Architects and contractors who design, guide, and manage green building projects

-- Managers, human resources groups, and administrative teams who run green businesses and manage, train, and support those with green collar jobs.

-- And so on!

Although it would be helpful to have a precise way to determine whether a particular job is a green job, a green collar job, or a green professional job, I don't think the green economy is mature enough to nail it down yet. I fully defend people's right to have the good, well paying jobs that are referred to by the green collar job term. At the same time, I don't want to make the mistake of discounting the value or green-ness of a green professional position or a green infrastructure position that are also critical to creating a thriving green economy.

I think the key is to allow these terms to continue to develop as the green economy evolves. Over time definitions will settle out. The industries, job titles, functions, and goals will become clearer as the green economy continues to grow.

If a job - trade, professional, administrative, managerial - contributes to moving the green economy forward, I'm willing to refer to that job as a green job. Within that term we'll most likely have terms to refer to subsets of those jobs, such as green collar jobs, green professional jobs, etc.

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