A new research report by a key partner in the Green Collar Jobs Campaign shows that the deliberate cultivation of “green collar jobs” can benefit low-income residents and the local economy.

Professor Raquel Rivera Pinderhughes of San Francisco State University is a leading national expert on the burgeoning green-collar economy. Green-collar jobs are defined as “manual labor jobs in businesses whose primary processes, products and/or services have a beneficial effect on the environment and whose work directly improves environmental quality in some way” (Pinderhughes, 2006). The new report, "Green Collar Jobs: An Analysis of the Capacity of Green Businesses to Provide High Quality Jobs for Men and Women with Barriers to Employment," describes how to harness green business growth to build pathways out of poverty. The research project focuses on understanding how a city’s support for green economic development and green businesses can be leveraged to support living wage work force opportunities for low-income job seekers with barriers to employment. http://ellabakercenter.org/page.php?pageid=26&contentid=350

Noted environmental leader, civil rights attorney and public speaker Van Jones will talk about the national "green-collar jobs" initiative at a presentation February 21 at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.