Buzzword: Green Collar

What it means. "Green collar" seems to have first appeared in a 1992 environmental career guide that was reviewed in American Forests magazine. The introduction was called 'Where the green-collar jobs are in business, government and citizen groups," says Tom Pitoniak, an associate editor at Merriman-Webster and a keen follower of the term's adoption and evolution.

To green-workforce consultant/author Jim Cassio, a "green collar" job focuses on sustainability and/or the preservation of the environment and is defined by the nature of the job or the employer. "If you're a solar panel installer, then it's obviously a green job; if you're a mail-room clerk, then it depends on if the employer is green company," says Cassio.

Why the buzz? Higher energy costs are making the folks who install wind, solar, or geothermal energy systems a bit busier these days. Like most green-collar companies, they're swamped with work and rushing to make the most out of the long summer hours even as others scurry for jobs.

"I'd say my business is up 100 percent over last year," says Craig Mann of Ralph Mann & Sons, an Ansonia, Connecticut-based company that specializes in installing ground-source heat-pump heating, cooling, and hot-water systems.

The trend is benefiting a wide swath of the American populace. Some owners of alternative-energy companies are hiring construction and manufacturing workers idled by the housing-boom bust. The green sector is also benefiting recent graduates, middle-aged career changers, and others with solid work and solid wages.

"I heard at one conference that starting pay for a solar panel installer was ranging from $14 to $22 an hour, depending on the area," says Karen Christopher of the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners, which oversees certification classes for solar-energy installers across the U.S. "I can see solar bringing the middle class back to life," adds Christopher. "I've talked to people at energy fairs and they're trying to start up programs with disadvantaged youth in places like New Orleans and New York. And California is really exploding with jobs that can hire people from the community college levels."

The solar industry isn't the only one having a busy year—installers of installers of "earth-energy" systems are also reporting heightened interest.

"We estimate that the amount of people taking our accreditation classes has tripled," says Gail Ezepek of of the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association. "We get so busy fielding calls from prospective customers and contractors seeking accreditation that we don't have time to do anything else."

"There's no doubt that green-collar jobs are growing," adds Cassio. "But a lot of the jobs fall through the cracks because they are jobs that were not here a few years ago. It takes a few years for them to enter the occupational classification system so the government can count them properly."

A government spokesman agrees. "There is no official 'green-collar' worker definition just as there isn't for other commonly cited terms, such as white collar and 'blue collar," says Bureau of Labor Statistics spokesman Gary Steinberg. "One sees green collar and green jobs increasingly used in public discourse, but because of the criteria limitations discussed above, we cannot at this time make any official assessments about the extent of such employment or its impacts on the overall economy."

"We estimate there are about 60,000 solar-energy jobs in the U.S. today and that with current market growth we could add more than 55,000 jobs by 2015," says Monique Hanis, director of communications for the Solar Energy Industry Association.

But government is helping define the green-collar sector as it subsidizes it. The California State Legislature is considering bill SB1672, which would provide $2.25 billion to local businesses, schools, and associations for training and financing of clean-technology, renewable-energy, and energy-efficiency projects. "We do not use the term 'green job' in the bill," says Jim Evans, a spokesman for the bill's sponsor, California State Senator Darrell Steinberg. "But the categories of funded projects give a good idea of what falls under the definition."

"I think the term 'green' is in a gray area in today's corporate and advertising environment," Pitoniak adds. "It's a result of greenwashing and the natural susceptibility to fuzziness in the English language for rhetorical or political purposes. It's obviously appealing to label yourself as green these days; even an ad for Dow Chemical is going to have trees on it. But with the survival of the planet in the balance, the importance of knowing what is truly green is important."—Gian Trotta

Essential information: Find out how you can make both your home (especially your kitchen and appliances) and vehicle greener. To see examples of green companies in action, review our ratings of socially responsible investment companies and our report on the winners of the latest High Performance Building Awards.

Comments

[Michelle]

Too bad folks are loosing interest in conserving energy and saving the environment now that oil prices have declined.