Urban Agenda convened the second general body meeting of the Green Collar Jobs Roundtable on September 18, 2008. The meeting kicked off a ninth-month working group process toward the goal of mobilizing the City to create a coordinated workforce development plan for green collar jobs.

Through this process, Working Groups will create a comprehensive Green Jobs Roadmap with best practices, background information and recommendations for scaling-up green collar workforce development in New York City. The Roadmap will then serve as the foundation for a 2009 campaign to get Mayoral and City Council candidates to prioritize green collar workforce development.

Urban Agenda has set up a Roundtable Blog to better facilitate the working group process. It allows participants to post documents, communicate and share resources.

Access the main pages of the blog at GreenJobsRoundtable.blogspot.com.

Emerging Green Collar Sectors and Subsectors

Green Collar Sector Overview (PDF document)

Working Groups

Roundtable Timeline (PDF document)

Green Jobs Roundtable Resources

September 2008 Roundtable: Press Release (PDF)

Working Groups were established to look cross-thematically at the following five emerging green collar sectors in New York City:

• Transportation
• Energy
• Urban forestry
• Green product development
• Environmental monitoring and remediation

These five sectors are further divided into subsectors, each of which is distinguished by job titles, skill-sets, services and/or products. Subsectors are prioritized according to growing markets, labor shortages and a lack of workforce development resources, as well as according to career ladders that demonstrate a potential to foster pathways out of poverty. While all subsectors will be considered, the Roadmap ultimately will focus on the green collar subsectors with the greatest labor demands and immediate-term growth - that is, those most in need of a coordinated workforce development plan.

Read the Green Collar Sector Overview (PDF document).

1. Current Landscape: This group will assess the training opportunities, workforce development programs, market growth, and employer characteristics of the green collar sectors and subsectors identified.
2. Training: This group will outline key questions and best practices concerning curricula development, job certification and programmatic expansion in the green collar sectors and subsectors identified.
3. Linking Target Populations to Training: This group will outline strategies and best practices to link community-based organizations, wraparound and pre-employment services, and public schools to training in skill areas identified by the training working group.
4. Coordination with Employers: This working group will outline strategies and best practices to link training and workforce development providers to employers in the green collar sectors and subsectors identified.
5. Job Standards and Regulation: This working group will outline job standards and guidelines for regulating the market to ensure that green jobs are good jobs that create pathways out of poverty.
6. Outreach and Political Strategy: This working group will identify ways to build a base of support and engage political candidates around the Roadmap.

See the Roundtable Timeline (PDF document).