The Washington Post has a good article yesterday on the explosion in the use of the term "green-collar" jobs. You will no doubt be hearing much more of this term since it is a favorite of Clinton and Edwards; Me and the Center for American Progress are on the bandwagon; and even the super trendspotting Tom Friedman has glommed onto it.
No, it's not a perfect term. G-C jobs -- my effort to coin the ultimate eco-buzzword -- won't get you a green uniform and green power-ring like the Green Lantern Corps, although you will, coincidentally enough, be promoting green power. As the Post notes:
... while white-collar and blue-collar bring distinctive images to mind -- the mutual fund manager screaming into his BlackBerry, the coal miner coming home, coughing from a long day -- such iconic imagery is hard to find with the green-collar worker.
Still, the term, popularized by social activists like Van Jones of the Ella Baker Center, does have a powerful ring to it [sorry about that], so I expect it will be around for a while. I will try to limit use to, say, once a month.
This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
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Comments
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javaearth Posted 3:42 am
24 Jan 2008
Can someone help me find a good MBA online program that focus on the environment?
Green jobs! Me want one!
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GreenEngineer Posted 3:47 am
24 Jan 2008
I think I hear the term used more often in the blue-collar context, largely because of the connection to the Ella Baker center and similar programs for job training for the disadvantaged. But I've heard it used for white collar positions as well. I think it's interesting, and probably a good sign, that it eliminates that distinction.
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GreenEngineer Posted 3:53 am
24 Jan 2008
A google search suggests that there are other programs cropping up elsewhere, but I think they are brick-and-mortar schools, not online ones.
Incidentally, if you're looking for entry into the green job market as an employee (rather than an entrepreneur), I suggest either contracting (solar installation and/or energy retrofits) if that's your background, or energy efficiency engineering if you've got the background for that. Lots of opportunities both places.
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Matt G Posted 3:59 am
24 Jan 2008
Lime collar jobs v. Teal collar jobs.
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Sean Casten Posted 4:04 am
24 Jan 2008
Worse, we have a history of introducing good sounding but vague environmental terms that get in the way of meaningful action. What is renewable energy? What is sustainability? What is social responsibility? What is a pollution control device, for that matter? And if someone tells you "I have a job selling sustainable renewable energy in a socially responsible pollution control company" do you find that you have more or less clarity about their job? Personally, I'd assume they're using words to avoid saying what they really do!
Consider: Is the guy who works on the mfg line building Priuses a green collar employee? If he gets moved to the Tundra line, does he still have useful skills? How about the banker who loans money to build ethanol plants? The recidivist entrepreneur who starts an energy efficiency company from the money he earned from his last venture in lead-based Chinese toys? And if we can't answer those questions, then why do we need the phrase?
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wiscidea Posted 4:48 am
24 Jan 2008
I help produce (1) GMOs that reduce the use of agricultural fungicides and increase productivity, protecting the environment from dangerous pollution and reducing the amount of land that has to be used for growing food and (2) GMOs that produce enzymes that can replace harmful industrial processes, lowering the temperature (and energy input) for chemical reactions and minimizing harmful inputs and by-products.
But I suspect 90% of the visitor's to this website do not consider it green-collar.
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GreenEngineer Posted 5:40 am
24 Jan 2008
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liambossi Posted 6:23 am
24 Jan 2008
http://beyondgreypinstripes.org
Not sure if they cover online programs, but a good source of info nevertheless. Good luck!
Sorry, to ask here, but I have tried many different places. I am hoping to change my career into a "green collar" job!
Can someone help me find a good MBA online program that focus on the environment?
Green jobs! Me want one!
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wiscidea Posted 6:52 am
24 Jan 2008
Won't labeling some jobs white-collar, others blue-collar, and then a bunch green-collar set up a situation that encourages conflict and suggest that people have to choose between traditional white- or blue-collar jobs and those new-fangled green-collar jobs? For example, Republicans might start trying to draw white-collar workers over to their side and ridicule green-collar workers as a bunch of liberals who threaten the free market. I think it is asking for trouble.
Furthermore, setting up this imaginary distinction might even encourage people to simply accept that certain jobs will never be environmentally friendy, even if there is a real possiblity of finding ways to do so, and not even try to improve the situation.
We should really be trying to find ways to green ALL jobs. One can be a green office worker or a green assembly line worker.
Perhaps a few official Grist contributors might start a series... CAN THIS JOB BE GREENED? It would produce some interesting threads of discussion.
Peace.
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Tim Hurst Posted 2:53 pm
24 Jan 2008
Wiscidea has hit the (recycled)nail on the head with this one. Just as people have opportunities to green their lifestyle, they also have opportunities to green their collars.
Sean Casten, do you honestly find 'value' in the terms white collar and blue collar? If I told you that I have a blue collar job, what then, do you really know about me? What do you know about my education and my salary? What do you know about my politics or what I actually do at work?
Do you know for certain that some poor shmuck sitting in a crappy cubicle in Anycity, USA, pushing paper from 8:30-5 is making any more money than me, or has a better education? Hardly. Blue collar and white collar means something to you because you have been socialized to believe it means something. You believe things about blue collars just as you believe things about white ones. But because you believe them, certainly does not mean your beliefs are accurate. Personally, the terms 'white collar' and 'blue collar' don't mean s#!t.
Are there really only two kinds of jobs?
Tim Hurst
ecopolitology.org
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CarolMcClelland Posted 2:55 pm
24 Jan 2008
Careers that have a direct impact on the environment
Careers in renewable energy and natural resource management
Green service/product professions.
Careers that focus on setting policy, educating the public about green behaviors, and marketing and selling green services and products.
Some industries are further along in their green evolution. Some are ready and willing to hire while others are in an R&D mode.
Based on my research, green collar jobs are trade jobs that contribute to the green economy - solar installers, green building carpenters, and even someone on the Prius assembly line.
Not all green jobs are green collar jobs however.
There are also green professional jobs, although a term hasn't yet been coined to cover this category. These jobs aren't just for environmental managers and engineers. Lawyers, marketers, salespeople, writers, managers, project managers, etc can all find a way to contribute to the green economy.
I consider anyone with a green collar job or a green professional position to have a green career.
Carol McClelland, PhD
Founder and Managing Editor of Green Career Central
http://www.greencareercentral.com
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Sean Casten Posted 3:20 am
25 Jan 2008
My problem with the term is (I think) precisely your beef with your presumption that I know something about someone's worth as a human being based on their blue or white collar as the case may be. I don't - but I do know something about how they get paid, and the type of work they probably do. But "green collar" asks me to judge you as a person independent of the details, and the fact that it is a "good" judgment doesn't make it any less judgmental. If I tell you that you should invest in my company because it's socially responsible, you might reasonably ask you to tell you what exactly my company does rather than just dress it up in evasive buzz words. Why shouldn't we ask for the same rigor on those who claim to don green collars?
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spaceshaper Posted 7:35 am
25 Jan 2008
On the other hand, it's a spin-doctor's dream, a term as clearly ripe for abuse, posturing and argumentation as any other green-prefix phrase.
And clearly, if building a Prius is to be designated a green-collar job, then the phrase is already devoid of any significant meaning.
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
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David Roberts Posted 8:06 am
25 Jan 2008
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/1/24/145628/140
The way I think about it (and I'm not sure how common this is), green collar is a variant on blue collar -- that is to say, it's a job available to those with the right vocational skills; doesn't require a college degree; is (or should be) unionized and pays a living wage. As Van and others use it, there's a definite class connotation -- these are jobs opened up to a class of people that have been screwed by the globalized economy, shut out of decent jobs, stuck on a treadmill of debt and insecurity. They are skilled physical labor jobs, retrofiting infrastructure to be more green and energy efficient.
There's still plenty of vagueness within those confines, but the term is not completely fuzzy and values-based.
grist.org
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Sean Casten Posted 8:11 am
25 Jan 2008
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Dan Detroit Posted 12:03 pm
24 Feb 2008
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Kirby Posted 6:59 am
28 Aug 2008
Here's the article of a green collar grant proposal in Chicago in partnership with the Chicago Green Exchange building development.
Would be awesome to see our new president jump on the bandwagon too (with real dollars in addition to rhetoric)!
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