Hiring Green
Originally published in Thrive Magazine (Malaysia)
reproduced with kind permission.
The buzzwords of corporate accountability today undeniably revolve around the topic of going green. Green rhetoric is fast becoming an institutional norm, with “green-collar” jobs a particular favourite of late. Mere spin, or something that bears real economic significance? Jee Wan explores the topic.
What are green-collar jobs?
You’ve heard of white-collar jobs and blue-collar jobs, and recently presidential candidates talk about the promise of “green-collar” jobs. It seems that it is emerging and growing, in both popularity and support. Many view green-collar jobs in a positive light.
Labour unions view these new jobs as replacements for positions lost to overseas manufacturing and outsourcing. Urban groups view training in green jobs as a route out of poverty. And environmentalists say they are crucial to combating climate change. Academics have released lots of studies trumpeting the potential for green jobs. One report by the RAND Corporation and University of Tennessee found that if 25% of all American energy were produced from renewable sources by 2025, it would generate at least 5 million new green jobs. Great news, yes, but before delving deeper into the matter, a few questions remain: what is green-collar and how is it different from blue- and white-collar jobs?
Green collar jobs involve products and services that are environment-friendly. To put it simply, any organization that seeks to improve upon the environment is considered “green”; and if it employs individuals to that affect, then it has created green-collar jobs.
The Wikipedia explains green-collar jobs as; “A green-collar worker is a worker who is employed in the environmental sectors of the economy, or in the agricultural sector. Environmental green-collar workers satisfy the demand for green development. Generally, they implement environmentally conscious design, policy, and technology to improve conservation and sustainability.”
Or, simply think of it as blue-collar jobs with a sustainable edge.
Green-collar jobs are without a doubt increasing, as business, homeowners and industry shift toward an environment- friendly world. As shown in some reports, the numbers are expected to increase greatly in the next few decades, because state governments have mandated that even more energy come from alternative sources.
Many of the jobs are in the skilled trades such as manufacturing, construction, operation and maintenance, and installation. Most of which are middle-skill jobs. The job scope covers quite a wide range – some require more education than a high school diploma, some only need less than a four-year degree; some are a bridge to high-skill professional jobs or entrepreneurial opportunities; some are perfect entry level or transitional jobs for urban residents looking for a pathway out of poverty.
Green-collar jobs bring hope
Every day, about 135 million people go to work in the U.S. Imagine what would happen if millions of those jobs, plus new ones created for people who are currently unemployed, were in fields like renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and green building. It will be able to create an economy with millions of workers installing solar panels, weatherizing homes, brewing biofuels, building hybrid cars and erecting giant wind turbines. Clean Edge, which has been tracking the growth of clean-energy markets since 2000, reports a 40% increase in revenue growth for solar photovoltaics, wind, biofuels, and fuel cells in 2007 in the US, up from $55 billion in 2006 to $77.3 billion in 2007.
Associated Press reported recently, when 1,800 workers lost their jobs after a Maytag appliance factory and headquarters closed last year in the small town of Newton, Iowa, a wind turbine blade company saw opportunity – an available, skilled workforce in the middle of one of America’s hardiest wind energy production regions. TPI Composites Inc. is building a new plant there as the energy industry aims for a cleaner, more sustainable future. With proper incentives, thousands of “green-collar jobs” could be created; from ethanol production to wind turbines and solar panels, and all the maintenance and construction to support them, industry officials said.
The potential of green-collar jobs is obvious. According to one measure, the green sector is the 5th largest market sector in the U.S. And according to a U.N. report, by year 2030, the development of alternative energy should create more than 20 million jobs around the world in coming decades as governments adopt policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Right now, there’s a great opportunity not only to make America’s economy stronger by making it greener and more environmental-friendly, but to also make the Americans who live in poverty part of a revitalized middle class. Training is all that is needed now to turn 20th century blue-collar jobs into 21st-century green-collar jobs.
The movement to make American cities more sustainable, efficient and liveable is perhaps the greatest new engine for urban economic growth, innovation and job creation in many decades.
The many benefits of green-collar jobs
Green jobs create more opportunities for more jobs. For example, the construction of wind farms creates jobs for sheet metal workers, machinists and truck drivers; while efforts to increase the energy efficiency of buildings through retrofitting would need roofers, insulators, building inspectors and workers with many other skills; whereas with the expansion of mass transit systems there would be a need for civil engineers, electricians and dispatchers.
Green jobs don’t just mean the creation of new jobs. It can also mean there is a greater job security for people who already work in a variety of fields. In Tennessee, employment categories that now account for more than 326,000 jobs could see job growth or wage increases by putting global warming solutions to work. For example, if we continue to promote weather-proofing homes and retrofitting buildings to meet new energy-efficiency standards, we can expect to see a rise in the number of carpentry jobs – a category that now employs an estimated 12,000 Tennesseans who earn about $15 an hour1.
On top of that, green jobs can and must be also good jobs, which means jobs that pay a living wage and offer career advancements with training opportunities and a certain level of security. Research has indicated that taking steps to solving global warming can indeed produce good jobs that are broadly based throughout the economy.
Green-collar jobs also create more opportunities locally. For example, if you want to install solar panels into your home, you can’t just pick up your house, send it to China to have them installed, and have it shipped back. In addition, one of the major sources of manufacturing jobs, a sector that has been extensively off-shored, are components parts for wind towers and turbines. Due to their size and related high transportation costs, it is only wise and cost-effective if they are produced as near as possible to wind-farm sites. Cities and communities should begin thinking now about ways their green strategies can also create local jobs.
Urban and rural America have both been negatively impacted over the past decades by a failure to invest in their growth, and green-collar jobs provide an opportunity to reclaim these areas for the benefit of local residents. From new transit spending and energy audits in inner cities, to windmills and biomass in the nation’s heartland, green jobs mean a reinvestment in the communities’ hardest hit in recent decades.
And the most obvious benefit- green collar jobs help the environment. Green collar jobs are also helping the society to keep the environment safe, to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, eliminate toxins, and protect natural systems.
Green-collar workers are installing solar panels, retrofitting buildings to make them more efficient, constructing transit lines, refining waste oil into biodiesel, erecting wind farms, repairing hybrid cars, building green rooftops, planting trees, and so much more. Already today, there are already many green-collar jobs in America. But there could be so many more in the future, and worldwide, if the focus of the economic strategies is on growing a green economy.◊
1 Internet resource: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/jun/24/guest-column-green-collar-jobs-are-clearchoice/
Others Ref: Green-Collar Jobs in America Cities: Building Pathways Out of Poverty and Careers in the Clean
Energy Economy. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/03/green_collar_jobs.html
