"Green collar jobs" has been a frequent buzzword lately. I was even interviewed about it a couple months ago (the day of the first green business networking event). In the interview I defined green collar as any job at a company that itself could be considered green. So both traditional blue and white collar can be called green if the job is with the right company. A reason for the increase in the buzz about green collar is that it's a way to put a more positive spin on support of environmental improvements, in particular led by the government. People might resist the government spending money to improve our environment directly or imposing restrictions on existing businesses, but they tend to be in favor of helping to create new jobs. The green collar movement (if you want to call it that) is a combination of both. By investing in businesses and industries that can be considered green, the large number of nascent firms, start ups and small businesses can grow. And that means hiring more workers. For example, expanding the renewable energy industry would lead to plenty of job growth as plants and wind turbines and such need to be built, workers will be needed to maintain them, managers will be needed to manage the firms and resources, etc.
Today I ran across a comprehensive study (pdf) on green jobs. They look at three industries: energy efficiency, wind power and biofuels. I wont pretend to have read through all 50 pages, but in skimming it one thing I got was that the greatest opportunity is in energy efficiency. That is, there is a lot more potential to create new jobs in improving home energy use. What I like about it is that it's also much more open to entrepreneurial activity. In my entrepreneurship classes my students frequently work on ideas related to starting businesses geared towards improving home resource efficiency. In fact I've encouraged my current students to come out to the next event to talk to all of you about their concepts, so please be encouraged to share your thoughts with them.
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Sorry this post is a bit old, but I just started following your blog last month. About this post, given the potential market for improving home energy efficiency, do you see a way a business could capitalize on that from a service standpoint? It seems like products could fill that niche, but I don't see how a service based company could get into this market, although Evergreen Concepts already does this, but I don't know how their business works. Any thoughts?
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