Growing "Green Collar Jobs" in Ohio

Whether you "believe in" global warming or not, there are good arguments to be made in support of building a less toxic environment, reducing waste, and reducing the production of things like plastic that never break down completely.

With the increasing interest in moving away from wasteful, toxic side effects of business practices that are still rooted in the 19th Century model of the Industrial Revolution, our new "green collar" job sector is going to grow. Emerging growth sectors which provide new-tech jobs is a happy feature of our relatively fast-moving response to new information about the big picture beyond our own personal back yard. It's a given that old-tech thinkers who have personally profited from practices that are becoming outdated are going to grouse about potential changes and a slowing of their old-tech gravy train, even if the new changes promise benefits on a bigger-picture scale. We've heard plenty of moaning in that direction already. However, all the complaining and cynicism in the world isn't going to stop progress. Old technologies routinely become obsolete...the manual washing machine, the car phone, the 8-track tape player. It's a fact of life, and now we're not looking for just a better mousetrap, we're looking at the wider effects on the planet of building it.

The point is - new ways of doing business are a source of job creation, and no matter what you think of "green," that is the direction many of the new jobs are going to be coming from. Some existing jobs will also get a boost as those skills are called for in the service of new purposes.

This Green Collar Blog makes note of a recent report on Ohio's potential in green-collar jobs by Robert Pollin and Jeanette Wicks-Lim of the Department of Economics and Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst; it was commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

A page of the report specific to Ohio can be found here.

I count it as good news to hear that Ohio is positioned to benefit from this new economic direction.