green-collar

Adjective

green-collar (comparative more green-collar, superlative most green-collar)

1. Of or pertaining to employment in the environment or environmentalism industries.
   • 1976, Patrick Heffernan, “Jobs for the Environment — The Coming Green Collar Revolution”, in Jobs and Prices in the West Coast Region: Hearing before the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, Ninety-Fourth Congress, Second Session, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 134,
   • The United States, Canada, Germany, and Denmark are all generating hundreds of thousands of new 'green collar' jobs, especially for young people, achieving remarkable reductions in energy, water, waste disposal and materials costs.1997, Geoff Mulgan, Perri 6 [sic], et al., The British Spring: A Manifesto for the Election After Next, Demos, page 26
2. Of or pertaining to rural, agricultural employment; often contrasted with urban blue-collar employment.
   • American [marihuana] growers, who have more recently become known as America's "green-collar" workers because of the bright green color of their product, […]1983, U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Forestry, Water Resources, and Environment, Cultivation of Marihuana in National Forests: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Forestry, Water Resources, and...
   • Blue-collar 29.7 33.5
     Green-collar 21.2 10.0
     White-collar 25.0 31.7
     Grey-collar 24.0 24.82004, Martin Heidenreich et al., Regional Innovation Systems: The Role of Governances in a Globalized World, Routledge UK, page 394, Qualification structure of the workforce (%) 1980 1997