Growing green jobs: Scope of ‘green-collar’ work increases faster than other sectors

David Crawford, who helps disadvantaged Kansas City-area workers find employment, sees boundless potential in an emerging category: green jobs.

The retired boilermaker, who has about 18 years’ experience as a vocation and career specialist, volunteers for the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity. About two months ago, Crawford founded a spinoff group focused on connecting applicants with green jobs. He calls the group GreenKC.

“There’s an enormous amount of energy-efficiency work that needs to be done in our region,” Crawford said. “There’s a work force that just has to be developed for these projects.”

The scope of so-called green-collar job opportunities stretches across industries, from labor positions to executive roles. Studies suggest that renewable energy industries alone could generate thousands of jobs, and local executives in those growing industries said they expect employment to jump in the coming years.

Berkeley Palmer, a career firm with offices in Overland Park, said in a statement that “green jobs have the potential of trending up at a faster pace than any other job sector” and that those opportunities will cross most industries.

Crawford said he sees an economic development opportunity for the city that could reach through to employ the unemployed. He plans to propose that GreenKC be included in efforts to find workers for the $2.3 billion sewer overhaul Kansas City plans. The project, which city officials want to include green components such as rain gardens, would offer jobs that required little training and that could be done in the workers’ neighborhoods, solving the transportation problem many disadvantaged workers face.

“If we do it correctly and take the high road and put these people that really need work onto this, we can put a lot of people to work that have been neglected — the disadvantaged, marginalized, disenfranchised people,” he said.

Development of a green-collar work force remains in the nascent stages, said Clyde McQueen, CEO of the Full Employment Council. Public policy probably will create a greater need for green-collar workers, and an area already promoting those skills gains an advantage.

“There’s an excellent market for whoever becomes environmentally astute in this green career thing,” he said. “We’ll need to build things, address water quality, power automobiles, reduce carbon emissions, create and generate plant life. It’s huge.”

Unions facing job losses look to green industry for opportunities for displaced workers.

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