xxxxxxxx 1
Mr. xxxxx xxxxxxxx
Professor xxxxxxxxxx
Intro to Urban Studies
15 December 20xx
Green Jobs: Urban Growth and Development
Going green is not just a decision as in deciding on what to wear at an
important function. When people, companies, and governments decide to “go
green”, it initiates an ongoing dialogue that starts with a design and ends with a
commitment to a sustainable way of life. The dialogue needs to begin early on in
the planning stages of a project so that community-specific mitigations can be
integrated from the ground up, rather than as add-ons that will interfere with
costs or design feasibility.
The federal government has decided to provide stimulus dollars (for some
states who qualify) in the hundreds of millions if those states commit to a plan for
utilizing those dollars for projects that will employ green technology such as
transportation, renewable energy, and infrastructure.
These types of projects can serve as vehicles for the types of urban
development and growth that most post-manufacturing areas have not seen in
decades.
At the basis for all green technology is the fundamental building block for
urban development: jobs.
xxxxxxxx 2
Urban development and growth depends upon innovation and commit-
ment of resources that reflect the changing needs of society and the
environment. Green technology can create jobs even in a down economy. For
instance, clean energy promotes the use of less carbon intensive methods of
energy con-sumption.
There are five fundamental reasons why clean energy creates jobs:
a. Dollar for dollar, clean energy creates more jobs than fossil fuels.
b. Clean energy cushions the economy from volatile energy prices.
c. By reducing energy imports, clean energy locks in local job
creation.
d. Clean energy improves trade balances and tempers financial
shocks.
e. Clean energy reduces the financial risk of climate change.
The field of “green technology“ encompasses a continuously evolving
group of methods and materials, from techniques for generating energy to non-
toxic cleaning products.
As the middle class continues to rebound from the blue-collar heyday of
manufacturing jobs or jobs that did not require higher education, the demands of
present-day society have shifted to a more service-oriented and environmentally
conscious labor pool.
xxxxxxxx 3
Right now, there is a great opportunity not only to make America’s
economy stronger by making it greener, but also to make Americans living in
poverty part of a revitalized middle class. The first thing we have to do is provide
the training that will turn 20th century blue-collar jobs into secure 21st-
century green-collar jobs. This is a larger challenge than would seem obvious, as
the very definition of green jobs, or green-collar jobs, can be somewhat tenuous.
First of all. green jobs are already in the workplace. Green jobs are not
always easy to recognize because they are scattered across most occupations
and industries. In fact, every job can be more or less green. Many practitioners
define “green-collar jobs” or “green jobs” so expansively that the term can apply
to large swaths of the economy—from service industries to high-tech
