Green Jobs Designation

Sustainability is playing a transformative role in the global economy, shifting business priorities and changing how businesses operate. This is creating a demand for candidates with skills that enable business activities to become environmentally sustainable.

At the same time, we at the University of Cincinnati have observed increasing demand from students across all majors for green job roles. In fact, a 2023 post-fair survey indicated that 84% of students viewed a company's sustainability practices as at least moderately important when considering a co-op, internship or job.

To help companies and job seekers find each other, companies that offer roles in environmental sustainability will be visually identified at the Professional and Technical Career Fair.

How can I participate?

When you register for the fair, you'll be asked if you would like to be considered a green job employer at this fair. Students from UC's Net Impact chapter will follow up to gather information and make a determination. If one or more of the roles you're hiring for are determined to meet the criteria, we will identify your company visually at the fair.

Step by step, the process looks like this:

  1. When filling out the career fair registration form on Handshake, select "yes" or "not sure" to the question about being considered a green job employer.
  2. If you have a job description for one or more jobs you will be hiring for at the fair, provide either the full text or a link to view it online.
  3. A representative from Net Impact UC will assess the job description and determine whether it aligns with the definition of a green job.
  4. We'll communicate the decision to the registrant or the contact person you identified.

If you do not have a green job description at the time of registration or just want more information, please let us know who we should contact at your company and provide their phone number and/or email address.

What qualifies as a green job?

To be considered a green employer at the career fair, the employer must be hiring for at least one green job, as defined here.

UC's Net Impact student chapter defines a green job as one that employs specific green skills to enable the environmental sustainability of economic activity. The job must align with at least one of the 13 categories listed below. The categories are largely based on LinkedIn Economic Graph reports on green jobs and on consultation with professionals in the field. The definition is approved by UC Net Impact's External Advisory Board for Sustainable Business, including representatives from Fifth Third Bank, Kroger, Benchmark GenSuite, Donovan Energy and Cintrifuse.

Any work that prevents, eliminates or reduces pollutants at the source such as air emissions, solid and hazardous waste, and/or liquid discharges.

Sample skills or tasks: wastewater treatment, green infrastructure design, air emission reporting and sampling or point source emission reduction

Any work that is involved with reducing the amount of hazardous or non-hazardous waste generated as byproducts of a process. This involves reducing potential waste and eliminating existing waste.

Sample skills or tasks: circularity design, sustainable packaging design, managing recycling programs or processing materials for reuse

Any work involved with progressing forward a clean and renewable energy generation future.

Sample skills or tasks: solar field design, wind turbine maintenance, renewable energy plant operations or renewable energy certification

Any work involved in promoting electrification and energy efficiency of new and existing systems.

Sample skills or tasks: building optimization, EV installation, LEED certification, energy permitting, energy surveys or energy modeling and calculations

Any work focused on the extraction of pollutants or contaminants from water and soil.

Sample skills or tasks: environmental release estimation, sampling and monitoring or field investigation and inspection

Any work concerned with the upkeep and protection of existing areas in response to negative impacts of pollution.

Sample skills or tasks: aquifer replenishment, threatened and endangered species review, wetland assessments, vegetation and tree surveys, protected species habitat evaluation or and biodiversity management

Any work that focuses on educating the general public on topics of sustainability to apply to their own business practices or career paths.

Sample skills or tasks: environmental literacy programs, sustainable curriculum development or community program development

Any work focused on developing new products and services that uphold sustainability values or progress business sustainability agendas through R&D.

Sample skills or tasks: developing products to track ESG metrics, renewable energy research or EV battery research

Any work focused on the tracking of sustainability performance.

Sample skills or tasks: ESG reporting, GHG accounting, customer solutions for energy and water consumption reduction, or tracking and analyzing sustainability key performance indicators

Any work involved in the commitment of an organization or government to laws, regulations, or other policy measures concerning the environment.

Sample skills or tasks: ESG regulatory research and environmental bill proposal writing

Any work involved in sourcing sustainably or assisting suppliers in practices to adopt sustainable practices.

Sample skills or tasks: sustainable supply chain compliance, increasing supply chain resiliency or resource analysis of suppliers

Any work involved in the management of money and funding towards sustainability efforts.

Sample skills or tasks: impact investing, economic risk assessment of environmental related impacts, environmental insurance or pollution liability

Any work that aids in the development of sustainability frameworks within economic systems. A broad category to capture remaining green skills.

Example Scenarios

Scenario 1

Company A is recruiting for a plastics engineering co-op. The role description says the co-op will assist in manufacturing processes that increase the output of polyethylene plastics. Since this role does not fall into any of the categories, this would not be considered a green job role.

However, if the plastics engineering co-op role description indicates the co-op will research markets in which a new bioplastic product would be viable, this role falls under the category of sustainable research and would be considered a green job role.

Scenario 2

Company B is recruiting for an accounting co-op. The job description lists assisting in the processing and reporting of financial data. Since there is no mention of any green skills, this role would not qualify.

However, if the accounting co-op job description says the co-op will assist in processing and reporting environmental performance data for a report, this falls under the environmental auditing category and would be considered a green job role.

Scenario 3

Company C is recruiting for a mechanical engineering co-op. The role description says the co-op will analyze energy use of HVAC and lighting systems in a building to advise a client on more efficient alternatives. This role would fall under the energy management category and would be considered a green job.

However, if the role description focuses on design and installation of HVAC systems without considering energy efficiency, this would not be considered a green job.

Resources

To learn more about the definition of a green job, explore these resources:

Questions

If you have any questions about the Green Jobs Initiative, reach out to UC's Net Impact student chapter at cincy.netimpact@gmail.com.