Abstract
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provided seed money for energy efficiency programs throughout the country, but these funds are winding down. Beyond Green Jobs details a green energy efficiency jobs program that can bring energy efficiency to scale while maximizing the triple bottom line of profit, people, and planet. The authors note that while there is currently considerable support for ‘green jobs,’ there are “many shades of green” (p. 2). They insist that we must go ‘deep green’ and take a comprehensive whole-building, whole-neighborhood approach that combines simple retrofits with more complex building upgrades. This approach maximizes benefits for the environment, labor, and low-income communities.
The authors of Beyond Green Jobs, who are from the California Construction Academy (CCA) at the University of California Los Angeles Labor Center, thoroughly map out what a socially equitable, financially and environmentally sustainable, deep green energy efficiency jobs program could look like. The main recommendations they present are the need for an approach to energy efficiency that links existing union apprenticeship pathways to career ladders and that develops mechanisms that generate demand for retrofits and sustainable financing, in collaboration with partners from multiple sectors.
The authors insist that basic weatherization is not enough. In fact they pose the idea that it may even lead to low road, temporary, dead end jobs with little environmental benefit. Instead, they argue, it is time to “move beyond just ‘green jobs’ and to build long-term, high road, unionized construction careers that address triple bottom line goals” (p. 7). The high road model builds on the strengths of the unionized construction industry and takes advantage of the shifting demographics in the industry.
Furthermore, partnerships with community, labor, environmentalists, public officials and businesses are vital for the success of such a program. Such partnerships can provide the platform for generating innovative financing mechanisms and strategies to generate demand. Beyond Green Jobs details several case studies of energy efficiency programs around the country that are piloting creative financing and new partnerships, and that are using these programs as an opportunity to open up the construction trades to women and people of color who have historically faced barriers to entering the trades.
Though the programs it discusses are complex, Beyond Green Jobs is accessible to a wide range of audiences. The language is clear and is accompanied by numerous graphics illustrating key points. Labor educators and community organizers could easily take single chapters or the entire book to use for popular education or to adapt the materials for campaign purposes. Scholars and activists interested in forging alliances that create high road construction jobs that promote energy efficiency could use the text as a starting point for discussion, both inside the classroom and in the policy arena. The California Construction Academy has made the book even more accessible by putting it up for download for free or donation at the website above.
Beyond Green Jobs is not an academic text, nor does it pretend to be. It is a comprehensive argument for a deep green jobs program that addresses social equity and financial and environmental sustainability. It should be read by anyone interested in ensuring that investment in ‘green jobs’ helps the labor movement grow, expand and make an environmental and social impact.