Green Workforce Development
Did you know that 9.8 million jobs require green tasks*? The City of Boston is recruiting people to drastically increase the green workforce to reach sustainability goals. Whether you identify as blue-collar or white-collar, you can go green collar!
Green Workforce Programs Designed to Ensure Equity & Inclusion
Most of the organizations mentioned in this guide specifically mention that equity & inclusion are integral to the green workforce movement. One primary reason for this is to ensure high quality jobs and salaries go to groups historically cut-out of wealthy and promising workforces/businesses. The City's Climate Action Plan (available as a PDF in the left menu) includes these goals to build an equitable green workforce:
- Continue to build a diverse, inclusive workforce of people of color, women, recent immigrants, veterans, and young professionals.
- Job training programs should be designed to accommodate different skill sets and educational levels and should be financially accessible to all Boston residents.
- High-quality job opportunities in this field need to be accessible and fairly distributed. Living wages and appropriate benefits should be provided, as well as opportunities for career advancement. Wherever possible, employers should give workers a voice.
Local organizations pledging equity and their related programs:
- MassCEC Workforce Equity Programs
Equity Workforce Training Implementation Grants • Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises Support Grants • Equity Workforce Planning Grants - Browning the Green Space Tangible Goals
100 more clean energy jobs for entrants in underrepresented groups • 100 more employers trained on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion practices and best practices in inclusive procurement • 100 local high school or community college students exposed to clean energy employers through field trips, speakers, mentorships • 10 more contracts of $500K or more to minority and women-owned firms enabled... - Greentown Labs Accelerator for BIPOC Founders
Advancing Climatetech & Clean Energy Leaders (ACCEL). Do you need funding your community historically hasn't had access to? Do you need facilities and resources to build your product? Do you need mentors who share your lived experiences to help develop your roadmap to success? ACCEL is for you. BIPOC entrepreneurs: your climatetech solutions can change the world. - IREC Workforce Diversity and Inclusion
Solar Industry Diversity Study • Weatherization Assistance Program • Training-to-Job Pipelines - Cambridge-Somerville Black Business Network
CSBBN brings together Black entrepreneurs and identifies specific programs that can be developed or adopted to help ensure these businesses survive the pandemic and thrive moving forward. This new initiative will convene and work with Black-owned businesses based in Cambridge and Somerville that are in at least one of these phases: 1) Start-Up 2) Expansion 3) Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic.