Those Green Collar Jobs: Already here and more on the way

Every Monday morning, rain or shine, a crew following a truck works its way through the alleyway behind my house picking up bottles, cans, paper and cardboard. The county pays this team to help cut back on the waste that goes into landfills, to contribute to the supply of commodities that can make new products and to help save energy and natural resources. These men are wearing a green collar on Mondays as they get paid to be part of the recycling effort.

On Thursdays the same truck and crew meanders through the alley collecting regular household trash. Are they still wearing a green collar or is it now blue?

Someday I plan on installing a new high energy efficient furnace in my home. I’ll hire a contractor to do it. On the day, or two he spends installing furnace that uses less natural gas than the one I have now he’ll be getting paid to help me reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from my house. He’ll have his green collar on as he connects pipes, wires and ductwork in my basement.

But what if the next job he has is the installation of a not-so-efficient furnace. Is his collar still green?

I’ve probably bought my last gasoline-only car. The next will be a hybrid, or better a plug-in hybrid or all-electric car. When I sign on the dotted line at the dealership the salesman will get his commission, the dealership their profits, and they’ll both be helping me save gas, cut air pollution and battle climate change. For me they’ll be a green dealership and the salesman will wear a green collar.

But what about the next customer buying a large SUV. Is the dealer still green, is the salesman?

The point is that our economy is filled jobs that in someway help clean up the planet, at least part of the time. The driver of the bus that keeps people out of their inefficient-on-a-per passenger-mile-basis car. The assembly line worker who puts together setback thermostats that help cut energy use at home. The salesman who convinces a customer to buy new double-glazed windows or more insulation for a home.

All of these are green collar jobs and should be considered – and appreciated – as such. Those jobs are already in the millions, I’m guessing.

The trouble is we need more. The more green collar jobs that are created, the greener the country and the planet will become.

There are already people who design and engineer wind turbines as well as farms in which to plant them. There are already people who take a powered buffer and polishing compound to buff out the imperfections in wind turbine blades. These are green collar workers.

There are people who engineer new models of solar panels and researchers who develop new types of cells to go in them. And there are people who climb ladders to peoples’ roofs to install solar panels. (If you're planning a career in solar energy installation, you’d best get used to walking on pitched roofs.)

Both the wind and solar industries are still growing in the U.S. and globally. Job opportunities in those industries will continue to grow as well.

The beauty of green collar work is that the skills needed are often the same as those used in other industries. The wind turbine blade polisher may have learned his skills polishing boat hulls. The electrician who connects solar panels to a home electrical system might be the same one who installed a new electric range or changed a light switch; the skills are the same.

However, it seems likely that if there is a boom in green collar jobs it could come from the auto industry. The US auto industry is the largest in the world and when you consider all the related industries, the US auto industry is likely the nation’s biggest employer. In manufacturing alone there are seven connected and directly related jobs for every auto assembly line worker, according to a 2004 study by the University of Michigan and the Center for Automotive Research

If over the next few years the auto industry recovers and starts out in a new direction, building far more efficient vehicles than we have today, then it will first bring back workers who were laid off – good for them and good for the overall economy.

But if the industry expands in the direction that seems most promising – plug-in hybrids operating on electricity and biofuels, as well as pure electrics – a considerable number of new green collar jobs will be created. Greener cars using alternative fuels and technologies will add a new dimension to the industry that currently doesn’t exist. The new dimension will be a jobs producer.

Job creation will be the big issue during the next few years. The most bang for the buck could easily come from a reinventing, a greening of the auto industry.

(Article Reposted via: http://www.green-energy-news.com/)