By Juliette Jardim
March 23, 2009

Mayors everywhere want to know what they can do to create green workforces in their cities, with programs like the Chicago Climate Action Plan, Oakland Green Jobs Corps, and the Milwaukee Conservation Leadership Corps springing up throughout the nation. Robert T. Mejia, an Employment Services Manager at the South Bay Workforce Investment Board and the organizer, facilitator and manager of California’s GREEN Workforce Coalition, has proposed a set of basic steps policy-makers can undertake immediately to ensure efficient and rapid development of the green jobs sector. He outlines his suggestions in his article, “What’s Old is New: Green Jobs & What America’s Federal Workforce Investment System Can Do Now to Develop a Green Workforce.”

Mejia defines a green job by a set of criteria he calls “Guiding Principles for a Green Job” that consists of three standards, which he classifies as “products/services,” “processes,” and “purpose.” The first standard examines WHAT the green job provides (in terms of a product or service), and to what extent that product reduces environmentally harmful agents. The second standard considers HOW the product or service is made, and to what degree that process negatively affects the environment. The third standard evaluates WHY the job exists, specifically looking at whether or not the employer’s intentions reflect a concern for creating an environmentally sound outcome. He stresses that the crux of evaluating green jobs is not WHETHER or not they are green, but to what degree of greenness the occupation in question is.

According to Meija, there are three types of green jobs: “Green Root Occupations,” “Green Derivative Occupations,” and “truly novel green occupations.” A “Green Root Occupation” is a job that already existed outside of the green sector and requires no new skills, knowledge or ability, but is applied to environmentally sustainable companies, such as an accountant for a green consulting firm. A “Green Derivative Occupation” has a counterpart outside of the green jobs sector, but there are additional requirements for the occupation once it becomes “green.” For example, an electrician who installs solar panels must have all of the expertise of an electrician, in addition to the skills necessary to install solar panels. “Novel green occupations” have no parallel outside of the green sector and have been virtually created by necessity from the green economy.

Meija focuses on assessment of the “greenness” of the different tiers of the green economy, in addition to better tracking of the development and growth of the green jobs sector, in his recommendations for actions to be taken by policy makers.

With specific criteria of green jobs, green jobs training programs and green employers, local governments can establish clear-cut parameters for a reliable certification process. Meija recommends using his “Guiding Principles for a Green Job” to determine green job certification. He also discusses the need to evaluate service occupations differently than typical green jobs as they do not produce a product but can still be considered green if the environmental practices of the firms that employ them are examined.

Meija advocates for assessment of job training programs with a set of three factors that he calls “Outcomes-Based Criteria for Green Jobs.” The training program in question must create net energy savings compared to the equivalent job with a traditional production process; it must reduce the carbon footprint of the employer or the consumers who use the products; and the skills it develops must be different enough to warrant a new curriculum with productive gains in the firm’s goods and services.

For green employer certification, Meija proposes a voluntary certification process consisting of a set of tiers that measure the extent to which an employer can be considered green. The tiers would be determined by a score ranging from 400 to 1000, with the first tier representing “Initial Sustainability Systems,” the second being “Mature Sustainability Systems,” and the third and highest being “Advanced Sustainability Systems.”

Meija also suggests establishing a “Green Jobs Advisory Panel” that would evaluate green jobs, green training programs and green employers. The panel, which would consist of energy efficiency professionals, owners of environmentally-friendly businesses, and other sustainability experts, would aid in the certification process by providing input to the green service under examination and by recommending programs and employers for certification and funding. Meija also advocates putting green experts on local Workforce Investment Boards to assist with the certification decisions.

City governments should also provide services to aid in the transition of employers becoming green and in the accessibility of green jobs to the green workforce. Meija suggests offering Employer Services that advise companies on how to re-examine their energy consumption and emissions and re-design not only their production processes, but also the business strategies, and work assignments to be more sustainable. On the employee side, he recommends creating a “Green Education and Training Provider Directory” that will list all certified green training programs and employers as determined by the criteria described above. To encourage productivity, Meija proposes creating incentive systems for green employees who perform excellent work.

Meija advises incorporating green-oriented programs into community-based organizations, high school and community college curricula, Summer Youth Programs, Conservation Corps, and other various summer and year-round opportunities to prepare the youth of today for the green jobs of tomorrow. In addition, he advocates creating strong incentives and expanding opportunities for high school and currently undeclared undergraduates to pursue green-oriented Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses of studies to ensure that green technology continues to develop and thrive in our future economy. Meija also refers to the importance of collaborating with union apprenticeship of green skills to encourage both youth, and those considering career changes, to pursue green jobs.

In June 2007, The U.S. Conference of Mayors Workforce Development Council created a Green Jobs Task Force. The mission of the task force is to examine mayoral initiatives for accelerating the green economy in order to develop a clearer understanding of what kinds of policies and programs could ensure that green collar jobs are made available to workers with limited initial education and skills; and to ensure that these jobs are stable, living wage jobs that provide benefits to workers and their families. For more information on the Green Jobs Task Force and Green Jobs Best Practices, contact Juliette Jardim at jjardim@usmayors.org.