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Green Jobs and Careers

There is now a virtual avalanche of reports by various agencies, governments, business, unions, environmental groups, and consultancies on the technical and economic implications of climate change as well as the consequences of mitigation and adaptation strategies. Many declaim a future of green jobs—but few present specifics. This is no accident. There are still huge gaps in our knowledge and available data, especially as they pertain to the developing world.

Green jobs in key economic sectors (renewable energy, buildings and construction, transportation, basic industry, agriculture, and forestry) and presents estimates for future green employment. The pace of green job creation is likely to accelerate in the years ahead. A global transition to a low-carbon and sustainable economy can create large numbers of green jobs across many sectors of the economy, and indeed can become an engine of development. Current green job creation is taking place in both the rich countries and in some of the major developing economies.

Green jobs and careers are generally defined as work in agricultural, manufacturing, research and development (R&D), administrative, and service activities that contribute substantially to preserving or restoring environmental quality. Specifically, but not exclusively, this includes jobs that help to protect ecosystems and biodiversity; reduce energy, materials, and water consumption through high- efficiency strategies; de-carbonize the economy; and minimize or altogether avoid generation of all forms of waste and pollution.

From a broad conceptual perspective, employment will be affected in at least four ways as the economy is oriented toward greater sustainability:
• First, in some cases, additional jobs will be created—as in the manufacturing of pollution-control devices added to existing production equipment.
• Second, some employment will be substituted—as in shifting from fossil fuels to renewables, or from truck manufacturing to rail car manufacturing, or from landfilling and waste incineration to recycling.
• Third, certain jobs may be eliminated without direct replacement—as when packaging materials are discouraged or banned and their production is discontinued.
• Fourth, it would appear that many existing jobs (especially such as plumbers, electricians, metal workers, and construction workers) will simply be transformed and redefined as day-to-day skill sets, work methods, and profiles are greened.

Executive Summary 

Green jobs span a wide array of skills, educational backgrounds, and occupational profiles. This is especially true with regard to so-called indirect jobs—those in supplier industries. Even for new industries like wind and solar power, supply chains consist largely of very traditional industries. For instance, large amounts of steel are incorporated into a wind turbine tower.

Technological and systemic choices offer varying degrees of environmental benefit and different types of green employment. Pollution prevention has different implications than pollution control, as does climate mitigation compared with adaptation, efficient buildings vis-à-vis retrofits, or public transit versus fuel-efficient automobiles. These choices suggest that there are “shades of green” in employment: some are more far-reaching and transformational than others.

Greater efficiency in the use of energy, water, and materials is a core objective. The critical question is where to draw the line between efficient and inefficient practices. A low threshold will define a greater number of jobs as green, but may yield an illusion of progress. In light of the need to dramatically reduce humanity’s environmental footprint, the bar needs to be set high: best available technology and best practices internationally will need to be replicated and adopted as much as possible. And, given technological progress and the urgent need for improvement, the dividing line between efficient and inefficient must rise over time. Seen in this context, “green jobs” is a relative and highly dynamic concept.

A successful strategy to green the economy involves environmental and social full-cost pricing of energy and materials inputs, in order to discourage unsustainable patterns of production and consumption. In general, such a strategy is diametrically opposite to one where companies compete on price, not quality; externalize social and environmental costs; and seek out the cheapest inputs of materials and labor. A green economy is an economy that values nature and people and creates decent, well-paying jobs.

Green jobs need to be decent work, i.e. good jobs which offer adequate wages, safe working conditions, job security, reasonable career prospects, and worker rights. People’s livelihoods and sense of dignity are bound up tightly with their jobs. A job that is exploitative, harmful, fails to pay a living wage, and thus condemns workers to a life of poverty can hardly be hailed as green. There are today millions of jobs in sectors that are nominally in support of environmental goals—such as the electronics recycling industry in Asia, or biofuel feedstock plantations in Latin America, for instance—but whose day-to-day reality is characterized by extremely poor practices, exposing workers to hazardous substances or denying them the freedom of association.

As the move toward a low-carbon and more sustainable economy gathers momentum, growing numbers of green jobs will be created. Although winners are likely to far outnumber losers, some workers may be hurt in the economic restructuring toward sustainability. Companies and regions that become leaders in green innovation, design, and technology development are more likely to retain and create new green jobs. But workers and communities dependent on mining, fossil fuels, and smokestack industries—or on companies that are slow to rise to the environmental challenge—will confront a substantial challenge to diversify their economies. Public policy can and should seek to minimize disparities among putative winners and losers that arise in the transition to a green economy, and avoid these distinctions becoming permanent features.