Green Jobs—A Literature Review

Abstract

In the past two decades the topic of “green jobs” has drawn particular attention, resulting in a widely diverse and relatively large number of published papers. Although a determinant for the increase of knowledge, the heterogeneity of these studies may raise the issue of a systematic documentation of the key contributions in this field. In this context, the present research focuses on analyzing the scientific literature published in the last five years on the topic of “green jobs” with the aim to identify definitions and meanings associated with the concept of “green jobs”, the connected terms, areas of research interest and the main theoretical and practical results. The results reveal that although there is no uniformity in the definition of the concept, there is still a convergence towards the initial meaning offered by the UNEP/ILO/IOE/ITUC Report of 2008. Moreover, using scientific software VOSViewer our research shows that the concept of “green jobs” is most linked with the following terms: sustainable development, the green economy, the circular economy, the welfare economy, the European Green Pact, energy, renewable energy, economic development, and employment. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that the studies focused on “green jobs” are mainly concerned with the following issues: green jobs creation, work-life balance, correlations between green business and green jobs and the role of local government in supporting green jobs.

The nexus between green strategic consensus, innovation, and performance evidence from eco-friendly food agro-industry companies in Indonesia

“…The indicators used to develop the GP variables of food agro-industry companies are: a) green human resource management performance [23] (GP1); b) green human resource competence [50] (GP2); c) IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1108/1/012033 4 green operational performance [60] (GP3); d) green products' market share [24] (GP4); and e) green product sales growth and margin [33] (GP5).…”

“…Green rewards and career opportunities are open to employees who can implement plans to increase production and sales [23]. Optimizing a green work-life balance is possible because people create green products and contribute to environmental sustainability [24]. Participatory policies and growth targets result in substantial financial growth after the GSC agreement [25].…”

The Role of VET in a Green Transition of Industry: A Literature Review

“…Technological green skills are considered most important in the VET literature. However, studies (Nikolajenko-Skarbalė et al, 2021;Sern et al, 2021;Stanef-Puica et al, 2022) based on document analysis and interviews with experts present a multitude of different green technological, generic, and soft skills that industry requires to be implemented in VET. Rosenberg et al (2018) have tried to develop a holistic analytical model focusing on the learning needs and competencies that are necessary to drive a green transition in various sectors.…”

Climate change and the European banking sector: the effect of green technology adaptation and human capital

“…Green HR is measured sometimes qualitatively or quantitatively (Stanef-puic and Badea, 2022) and is known as a distinguishing factor between sustainable circular economy and unsustainable linear economy (Sulich and Sołoducho-Pelc, 2022). The definition of green HR varies across literature, such as green employment if the personnel are working in RES and “non-green” if they are employed in non-renewable energy sector, despite that both sectors require the same skill-set (Bowen et al , 2018).…”