GREEN-COLLAR JOBS
PATHWAYS OUT OF POVERTY, CAREERS IN THE CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY
Pre-release excerpts from a forthcoming publication by the Apollo Alliance and its partners.
Prepared for the US Conference of Mayors Climate Summit in Seattle, Nov. 1-, 2007.
GUIDANCE FOR LOCAL GREEN-COLLAR JOBS EFFORTS
Green-Collar Jobs – A Definition
Green-collar jobs are good paying, career track jobs that contribute significantly to preserving or
enhancing environmental quality. The Apollo Alliance focuses on creating green-collar jobs in
the industries that make up the clean energy economy—energy efficiency, renewable energy, and
alternative transportation and fuels. Like blue-collar jobs, green collar jobs range from low-skill,
entry level positions to high-skill, higher-paid jobs, and include opportunities for advancement in
both skills and wages. Green-collar jobs also tend to be local jobs because they focus on
transforming the immediate natural and built environment—retrofitting buildings, installing solar
panels, constructing transit lines, growing energy crops, etc. Every green-collar job advances
two simultaneous and complementary goals: improving the environment and rebuilding a strong
American middle class.
Examples abound. One study of green-collar jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area identifies 22
specific sectors ranging from energy conservation to solar installation to biofuels production. 1
Within these industries, green-collar work includes building, construction, assembly, installation,
operation, maintenance, transportation, and manufacturing. The recent publication “Community
Jobs in the Green Economy” by the Apollo Alliance and Urban Habitat describes many of these
jobs in detail.2
Because the phrase “green collar job” has been bandied about so much lately, it is important to
emphasize once again what we at the Apollo Alliance mean – or rather, what we do not mean –
when we use this term. Put simply, if a job improves the environment, but doesn’t help build a
strong middle class or provide career ladders to move low-income workers into higher-skilled
occupations, it is not a green-collar job. These are not green collar jobs: day laborers installing
solar panels without job security or proper training, minimum wage workers toiling in a clean
tech manufacturing facility without healthcare or the right to organize, youth pushing brooms at
See “Green Collar Jobs” by Raquel Pinderhughes at: http://urbanhabitat.org/node/528
See “Community Jobs in the Green Economy” by Apollo Alliance and Urban Habitat at:
http://home.apolloalliance.org/community-jobs-report/
1
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a green building site without training or opportunity for advancement. The green economy
cannot be built with solar sweat shops, or Wal-Mart wind farms. A real green-collar job must
provide opportunities for advancement along a career track of increasing technical skills and
compensation.3
Creating Green-Collar Jobs and Opportunity in Your City
To create green-collar jobs, cities must work on several levels, combining investments and
programs in economic and workforce development. The following steps are essential to build a
robust local green-collar jobs program:
1. Enact policies to drive investment into green a economic activity, which in turn generates
demand for local green-collar workers.
2. Back up green economic development strategies with workforce investments. Train a
top-notch green-collar workforce that will fuel growth and attract new business.
3. Extend job opportunities to marginalized communities. Provide green pathways out of
poverty by focusing on recruitment, job readiness, job training, and job placement for
low-income residents.
Throughout this process, cities must remember that job training without job creation is a losing
proposition. The demand-side component is essential. We can’t “job train” our way to a clean
energy economy.
Creating Green-Collar Jobs and Opportunity in the New Energy Economy
We should also note that, as with “blue collar jobs,” the term “green-collar jobs” is not meant to include
professional positions, like architect, engineer, or banker – though there are obviously green variations of these
occupations.
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1. Enact Policies and Investments to Generate Demand for Green-Collar Workers
The right policy and public investment can create job opportunities in a variety of clean energy
industries, including energy-efficient building, construction, and retrofits; renewable electric
power; manufacturing; smart growth and transit infrastructure; bio-fuels production and
distribution; and others.
Policy and Investments
Cities have numerous options when it comes to enacting policies and programs to create markets
for green industry, or to drive investment into emerging green sectors of the local economy. The
Apollo Alliance’s “New Energy for Cities” report describes many of these policies, and points to
examples from cities across the country.4 What most of these policies have in common is that
they 1) help create a market for green products and services, 2) provide some support to local
firms to supply the market in a way that creates new jobs, and 3) connect these economic
development dollars directly to workforce development programs that provide new job
opportunities and pathways out of poverty for local residents.
For example, the Los Angeles Apollo Alliance is working with the city to promote a Green
Building Initiative, which would invest public money in auditing and retrofitting government
buildings to make them more energy efficient. The retrofits will generate entry-level jobs and
work experience for graduates of a linked workforce training program, funded through similar
public investment. The energy savings from the project will pay back the investment over time,
making this project fiscally responsible as well as environmentally and economically sound.
Leveraging Ongoing Efforts
The right policy and investment program for your city may be obvious – in fact, it may already
be in motion, and need only to be connected to green-collar workforce programs and job
opportunities. In Portland, Oregon, for example, members of the Apollo Alliance helped insert
language on green job pathways out of poverty into a long-planned Multnomah County RFP for
what will be Oregon’s largest solar installation.5 In Washington DC, the Center for American
Progress has helped develop a mayoral initiative on green-collar jobs. That initiative is focusing
on opportunities for developing small businesses and new demand for green-collar labor being
created by several existing policies, including 1) the new Green Building Law, 2) potential
responses to storm water management policies, 3) forthcoming comprehensive energy policies,
4) lead paint abatement, 5) river restoration, and 6) a city-wide commitment to reducing carbon
emissions to fight climate change.6
Assess Trends and Opportunities
In other cases, you may want to do some up-front analysis of local green economic development
opportunities and related workforce development programs. The Economic Roundtable did a
See “New Energy for Cities” by the Apollo Alliance at: http://www.apolloalliance.org/state_and_local/
It is also worth noting that the county requires contractors to pay prevailing wages. See the entire RFP here:
http://www2.co.multnomah.or.us/County_Management/CPCA/current%20bids/9364p.pdf
6
For more on the DC initiative see: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/09/green_jobs.html
4
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study like this for Los Angeles called “Job’s in L.A.’s Green Technology Sector.”7 One of the
key findings of this report was that many existing firms in the L.A. region could make relatively
small changes in their current practices in order to tap into new and emerging green markets.
Support Existing Businesses
You may also be able to grow green-collar jobs in your region by helping local firms become
suppliers to markets for green products and services. Often a small change can connect existing
local businesses to large and robust green markets. Any city effort to identify and exploit these
opportunities should also consider the firms that have the potential to contribute most to the local
green-collar economy – those that pay well, have high job growth potential, and are strong
contributors to local economy. Economic development supports for local firms must link to job
standards and entry-level job opportunities in order to result in green-collar jobs.
Whether you decide to focus on existing firms or new firms, your local government can create
green-collar job opportunities by 1) identifying green economic sectors poised for growth in your
area, 2) establishing policies, making investments, and providing strategic incentives to grow the
sector, and 3) connecting all your economic development efforts to parallel workforce
development investments and programs.
2. Prepare A Green-Collar Workforce
Preparing a local green-collar workforce is an integral part of extending job opportunities to your
city’s residents and to attracting the businesses that create the jobs. A nimble and well-resourced
workforce development system is a huge green economic development asset. In fact, the
availability of a skilled workforce may be one of the biggest challenges facing the growing green
economy. A 2006 study from the National Renewable Energy Lab identified a shortage of skills
and training as a leading barrier to renewable energy and energy efficiency growth.8
A skilled local workforce will also enable your city to meet its policy goals around climate
change faster and more effectively. To quote Van Jones, Apollo Alliance board member and
founder of Green for All, “We are facing a world-class challenge in stopping climate change.
We need a world-class workforce to do it.”
Establish a Green-Collar Jobs Training Partnership.
The best way to prepare your local green-collar workforce is to bring together key stakeholders,
including industry representatives, labor, community groups, and policymakers, to identify 1)
projected job growth and demand for skilled labor (incorporating the projected demand from
new policies and investments your city will make), and 2) the strengths and weaknesses of the
current workforce development and other job training programs and their ability to meet this
demand. We call this a green-collar job training partnership.
7
See the 2006 report at: http://www.economicrt.org/publications.html
[1] R. Margolis and J. Zuboy, "Nontechnical Barriers to Solar Energy Use: Review of Recent Literature," National
Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2006.
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For green-collar job training partnerships to be effective they must focus on a particular industry
and its particular workforce training needs. Build them around the industry sectors that the city
is targeting with policy support or has identified as key (potential) contributors to the local green
economy. You might focus vertically on an industry like energy efficiency—developing
workforce strategies for manufacturing, installation, and operation. Or you may focus
horizontally on a sector like building and construction—developing workforce strategies for
renewable energy, efficiency, and transit. The important thing is to narrow the focus of each
partnership in order to use data, expertise, and resources most efficiently.
We cannot overemphasize the importance of having each of these stakeholder groups at the table
when creating your green-collar training partnership. Each has a vital role to play. Employers
and industry representatives help create the program and design training curricula based on their
actual workforce needs and commitment to hiring people who successfully complete the training.
Community-based organizations and workforce development centers help recruit target
populations, identify special needs, organize support services, deliver training, and evaluate
outcomes. Non-profits may sponsor internships or other supported employment experience.
Unions help design curricula and provide training that connects Green Jobs Corps participants to
opportunities in union apprenticeships. Community colleges and other workforce training
institutions provide skills training. Government agencies provide connections to the existing
workforce development infrastructure, essential program funding and support services, and
sometimes even employment opportunities. These stakeholders need to be at the table from the
beginning. Build off their expertise; avoid reinventing the wheel.
In addition to helping train workers, establishing a green-collar jobs training partnership will put
your city in a better position to take advantage of state and federal resources, like those we
expect will be available with the passage of the federal Green Jobs Act of 2007.9 The
partnership can also help identify needed city policies and economic development supports to
create new jobs.
3. Create Green Pathways Out of Poverty – A Green Jobs Corps
Establish a local Green Jobs Corps to create the first step on a green pathway out of poverty for
local residents. A Green Job Corps is a program that combines job readiness, skills education,
and career counseling for people in your city who may not be in a position to succeed in
traditional vocational training programs. The Green Jobs Corps is a concept pioneered by
members of the Oakland Apollo Alliance and built off the success of numerous apprenticeship
preparation and jobs readiness programs in other fields.10
The need for a Green Jobs Corps is clear. The green economy is growing rapidly, and several
forward-thinking cities, states and organizations have begun to create training programs that
focus on green career ladders to good, family-supporting jobs. But the members of our
communities most in need of good jobs are in danger of being left behind. Forty years of
9
More info at: http://ellabakercenter.org/page.php?pageid=26&contentid=298
See the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights website for more info on the Oakland Green Jobs Corps:
http://ellabakercenter.org/page.php?pageid=26&contentid=267
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disinvestment and neglect, failing public schools, rampant incarceration, and a lack of economic
opportunity have removed the solid ground from under the feet our low-income job seekers.
They now find themselves in a hole looking up at the first rung of that green career ladder – and
it is out of reach. The Green Jobs Corps creates “a rung within reach.”
A good Green Jobs Corps program can educate youth and community members about
environmental issues and the green economy, meet green-collar workforce demand with local
workers most in need of good jobs, and provide access to advanced career training programs for
the most qualified candidates. It is a way to merge economic, environmental and social equity
policy goals in one program. The following are key components of a Green Jobs Corps:
Integrate With Broader Green-Collar Jobs Strategies
Link the Green Jobs Corps to local policies and investments designed to grow the green
economy. Build in incentives or requirements for employers to work with Green Job Corps
participants and graduates. Make sure the Green Jobs Corps training components are based on
the industry sectors and skill needs identified by your green-collar jobs training partnership.
Integrating the pathways out of poverty program with your overall green economic development
strategy ensures that participants are set up for permanent jobs and strong career pathways in the
local green economy after they complete the program.
Target Low-Income Populations
The Green Jobs Corps model is geared specifically to low-income Americans. The federal
Green Jobs Act of 2007 targets funds for pathways out of poverty programs to individuals in
families with income of less than 200 percent of the poverty threshold (as determined by the
Bureau of the Census) or a self-sufficiency standard for the local area. It is important to be
explicit about focusing on low-income job seekers and barriers to employment that they face.
Collaborate on Design and Implementation
A Green Jobs Corps program should be designed and implemented in a collaborative process that
draws upon the expertise and capacities of diverse stakeholders. Part of establishing a Green
Jobs Corps is developing formal agreements among the various stakeholders about how they will
contribute and cooperate to create a successful program. This process will ideally be one of the
functions of your green-collar jobs training partnership (discussed above). However, in some
circumstances it might make sense to move ahead with a more targeted collaborative focused
solely developing a Green Jobs Corps program. These targeted programs need to focus in on the
specific skills gaps often faced by low-income job seekers, described in more detail below.
Provide Comprehensive Employment Services
Green Jobs Corps programs should use proven models to overcome barriers to employment
facing many people from low-income communities. They should be comprehensive programs
that provide the supports, services, and skills necessary for residents of low-income communities
to access careers in the clean energy economy. In addition to vocational skills training, these
programs should incorporate “wrap-around” services, including:
 Outreach, recruitment, and ongoing relationships (case management).
 Integrated soft skills or “job readiness” training, often including completion of GED.
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Contextualized basic skills training to prepare low-skilled job seekers for basic and
specialty trades apprenticeship programs.
Supportive infrastructure to allow low-income workers to successfully complete the
training program, including assistance with , childcare, transportation, tools and
equipment purchase, and other services.
Stipends or other support to program participants during training.
Hard skills training in a targeted vocational activity.
Formal connections to union apprenticeship programs, e.g. recognized pre-apprenticeship
program elements.
Supported employment experience, or transitional job, to establish a successful work
history.
Career counseling and assistance securing independent employment at the end of the
program.
Employer-recognized certification of acquired skills and experience.
Connect to Good Jobs
It is critical that the Green Job Corps connects graduates to good, permanent jobs that include
opportunities for career advancement – that it put a green jobs career ladder rung within reach of
these job seekers. This must be built into the program from the beginning. It is a gross
disservice to the participants and a waste of resources to shepherd people through a jobs program
only to have them discover at the end of the process that there are no jobs waiting for them.
Linkages to employers, union apprenticeship programs, and other career opportunities are
essential elements of any Green Jobs Corps program.
Combine Public and Private Financing
Green Jobs Corps programs can and should be supported from a variety of funding sources
including: local, state, and federal workforce and economic development funds; private sector
training investments; savings from investment in energy efficiency retrofits; philanthropic
dollars; higher education budgets; and unions. As we said at the beginning of this paper,
promoting the policies and investments for green-collar job programs is an essential part of any
broader green economic development program. When coupled with Green Jobs Corps programs
these investments will pay off not only by generating new energy industries and saving valuable
energy dollars, but also by moving people from poverty to self-sufficiency, from being involved
in the justice system to being part of the climate solution.
See Appendix A for a visual representation of how different stakeholders can merge their
expertise to create a green jobs corps.
4. Build on successes, Build on support, Circle back, Up the Ante
Investing in your green economy, creating a successful green-collar training program, and
ensuring pathways out of poverty is a great start to building a new energy future. Build on the
success of your green-collar jobs / climate change strategy and the support it enjoys from new
constituencies such as labor and community-based organizations. Leverage this support into
even larger investments in our shared environmental and economic future. Go carbon free, meet
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100% of your electricity demand with local renewable energy and efficiency, achieve zero waste
– and connect it all to job opportunities. When Americans are inspired and see real progress they
will support bold efforts. In recent decades we beat back fascism on three continents, created a
thriving middle class, and went to the moon. In the coming decades we can beat climate change
and end poverty.
It all starts in our cities. It all starts with you.
About this paper:
These pages contain excerpts from a draft of a forthcoming publication by the Apollo Alliance
and its partners. It was prepared especially for the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Climate Summit,
Nov 1-2 in Seattle, Washington.
In the coming months, the Apollo Alliance and its partners will develop more extensive guidance
and direct support for local green-collar jobs initiatives. For more information about our work
or about this document contact: Jeremy Hays, National Organizing Director, Apollo Alliance,
[email protected].
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APPENDIX A
GREEN JOB CORPS
Connect the boxes to create pathways out of poverty
CITY
RESIDENTS
RECRUITMENT
& CASE MGMT
SOFT
SKILLS
HARD
SKILLS
INTERNSHIP
WORK
EXPERIENCE
Union Apprenticeship
Energy Service
Contractors
Nonprofit
Organizations
Government
Agencies
Community Colleges
Workforce Development Service Providers
Community-Based Organizations
9
Concept Draft
RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROJECTS
PEOPLE OF COLOR
LOW-INCOME
AT-RISK YOUTH
UNDER-EMPLOYED
UNEMPLOYED
FORMERLY INCARCERATED
Businesses
Union Pre-Apprenticeship
Training Programs
CAREERS
Energy Services
Higher Education