A green-collar worker is a worker who is employed in an environmental sector of the economy. Environmental green-collar workers (or green jobs) satisfy the demand for green development. Generally, they implement environmentally conscious design, policy, and technology to improve conservation and sustainability. Formal environmental regulations as well as informal social expectations are pushing many firms to seek professionals with expertise with environmental, energy efficiency, and clean renewable energy issues. They often seek to make their output more sustainable, and thus more favorable to public opinion, governmental regulation, and the Earth's ecology. Green collar workers include professionals such as conservation movement workers, environmental consultants, council environmental services/waste management/recycling managers/officers, environmental or biological systems engineers, green building architects, landscape architects, holistic passive solar building designers, solar energy and wind energy engineers and installers, nuclear engineers, green vehicle engineers, "green business" owners, green vehicle, organic farmers, environmental lawyers, ecology educators, and ecotechnology workers, and sales staff working with these services or products. Green collar workers also include vocational or trade-level workers: electricians who install solar panels, plumbers who install solar water heaters, recycling centre/MRF attendants, process managers and collectors, construction workers who build energy-efficient green buildings and wind power farms, construction workers who weatherize buildings to make them more energy efficient, or other workers involved in clean, renewable, sustainable future energy development. There is a growing movement to incorporate social responsibility within the green industries. A sustainable green economy simultaneously values the importance of natural resources and inclusive, equitable, and healthy opportunities for all communities. In the context of the 2008 financial crisis, many experts now argue that a massive push to develop renewable sources of energy could create millions of new jobs and help the economy recover while simultaneously improving the environment, increasing labour conditions in poor economies, and strengthening energy and food security.
Notable uses Of or pertaining to both employment and the environment or environmentalism. 1976, Patrick Heffernan, "Jobs for the Environment — The Coming Green Collar Revolution", in Jobs and Prices in the West Coast Region: Hearing before the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, Ninety-Fourth Congress, Second Session, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 134, 1997, Geoff Mulgan, Perri 6 [sic] et al., The British Spring: A Manifesto for the Election After Next, Demos, page 26, The United States, Canada, Germany, and Denmark are all generating hundreds of thousands of new 'green collar' jobs, especially for young people, achieving remarkable reductions in energy, water, waste disposal and materials costs. 2001, Diane Warburton and Ian Christie, From Here to Sustainability: Politics in the Real World, Earthscan, page 75, Studies for the UK suggest that the more than 100,000 existing 'green collar' workers in environmental occupations could be joined by many thousands more, both in the private sector and in the 'social economy' of community enterprises. 2007, U.S. Green Jobs Act 2007, U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act - Title X: "Green Jobs - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Worker Training Program" (signed into law 2007-12-19) 2008, during the U.S. Presidential Campaign, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama specifically promised more green collar jobs, and green vehicle bonds. Other candidates' energy policy of the United States recommendations all included increased green development, which should accelerate the creation of millions of new green jobs. 2008, January 22 U.S. Federal Reserve Board unprecedented mid-term 3/4% interest rate cut to soon be followed by other economic stimulus to avoid recession and support new job development in green building construction, remodeling/weatherization, transportation (green vehicles) and green manufacturing industry sectors. Widespread bipartisan, Administration and Congressional support for immediate economic stimulus funding, with a bias toward increasing sustainable green-collar jobs. Of or pertaining to rural, agricultural employment; often contrasted with urban blue-collar employment. 1983, U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Forestry, Water Resources, and Environment, Cultivation of Marihuana in National Forests: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Forestry, Water Resources, and Environment, […], U.S. Government Printing Office, page 32, American [marijuana] growers, who have more recently become known as America's "green-collar" workers because of the bright green color of their product, […] 2004, Martin Heidenreich et al., Regional Innovation Systems: The Role of Governances in a Globalized World, Routledge UK, page 394,
Al Gore Repower America
Al Gore states that economists across the spectrum — including Martin Feldstein and Lawrence Summers — agree that large and rapid investments in a jobs-intensive infrastructure initiative is the best way to revive the economy in a quick and sustainable way.
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