Green jobs are essential for creating healthy communities. By investing in the skills of the future and prioritizing sustainable workforce development, cities can provide well-paying and accessible employment opportunities to ensure Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and women have access to living wage jobs while reducing emissions and meeting climate targets at the same time.
Seattle is collaborating with local partners and global organizations like C40 Cities to share best practices and learn about efforts to build a sustainable future with good, green jobs that reduce emissions and benefit us all. Workforce development is a key strategy of Seattle’s Green New Deal which supports expanding access to clean energy careers that can help build generational wealth at the intersection of climate action, infrastructure, and clean, renewable energy.
Seattle’s work and partnerships were recently recognized as part of C40’s Green Jobs Now-City Stories series!
The video features Yaharia, a carpenter’s apprentice participating in the Northwest Carpenter’s Institute of Washington’s training program*. Yaharia shares her experience in the video and the impact of green jobs on her life. The opportunity created by Seattle’s Green New Deal has made her financially secure and allowed her to care for her mother in retirement, something she had always dreamed of.
“This apprenticeship positively impacted my life because now my mom is able to retire, and I get to care for her.”
– Yaharia, Carpenter’s Apprentice, Northwest Carpenter’s Institute of Washington
In the video, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell also spoke about the importance of providing youth employment opportunities in the green economy.
“A lot of these younger folks, they’re looking for their roads, a road that could lead into the green economy, and that’s why I’m so passionate about getting youth from all backgrounds to be here.”
– Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell
The C40 video showcases the importance of green jobs and how they can positively impact people’s lives and highlights the importance of creating green job opportunities that benefit everyone in the transition to an inclusive and sustainable economy.
Check out Seattle’s video, and see the other cities highlighted as part of C40’s Green Jobs Now campaign.
* The City of Seattle has invested $1 million for Clean Energy Career Training programs across six workforce development organizations: ANEW, Carpenters Employers Apprenticeship & Training Trust (CEATT), Seattle Central Pre-Apprenticeship Training (PACT), Sphere Solar Energy, YouthCare’s YouthBuild, and Emerald Cities Collaborative.