Read the inaugural report in the series, "Growing Green Collar Jobs: Energy Efficiency"

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Read the Report Press Release from December 5, 2007

Growing Green Collar Jobs is a series of reports that explore how sustainability can be an economic engine for New York City. We define green-collar jobs as work in an environmental sector that provides family-sustaining wages, workplace safety and health, and chances for advancement.

Prepared for the New York City Apollo Alliance, each report in the series is based on secondary research and interviews with business, labor, civic, community and environmental leaders. We explore the opportunities for creating new green-collar jobs, the importance of retooling existing jobs to incorporate environmental practices, and the barriers to green-collar job creation.

The first report in the series, Growing Green-Collar Jobs: Energy Efficiency, focuses on jobs in one of the fastest growing and most promising areas of the green economy, improving energy efficiency in existing buildings. Released in December 2007, it will be followed by reports covering:

• Clean Energy: Renewable energy systems (Solar Photovoltaic, Solar Thermal, Geothermal, Small Wind, Landfill Gas, Anaerobic Digesters and Tidal Power), Biofuel production and Cogeneration,
• Recycling and Deconstruction, recycling of building construction waste and reuse of building materials,
• Landscaping and Green Roofs
• Automotive Retrofits, and
• Brownfield Remediation

Press Coverage of Growing Green Collar Jobs:

• The Chief: Want 'Green-Collar' Jobs With Good Pay
• Gotham Gazette: Report of the Day, 12/05/07
  (Scroll manually to page containing 12/05/07 report)
• City Limits: December 10, 2007 issue
• WNYC (Click on "WNYC News" and then see first item)
• New York Sun, 12/06/07: Amid Cuts, City Plans $80M in 'Green' Spending
• Women's International Perspective, 01/02/2008: Creating Sustainable Cities: The San Francisco Bay Area and New York City Are Leading the Way

Convened by Urban Agenda and the New York City Central Labor Council, the Jobs Working Group is part of the Mayor Bloomberg’s Sustainability Advisory Board. The Sustainability Advisory Board focuses on implementation of the PlaNYC 2030 blueprint for a “greener and greater New York City.”

Members of the Jobs Working Group have come together to recommend strategies and policies to ensure that PlaNYC 2030 creates good jobs – paying prevailing wage, benefits, and time off, and provides dignified work opportunities for new and existing workers. Its recommendations encompass all 10 areas of PlaNYC 2030.

For more information, see PlaNYC 2030.

Urban Agenda is an active participant in the Campaign for New York's Future. The Campaign is a coalition of civic, business, environmental, labor, community and public health organizations that support the goals and strategic direction of PlaNYC.

We endorse the Campaign’s goals to make every neighborhood in New York City a great place to live and work, and to contribute to fighting climate change. We support the coalition’s aim to encourage public debate — as well as fair and effective action — now and in the years to come.

Urban Agenda takes part in numerous campaign activities, such as the July 5th Rally for Congestion Pricing at Times Square, an important transportation and air quality initiative in PlaNYC. (Two UA staff members were featured in the New York Post photograph you see to the left.).