Written for an Advanced Reporting course in the Spring of 2009. We were assigned to follow a beat of our choosing and write an article associated with our beat at the end of the semester. I chose the environmental beat and wrote about the influx of green jobs. Never published.
One year ago, green jobs were not considered an employment option for many. Green jobs were seen as a trendy political idea that was never followed through with. Now with an unstable economy and a troubling job market, more blue and white collar workers are taking green jobs more seriously.
The term “green” jobs is still being used loosely but its popularity is rising in the environmental sector. Presidential candidates John Edwards, and Hilary Clinton have spoken about the importance of green jobs in the past and now the Obama Administration is on board with creating a stable economy and a sustainable environment through green jobs. The administration passed the stimulus bill in February which included monetary support for green jobs
On June 24, 2008, then Senator Barack Obama said, “A green, renewable-energy economy isn't some pie-in-the-sky, far-off future. It is now. It is creating jobs now.”
The Sierra Club, a grassroots organization to improve the environment, is embracing a greener job market with the Green Jobs for America Campaign. According to the campaign green jobs are “Simply put, it’s work that helps us build the clean energy economy. And there are millions to be had, if our leaders stop making bad choices and start investing in energy independence.”
“Something that can create jobs that the product of the labor is contributing to the creation of a clean energy economy is a win-win,” said Special Assistant for the Energy Opportunity Team at the Center for American Progress, Sean Pool. “Just any old job, building an office building is a job, great, they are paying you but…not only is someone employed but the product of their labor is something we desperately need for the sustainable environment.”
“What makes these entirely familiar occupations ‘green jobs’ is that the people working in them are contributing their everyday labors toward building a green economy,” according to the June Report of “Job Opportunities for the Green Economy: A State-by-State Picture of Occupations that Gain from Green Investments.” “We therefore consider and refer to the strategies examined in this report as green investments, in addition to global warming solutions.”
According to an article written by Dona DeZube, the Monster Finance Careers Expert for job search agent Monster.com, the solution for temporary or permanent unemployment is green.
“Whether you’re currently employed or out of work and looking for a stable job in a new field, stimulus spending on green initiatives could create your next position” DeZube wrote in the article titled, “Stimulus to Fund Thousands of New, Green Jobs.”
Some think that this giant push towards green jobs is due to President Obama’s Stimulus package.
According to recovery.gov, a web site created to educate visitors on the provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act said the act, “specifically includes $7.22 billion for projects and programs administered by EPA. These programs will protect and promote both ‘green’ jobs and a healthier environment.”
“I certainly think there’s lots in the stimulus bill that’s going to try anyway to stimulate green collar jobs and open up new sectors in the energy field,” Paul Wapner, Associate Professor and Director of the Global Environmental Politics program in the School of International Service at American University, said. “Big questions are going to be whether you can monitor this money and watch where it goes.”
This trend isn’t a new one. A year ago, on March 26, 2008, Steven Greenhouse, a reporter for the New York Times wrote “Millions of Jobs of a Different Collar,” an article discussing the wave of “green collar jobs” and how while some are skeptical, some presidential candidates were promising an increase. The concerns then were that the jobs will not have the “staying power” to push through the economic struggles and that green jobs might not pay as much as the jobs they are replacing making them undesirable.
“There have been far more articles pointing to the idea that green jobs are if not as evenly distributed between high and low paying jobs, they are equal or even more high paying jobs,” Pool said. “These jobs are generally more stable and more secure just as high paying as jobs available with a normal average non-green job.”
Some skeptics have noted necessary training for “green” jobs as a downside for those seeking employment but opportunities range from entry-level green jobs working with energy efficiency, construction and renovation jobs, landscape architects, landscape designers, grounds and greenhouse maintenance workers, contractors, managers, gardening, plant studies, lawn care, and many others.
Some of the attention to green jobs can be attributed to the slump in the job market and a hike in unemployment rates. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics web site, “Forty-nine states and the
The founder of Green for All, an organization that advocates for job creation and training in a green economy, Van Jones was appointed as a special advisor for green jobs within the White House's Council on Environmental Quality in the Obama Administration in March.
There are big goals including turning around the unemployment rate and creating an influx to greener jobs to create effect on the job market and later the economy and how they are achieved is still in the works.
A report entitled, “Green Recovery – A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy” put out by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts under the commission by the Center for American Progress, outlines a “green economy recovery program” including how this job creation can occur.
“By accelerating the implementation of these polices, we address our immediate need to boost a struggling economy and jumpstart our long-term transformation to a low-carbon economy. This green economic recovery program would spend $100 billion dollars over two years in six green infrastructure investment areas,” the report detailed.
“There is rising unemployment, 9 percent, at the same time we have so much work that needs to get done and we really need to do a lot to change our economy to something more sustainable,” Pool said. “The time we have to do that is getting lesser and lesser.”
The report also outlines how this green recovery plan can directly result in more jobs.
“There are three sources of job creation associated with any expansion of spending—direct, indirect, and induced effects,” the report stated. “We estimate…from spending $100 billion in public funds in a combination of our six green investment areas… the number [of jobs created is] 935,000 million direct jobs, 586,000 indirect jobs, and 496,000 induced jobs, for a total of about 2 million total jobs created.”
While this seems like a large number of jobs earned, the jobs lost have been great as well. The report noted that, “As of July 2008, there were 8.8 million people officially unemployed within the U.S. labor force of 154.6 million, producing an official unemployment rate of 5.7 percent, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
A year ago, doubters of green jobs thought it was another empty campaign promise, but with the new administration, the idea seems to have stuck as more than just a temporary trend to environmentalists.
“Some skeptics argue that the phrase ‘green jobs’ is a little more than a trendy term for politicians to bandy about,” Greenhouse wrote a year ago, but is that still the case? After the storm of the 2009 presidential election has cleared, can the nation embrace green jobs as an option?
“I think it is already changing in a sense that Obama clearly seems to understand what’s at stake,” Professor Wapner said. “He’s looking at the economic crisis as an opportunity to move ahead on energy, renewable energy, and these issues are much more profound than any human being is possible of addressing and understanding.”
“The economy has become this issue that we talk about. What has become a low hum is now resonating with people. Especially now when people are losing their jobs,” Pool said. “Long run is every job will be a green job one day because we’re going to transition to a more sustainable environment and more people will be working for companies and services that will help our environment and not destroy it.”
