green-collar

adjective

Of or pertaining to employment in the environment or environmentalism industries.

Meanings

adjectivegreen-collar (comparative more green-collar, superlative most green-collar)

comparative more green-collar · superlative most green-collar

  1. Of or pertaining to employment in the environment or environmentalism industries.

    1976, Patrick Heffernan, “Jobs for the Environment — The Coming Green Collar Revolution”, in Jobs and Prices in the West Coast Region: Hearing before the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, Ninety-Fourth Congress, Second Session, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 134,

    2 more examples

    1997, Geoff Mulgan, Perri 6 [sic], et al., The British Spring: A Manifesto for the Election After Next, Demos, page 26, The United States, Canada, Germany, and Denmark are all generating hundreds of thousands of new 'green collar' jobs, especially for young people, achieving remarkable reductions in energy, water, waste disposal and materials costs.

    2001, Diane Warburton and Ian Christie, From Here to Sustainability: Politics in the Real World, Earthscan, page 75, Studies for the UK suggest that the more than 100,000 existing 'green collar' workers in environmental occupations could be joined by many thousands more, both in the private sector and in the 'social economy' of community enterprises.

  2. Of or pertaining to rural, agricultural employment; often contrasted with urban blue-collar employment.

    Blue-collar 29.7 33.5 Green-collar 21.2 10.0 White-collar 25.0 31.7 Grey-collar 24.0 24.8

    2004, Martin Heidenreich et al., Regional Innovation Systems: The Role of Governances in a Globalized World, Routledge UK, page 394, Qualification structure of the workforce (%) 1980 1997
    1 more example

    1983, U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Forestry, Water Resources, and Environment, Cultivation of Marihuana in National Forests: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Forestry, Water Resources, and Environment, […], U.S. Government Printing Office, page 32, American [marihuana] growers, who have more recently become known as America's "green-collar" workers because of the bright green color of their product, […]

Origin

By analogy with other compounds in -collar, especially white-collar and blue-collar, and taking green to represent the environment, environmentalism, and so on.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 綠領 /绿领, 綠領 /绿领
  • 綠領 /绿领 (lǜlǐng)pertaining to employment in the environment
  • 綠領 /绿领 (lǜlǐng)pertaining to rural employment
Finnish viherkaulus-, maatalous-
  • viherkaulus-pertaining to employment in the environment
  • maatalous-pertaining to rural employment
Cite this entry
APA

green-collar. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/green-collar

MLA

“green-collar.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/green-collar. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “green-collar,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/green-collar.

Source: green-collar on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.