Scholars such as Pinderhughes and academic institutions are helping push the green jobs movement toward providing  poor and working-class Americans access to long-term and high-quality employment. Well aware that post-World War II employment trends in high technology largely bypassed Americans with relatively low education and work skills, scholars along with environmental justice activists, labor union officials, policymakers and others see considerable potential in what a vibrant 21st century green jobs sector may offer socially disadvantaged Americans.

The careful study of environmentalism and urban issues, for example, led Pinderhughes “to understand that there might be a set of opportunities, probably entry-level opportunities that might be suited for people with lower levels of skill and education.”

In a 2007 study, she identified 22 different sectors of the green economy. “I have always been interested in the intersection between environment and social equity, and it made perfect sense to consistently search for opportunities where we could address environmental problems with social equity issues at the same time.”

Global Insight, an economics forecasting organization, has projected that potential growth in green jobs could make that sector the fastest growing one and occupy a significant share of total jobs in the U.S. economy. Green jobs could spring from a 2008 count of 750,000 jobs, or less than 0.5 percent, to more than 4.2 million jobs over the next three decades. That would mean green jobs could account for 10 percent of new employment growth for that period, according to Global Insight.