Green Career Characteristics

What kind of career is a green career, and what is a green job? It can be argued that almost any work can "go green." However, not every green job goes to create a green career.

While definitions vary on what constitutes a green career, most definitions include the following factors:

1. A green career must demonstrate a clear career path that offers good salary and benefits that increase over time. A green career will have a career ladder that allows for both lateral and upward career movement with increasing experience and continuing education. Green jobs are sustainable; they provide a living wage even at beginning levels.

2. A green career is one that directly contributes to the environment by reducing green house gas emissions, providing energy efficiency, creating renewable energy solutions, conserving the environment, protecting biodiversity, or improving the environment by removing toxic materials that pollute the air, water or land.

Many green jobs do not meet the test of being sustainable career options. For example, many people in developing countries pick through landfills to find recyclable objects. Few of these people make a living wage as this salvage work, even through on the surface the jobs are green and help the environment. These low wage recycling jobs are not the makings of green careers.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) definition of a green job is as follows: "Green jobs reduce the environmental impact of enterprises and economic sectors, ultimately to levels that are sustainable." (See the UNEP study, "Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World (Policy messages and main findings for decision makers)" Nairobi: UNEP, September 2008, p. 5 available at http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---webdev/documents/publication/wcms_098487.pdf.)

The UNEP admits that some green jobs are more direct than others; there are "shades of green." Some jobs more directly impact the environment. Others, such as a person who drives a truck to ship a wind turbine from the factory to its destination, are contributing indirectly to the environmental cause. Over time the definition of what constitutes a green job and a green career will change as carbon reduction requirements become more stringent. Today's green job may not be so green tomorrow.

One way to define what is a green career is to look at the fields that more heavily involved in renewable energy, energy efficiency and environmental conservation. These are the fields you should concentrate on if you are looking for a green career:

--Green building jobs. Many of those in the building trades are taking the (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accreditation exam. Anyone can take this test, and there are a number of online courses to help prepare people for the exam. Most commonly, people taking the US Green Building Council exam are architects, building contractors, facility managers, interior designers, and building consultants. LEED is a point system established by the U.S. Green Building Council that certifies green building projects based on reductions in the carbon footprint and energy efficiency. Building professionals who pass the LEED exam are accredited as green building professional, while buildings that achieve a LEED rating are certified according to the number of energy saving credits that they accumulate.

--Landscapers are often involved in green careers, particularly those who specialize in low water landscaping or who assist green roofers by planting gardens and lawns in place of roofing material.

--Green business people, or eco-entrepreneurs, sell environmentally friendly products and services. There are all kinds of examples of green businesses including chemical supply companies who make and sell biodegradable chemicals; green dry cleaners who use non-toxic and biodegradable chemicals in the dry cleaning process; restaurants that specialize in locally grown products.

--Green consultants train others to recycle, do energy audits and help other businesses find the funds to go green. Many consultants are employed by federal and state regulatory agencies and by non-profit environmental organizations.

--Green collar jobs or green technical jobs. These include people who weatherize existing homes and businesses to meet Energy Star standards. Retrofitting for energy efficiency includes calking windows and doors, wrapping waterheaters and pipes, and adding insulation to walls and ceilings. Green collar careers also include installers of solar panels; workers who build and install wind turbines; machinists who build hybrid cars; workers who build lithium batteries for electric vehicles; technicians who take water samples.

There are many other environmental jobs that provide a green career path: environmental scientists, conservationists, environmental engineers, renewable energy workers, and many others.

For more information about Green Jobs, check out the Green Research Council's Green Jobs Guide (http://www.greenjobsguide.net.)