Green

What is a Green Job?

The United Nations describes a green job as any work in agricultural, manufacturing, research and development (R&D), administrative, and service activities that contribute significantly to preserving or restoring environmental quality.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in association with the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) launched the Green Jobs Initiative in the year 2007.

Green jobs are popularly referred to as green-collar jobs. Any worker employed in the environmental sectors of the economy is called a green-collar worker.

The core functions in a green job includes, but are not limited to, protecting the ecosystem and biodiversity, developing strategies to reduce energy, materials, and water consumption as well as avoid the creation of waste and pollution.

Some examples of green jobs are waste composting, creating furniture from recycled wood, green landscaping, organic food production, solar power installations, wind energy engineering, green products manufacturing, constructing green houses and buildings, energy retrofitting, hazardous material recycling etc. New ideas, which will create green jobs in every industry, are being identified and discussed, that will heal the earth as well as become beneficial for the economy.

The US Labor department is working on identifying more green jobs. The Blue Green Alliance report of 2007 predicts that an estimated 82,000 new jobs will be created by 2020 because of green jobs.

There has been a significant surge in the movement to incorporate social responsibility within green industries, which will lead to the formation of a green economy. The green economy has the potential to create millions of jobs that could help the global economy sail through the current financial downturn. Creation of more green jobs will also keep the environment in balance as well as conserve energy resources.