Green Careers
H2H Has Green Jobs!
In the modern job market, it's nearly impossible to avoid the phrase "Green Jobs" when employment opportunities are being discussed. It's all over the internet, used ubiquitously on TV and it's an everyday buzzword in the national media and on Capitol Hill. But what is this new phenomenon known as "Green Jobs"?
To a certain degree, it depends on who you ask. In the minds of many "Green Jobs" involve people in white lab coats deploying vague but highly-progressive, even experimental, technologies to cleanly harness natural resources in an effort to fight global warming.
No doubt technologies have been developed in recent years that are, in some cases, tremendously more efficient than previous versions; and global warming is indeed a very serious issue.
But nevertheless, many people would be surprised to learn that most of what falls under the banner of "Green Jobs" today refers to work that professionals in the building and construction trades have been doing for a very long time.
In the construction industry, "Green Jobs" are more than jobs - they are careers.
Ironworkers were erecting wind turbines to pump water in the 1920s. By the 1930s, electricity-generating windmills were common on farms too rural to be serviced by early power grids.
The wind turbines of today are manufactured, assembled and erected by construction workers using the same basic principles and skills their forefathers used, only now significantly augmented by the application of modern tools and technologies that greatly enhance personal safety and productivity on the jobsite.
The fact is that the men and women on the frontlines of the new green economy, whether it's retrofitting public infrastructures, rebuilding the energy grid, installing energy-efficient appliances, modernizing public transportation systems, providing LEED certifications.etc, are, for the most part, completed by your local carpenter, plumber, mason, glazer, boilermaker, electrician or ironworker who specializes in one of the more than 80 different apprenticeable crafts covered by America's 15 national building and construction trades organizations.
Click on the links below for more information about career opportunities provided by the building trades:
- International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers
- International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers
- International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers
- United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America
- Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' International Association of the United States and Canada
- International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
- International Union of Elevator Constructors
- International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers
- Laborers' International Union of North America
- International Union of Operating Engineers
- International Union of Painters and Allied Trades
- United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada
- United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers
- Sheet Metal Workers' International Association
- International Brotherhood of Teamsters
