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Green Jobs
This topic contains 1 reply, has 1 voice, and was last updated by 
Leif Magnuson 12 years ago.
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Posts
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It’s really great having a green job & we all know that more green jobs are coming. There were some great sessions at GreenBuild this year on green jobs that are online (Van Jones & Majora Carter) –
http://www.greenbuild365.org/pagemaker.aspx?PID=67 & I’ve been reading Van’s book, The Green Collar Economy which is excellent.When I started with EPA about 10 years ago, we managed large grants (100 – 300K) on Jobs Through Recycling and Climate Change and Waste that were highly green jobs focused & often related to building deconstruction, reuse & recycling. Many of these project reports and case studies have been taken down, so I’m working to get them reposted.
I’m excited for the new wave of green jobs, but am concerned that “green jobs” needs to be defined broadly enough to really take advantage of the breadth of job opportunities needed in the workforce. There’s a lot of energy and weatherization discussion, but not much on holistic green building audits/upgrades, deconstruction, or building material reuse/green building materials retail jobs, indoor air, or green cleaning. A colleague also recently got me thinking about the green jobs needs beyond buildings — like green salon job training.
Ah, the devil’s in the details. What have you been thinking about green jobs?
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I love the idea of an expanded concept of Green jobs. For years, we’ve been trying to green various industries. It often defaults to whatever low-hanging fruit is most easily available, and not reducing the worst chemical exposures. If we focus on workers within those industries, teachers/children in schools, house cleaners, salon workers, etc. we rightly include the individuals most impacted by poor practices/unacceptable chemical exposures. The trend over the past 10+ years in air pollution monitoring is to place a monitor on a person’s collar/near their face, place one in the room, and another outdoors. The results are consistently Personal exposure>>indoor air conc.>outdoor air conc..
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