By Lendora Washington | SACOBSERVER.COM WIRE SERVICES

WASHINGTON (NNPA) - All of a sudden, no color seems to be more popular than green. The term “green” has become America’s new buzzword for environmentally friendly products, services, and initiatives.

Green organizations, green products, and green materials are sprouting up everywhere. But, the most promising and talked about development in the greening trend appears to be the creation of what is being called “green jobs.”

“Green jobs in a political sense are jobs that are good for the environment,” said Kari Fulton, National Campus Campaign Coordinator of Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative. “The discussion on capitol hill is about blue collars jobs going green and making sure our American people are getting the jobs they need.”

Green jobs are made to boost a renewable energy economy and sustainable living practices. They can be any job advocating for the environment or labor-based jobs that are good for the environment, This includes recycling jobs, environmental research, green building and maintenance, and green waste composting. Recycling, environmental research and advocacy, organic food production, and manufacturing environmentally friendly materials are also green collar jobs.

The creation of green jobs will help the economy by reversing the steadily increasing unemployment rate. Green collar jobs are believed to be the answer to the rising unemployment rate, mainly because they are jobs that cannot be outsourced and will be given to the people that need them.

With an unemployment rate of 13.4 percent this month, compared to the national average of 7.6 percent, the African-American community could arguably benefit the most from new job creation. But, jobs are being lost from virtually every field.

“In the construction industry, we have lost 995,000 construction jobs and construction unemployment is at 1.2 percent,” said Jacob Hay, Spokesperson for Laborers International Union of North America. “We participate to make sure that these jobs are middle class jobs that can help someone support a family with good benefits and pay.”

The Green Jobs Act of 2007 allots 125 million federal dollars per year to create an Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Worker Training Program. Newer still, President Obama’s current stimulus plan proposal allots $15 billion towards energy efficiency, which he believes will create 5 million additional green jobs with above average pay.

“Most of the green jobs for construction work include building wind turbines and laying foundation for them, retrofitting, fixing electricity grids, and building mass transit,” said Hay. “We participate to make sure that these jobs are middle class jobs that can help someone support a family with good benefits and pay.”

Although these jobs sound promising, many are just that, a promise.

“There is more momentum to get the jobs started then the actual jobs,” said Fulton. “The reality is that these jobs aren’t here yet.”

However, Green jobs training programs, corps and centers are becoming an increasingly popular idea, like the stimulus plan proposal for a Clean Energy Corp that would strengthen green collar job skills and offer job preparation programs.

“Universities are developing programs, so people can get into green jobs,” said Fulton. “Unfortunately, it’s not a lot of HBCUs. It’s important for people of color to pay attention and to get in these programs or the unemployment cycle might be even worse.

Said Fulton, “In policy talk, there’s not a lot of talk about people of color. We might still be going in that vicious cycle of unemployment. It might just be a green cycle.”

Lendora Washington is an NNPA special correspondent.