We are excited to announce the release of a groundbreaking research report on green-collar jobs and employers. Professor Raquel Rivera Pinderhughes of San Francisco State University is a leading national expert on the burgeoning green-collar economy. Her new report is a major leap forward in our understanding of how to harness green business growth to build pathways out of poverty. These findings have provided us with critical guidance as we develop the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, the nation's first attempt to carry out the model that the professor describes in her report, which will launch later this year. The Pinderhughe model informed the development of the Oakland Green Jobs Corps. Professor Pinderhughes a key partner in our Green-Collar Jobs Campaign. She is on the steering committee of the Oakland Apollo Alliance, and is a senior advisor to the Ella Baker Center and Green For All.
Her report is entitled "Green Collar Jobs: An Analysis of the Capacity of Green Businesses to Provide High Quality Jobs for Men and Women with Barriers to Employment,"
Here is Professor Pinderhughes' synopsis of her research:
"Poverty, unemployment and racial inequality are significant problems in the United States and there is an urgent need for a new source of living wage jobs for low income residents with barriers to employment. Where can these jobs come from? This research project shows that an important part of the answer is the deliberate cultivation of “green collar jobs”. I define green-collar jobs 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). These green businesses can be owned and managed by for-profit, non-profit, public sector, worker-owned cooperatives or collectives and include firms, institutions, and other types of business entities. I focus on green collar (manual labor) work force opportunities in green businesses because these jobs are excellent entry level work force opportunities for job seekers with barriers to employment. 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. This population includes youth and adults who do not have a high school degree, have been out of the labor market for a long time, were formally incarcerated, and/or have limited labor market skills."
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