Imagine yourself a writer, employed by a website devoted to reporting about renewable energy, energy efficiency, conservation and the environment – would you consider yourself a green-collar worker? Should you happen to be a computer programmer working for a software company that leads the world in implementing energy saving measures, would you qualify as a green collar worker? If your job is to plant trees in a park, are you a green collar worker? If you do not have a job, and would want a green one, what’s out there for you?

Industry experts and economists have recently coined a new category of work, the continuous creation of which is supposedly the key to attaining both sustainability and prosperity: the green job. Naturally, a person employed by a solar panel or electric car manufacturer can be easily identified as having a green job, and would not need an operating definition to assure himself that his work benefits the environment, since the employers are straight-out under the renewables sector. For those who might have asked similar questions as stated above, however, perhaps the White House adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Van Jones could clear out the gray.

In his PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) interview last May, Jones defined a green-collar job as “a blue collar job upgraded to better respect the environment.” I suppose that would disqualify both the writer and the programmer (since neither are blue-collar jobs) but it would qualify the tree-planter. Yet another definition might actually encompass all three jobs. Apollo Alliance’s Phil Angelides defines a green job as something that “has to pay decent wages and benefits that can support a family... has to be part of a real career path, with upward mobility. And ... needs to reduce waste and pollution and benefit the environment.” TIME further reported Angelides’ group to have defined a green job as basically any job “that helps put America on the path to a cleaner, more energy efficient future,” and that it would include jobs in public transport, green building, and energy efficiency, as long as “what you’re making is more or less green.” Replace “America” with “the world” or “Earth” and the definition could work universally.

Perhaps an authoritative definition that must also be considered is the one stated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in its September 2008 report, Green Jobs: Towards decent work in a sustainable, low carbon world. According to the report, a green job is “work in agricultural, manufacturing, research and development (R&D), administrative, and service activities that contribute substantially to preserving or restoring environmental quality.” The report also states that “specifically, but not exclusively” jobs that help protect ecosystems and biodiversity, reduce energy, materials, and water consumption through high efficiency strategies, de-carbonize the economy, and minimize or avoid the generation of all forms of waste and pollution, are all green jobs. The UN is quick in qualifying its definition, though, to include only those jobs that are ‘decent’ – those that offer adequate wages, safe working conditions, job security, career prospects, and workers’ rights – echoed by Angelides’ definition which stressed ‘decent wages and benefits’ and ‘upward mobility’. Thus, as the UN put it, a job in an electronics recycling facility or a biofuel plant that exposes its workers to hazardous substances cannot be called green.

Defining a green-collar or green job becomes somewhat a necessity especially in light of national subsidies being poured out to support the renewables, energy efficiency, and environment sectors. The Christian Science Monitor just last week pointed out that inconsistencies in definition, particularly in the US, may result to the $85 million stimulus fund being diverted in the wrong directions. With the ‘green-ness’ of nuclear or corn-based ethanol being put to question by their critics, stimulus aid to generate jobs in the said areas may be deemed questionable, too. The Christian Science Monitor challenges the US president to “take the gray out of defining the green in green jobs” for better implementation of the stimulus program.

Despite the absence of an official definition, which is something that might not even be settled even after the last cent of the stimulus fund has been spent, studies and reports that state the most profitable and available green jobs continue to come out. The PBS identified last May the top five green-collar jobs in the US that are “key to reviving (the) economy and curbing climate change” and these are: energy auditor, insulation installer, rail track layer, iron and steel worker, and recycling center operator. Energy auditors and insulation installers are in demand for the retrofitting that energy efficiency regulations require. Rail track layers would be in demand for the high speed rails that trains and low-emission vehicles would need. More iron and steel workers would be employed by more wind turbine and solar panel companies that are expected to emerge. Lastly, recycling center operators would be needed as more communities begin implementing sustainable measures in water treatment and public utilities. The American Solar Energy Society projects 37 million jobs from renewable energy and energy efficiency by 2030, and reports that in 2007, more than nine million jobs and $1,045 billion in revenue have been generated by the said sectors. The said 2007 figure alone already exceeds the UNEP figure for the world in 2006, which is at 2,332,000-plus estimated jobs from all renewables combined. As other countries follow the US’s stimulus lead, higher figures can be expected for green jobs in the coming years.

As Jones told PBS, “everything that is good for the environment is a job,” even planting trees in this industrial age. Jones might have not made the remark to define “green collar,” but the sense is obvious – sustainability, which can always be measured based on results. Perhaps the best way that subjectivity can be avoided in the tricky attempt to define a green job is by referring to the figures or simply asking the questions that concern results. How much energy does your software company actually save? How much of what you write on green get people to react or act? In the face of debate, they can be the parameters of a definition.


- Jen Balboa