A New Workforce Development System for a Green Economy
Ed MorrisonPurdue Center for Regional Development Tim GaviganCenter for Education Innovation and Regional Economic Development
Dimensions of a Green Economy Workforce
A green economy focuses on sustainability, resilience and regen-eration. In an industrial economy, our attention is driven toward thebusiness firm — the corporation — and isolated individuals — “ration-al” consumers and investors. In a green economy, we are drawn toconnections: the relationships of ourselves and our organizations to ournatural environment.A green economy focuses our attention on open networks and anew concept of regenerative innovation. It requires us to be aware of local ecosystems that are dynamically connected to the global eco-nomy. A green economy is also multidimensional and more expansivethan a narrower Industrial Age perspective. This new perspective con-nects our culture and human resources with the natural resources thatsustain us. From the perspective of a green economy, all of these re-sources demand responsible stewardship.Green jobs represents work in agricultural, manufacturing, re-search and development, and service activities that contribute sub-
stantially to preserving, promoting or restoring the natural systems onwhich we depend. For example, this definition includes jobs that helpprotect ecosystems and biodiversity; reduce energy, materials and wa-ter consumption; and minimize all forms of waste and pollution.Moving toward a more sustainable, green economy will shift work-force development in at least four ways:
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New jobs will be created with the development of clean technolo-gies;
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Some employment will be shifted from one technology base to an-other, such as a shift from fossil fuels to renewables;
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Some jobs will be eliminated as markets shift away from olddesigns and technology, such as the shift away from materials thatcannot easily be recycled;
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Some jobs will be transformed, as new skills are added. For ex-ample, construction workers will learn new techniques in efficientbuilding design and construction.In the old industrial economy, jobs were easily classified by educa-tion level. White-collar, salaried jobs involved office work and higherlevels of formal education. Blue-collar, wage employment relied ontechnical education with multiple entry points after high school.Classifying green jobs is not so simple. Green jobs span a wide ar-ray of skill levels, educational attainment, and occupations. They sharea deeper characteristic: an understanding of interconnection, a per-
spective of interdependent systems, a view of that our economy con-sists of networks embedded in other networks.Across the world, green jobs represent an important new cat-egory of workforce opportunities. They promise quality employment,meaningful community serving opportunities, decent living wages andother benefits. This transition leaves us with a serious challenge: Wecannot effectively prepare for the green economy with a workforce de-velopment system designed in the Industrial Age.
Call to Action
Developing prosperity in a green economy requires new per-spectives, new systems, and a new approach to workforce develop-ment. The dynamics of the green economy include the assumption thatnatural systems, capital, and human resources are connected.Prosperity within a region depends on how well we connect these re-sources to innovation and productivity: the ability to produce morewealth with less impact on our natural systems. We need new region-al systems of regenerative innovation. Our success in the green eco-nomy will depend on brainpower and how well we develop and deployit within these new systems of regenerative innovation.If America wants a strong workforce so that the benefits of greeneconomic development we will need to design a new model of work-force delivery system. Our current workforce development structures,designed for the Industrial Age, must transition into delivery systemsthat are more resilient, flexible and adaptive.
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A New Workforce Development System for a Green Economy
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| Upload Date: | 02/24/2009 |
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