Red carpet for green-collar workers

After white- and blue-collar jobs, a new class of workers is emerging: Green-collar. Green-collar workers are those who work on products and services that are environment-friendly. Reacting quickly to this, specialised courses are mushrooming.

An organisation that seeks to improve the environment is considered 'green'. Green-collar jobs include the design, manufacture, installation, operation and maintenance of renewable energy and energy-efficiency technologies.

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), University of Basic and Applied Sciences, and the Indian Institutes of Management are coming up with specialised courses on environment conservation.

TERI offers courses in environment, including sustainable development. It offers MSc in environmental studies, plant biotechnology, climate science and policy, MTech in infrastructure, and has just started a master of business administration in business sustainability.

"We have started offering an MBA in business sustainability since July this year to a batch of 25 students. Through this programme, we are looking at how regular MBA programmes can bring 'green' into them by covering all aspects of sustainable development, other than just the bottom line," says Rajiv Seth, registrar at TERI university.

Many companies in India are hiring ‘green workers’ ONGC, ITC, Nestle, Essar Oil, Tata Steel, Wipro, JSW Steel, IDBI, ICICI and Rabo Bank have announced plans for emissions trading. Several high-impact-sector companies (such as those in electricity generation, electrical equipment, construction, etc) have taken the initiative to collect emissions data and allot management staff to climate change issues.

To cater to this market, IIM Lucknow, the pioneer in carbon markets education, has been updating its students on aspects of the environment.

“One of the things close to my heart has been to provide thought leadership for programmes relating to environment management. We have courses on carbon trading, environment laws and the business of environment,” says Devi Singh, director, IIM Lucknow.

Many institutes recognise the importance of environmental challenges in the lives of future managers. ICFAI Business School (IBS) teaches carbon credit finance as a derivative to its finance students. It plans to introduce it as a course in the near future. “Our preliminary assessment has shown that while carbon credit is not yet that big a subject, it is gaining momentum,” says P Bala Bhaskaran, its director.

Carbon credit has made inroads into KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research. “Green jobs are definitely the in-thing. However, subjects like carbon credit finance are yet to become ubiquitous. Yet, they are making inroads into campuses,” said N D Sharma, faculty member at the institute.

Even the premier B-school, IIM Ahmedabad, has introduced a course on carbon finance as part of its environment management strategies programme. Divided into 14 sessions, the course includes subjects like evolution of the global carbon market, the current state of international negotiations on climate change and developments following the Kyoto Protocol.