Since SharedVISION first put me on the beat to cover green jobs, I have stumbled upon a North American campaign for “Green Jobs Now” greenjobsnow.com.
One weekend in September thousands of Canadians and Americans rallied to send a message to their political leaders that they were ready for the green economy. Not only have grassroots activists taken up the call, but so have politicians.
During the federal election, Liberal Party leader Stéphane Dion promised to launch his Green Shift plan, which would generate “good jobs, green jobs, high-paying jobs.” For their part, the NDP promised a $750-million green-collar jobs fund and $8.2 billion in investments over four years to foster green manufacturing jobs.
During his campaign south of the border, President-Elect Barack Obama committed to spending $150 billion to create five million green-collar jobs, showing the popularity of jumpstarting a flailing economy with a green-job fiscal stimulus. As neither the Liberals nor the NDP got the support to influence green spending in Canada, we have to settle for watching American developments in the months ahead.
How do we champion a green makeover of our labour market in the absence of political leadership? Currently, 3.2 per cent of the Canadian workforce is involved in environmental jobs, with an annual growth of 1.6 per cent. That trumps the 1.4 per cent growth rate for other industries.
While positive, these numbers are not encouraging. Only by investing full-tilt in a green-jobs economy can we hope to forestall stagflation and tackle the environmental crises of our time. Today’s financial meltdown, viewed through another lens, is a chance to make a great leap forward in our province. Let’s put B.C. on a green-jobs trajectory. Can we make this shift? Yes we can.
Coro Strandberg is a sustainability specialist. She provides advisory, research, and facilitation services to organizations on integrating sustainability into business strategy and operations. corostrandberg.com
