The Green Jobs Fair is around the corner and has been receiving a lot of media:

• Financial Express  Green sector set to paint the job town red  23. Sept
  
  
• The Tribune Towards a Green Future 23. Sept
  
  
• The Hindu Grab a green job 21 Sept
  
  
• The Times of India This job fair is literally about greener pastures 19 Sept
  
  
• The Indian Express Green View 19 Sept
  
  
• Express Newsline Green Jobs Fair in Delhi from September 24-26 18 Sept
  

The enormous recycling operation in Dharavi is well known for collecting everything from glass and paper to aluminium, paints, tins and plastics. 4,000 tonnes of waste gets processed every day, which generates USD 72 million a year[1] and employs around 250,000 people.[2] These statistics have earned the industry the label of ‘Dharavi’s recycling miracle’.

However, headlines like this fail to take Dharavi’s recycling workers seriously, missing both the problems and potential in the sector.

Take, for instance, an international comparison. The UK-based firm AWS Eco Plastics has a turnover projected to rise to USD 65 million by the end of the year, which is roughly equal to the entire recycling operation in Dharavi.[3] And AWS is a medium sized firm that specializes in one field. The large Austrian company Altstoff Recycling has a turnover nearly three times the size at USD 200 million.[4]

Workers in Dharavi currently miss out on the most lucrative parts of the recycling process. Warehouse factories are too small, too ill equipped and too dangerous to process large quantities of materials. What is produced gets sold back to manufacturers, but this means that the high value in remanufacturing gets transferred elsewhere.

So what would it take to put the recycling industry in Dharavi on an international footing?

Certainly, some capital investment would be needed. The concrete tubs where aluminium gets melted down would have to become factories with industrial scale equipment. The army of informal workers picking-up waste would have to grow into an infrastructure that could safely collect large quantities of recyclable materials from an area extending beyond Mumbai.

Alongside this, workers would need training, not just to use better processes and equipment, but also to restore and remanufacture high value goods. The potential for growth is enormous if hardrives could replace tin cans as a staple Dharavi product.

Indeed, remanufacturing is becoming big business, especially for electrical equipment and industrial components like compressors. In the US it constitutes around 75% of the total recycling industry with a revenue of USD 180 billion.[5] This work is twice as labour intensive as conventional manufacturing, and demands higher levels of job skills. To provide a quality labour force, vocational schemes specific to the remanufacturing industry would need to be developed.

People working at the highest level would also be required. Management roles would be created by large flows of materials and goods, in the organisation of a highly skilled workforce, and through sales in international markets. There are implications for the education system here. Universities would need to offer courses that target top positions in the recycling and remanufacturing industries.

The structural adjustments involved in really committing to green industries, like recycling in Dharavi, are expensive, but there is an economic incentive to make them. The ILO has pointed to figures from the Bureau of International Recycling and the US, which have registered turnovers of USD 160 billion and USD 236 billion annually.[6] This is in the context of a global market for Low Carbon and Environmental Goods & Services projected to grow from USD 5 trillion to USD 7.25 trillion in the next 5 years.[7]

But these investments also have the potential to improve the quality of life for workers and their families. The Indian Express has recently reported on the effects of the downturn in Dharavi, where some businesses have seen a fall in demand of 50%.[8] Developing human capital and infrastructure in deprived areas is a way of helping poor people become more resilient to shocks that are beyond their control.

- Richard Strauss

The recent economic downturn has given policymakers an opportunity to take a second look at their growth strategies, and many have concluded not only that serious structural change to a low carbon economy is necessary, but that the time to make the investment has arrived.

Research by the ILO suggests why governments in recession are starting to take the environment so seriously: the global market value for environmental products and services will double to US$ 2.74 trillion by 2020, there are 2.3 million new jobs already in renewable energy, and clean technology is the third largest sector for venture capital in the U.S.

So where does India fit in this picture? Actually, it is front and centre. The UK Department of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) has identified India as the Third Largest Market in Low‐Carbon and Green Goods & Services, with a 6% share of the $5 trillion global market. According to HSBC, this means that green technologies and industries in India will attract spending in the region of $150 billion (Rs 760,000 crore) between 2008 and 2017.

A high propensity to substitute capital for labour in the Indian economy also makes it likely that these investments will translate into relatively high numbers of green jobs. For instance, the ILO has predicted that India can generate 9 lakh jobs in the biogas industry, 6 lakh of these in processing areas such as making pellets and the fuel supply chain. At the same time, the green economy will include an increasing number of high value jobs. The Economic Times has reported on employment trends in the US and the UK, where there is data that suggests green jobs pay up to 20% more than other jobs. This is largely because sustainability is becoming more engrained in business practice, creating roles that are attracting top level professionals.

Rapidly evolving job opportunities demand skill sets in environmental sustainability, and traditional jobs need to be re‐imagined to support the emerging Green economy. Thus improvements in human capital will have to take place if India is to meet the growth in demand for green services. The primary objective of this Green Jobs Fair is to encourage students to make the educational and training choices that will prepare them for participating in green growth sectors, and to encourage our universities to support them by providing the right training.

The Green Jobs Fair will kickstart a national movement to promote awareness and action for supporting a Green economic revolution. It is being promoted by The Climate Project‐India and the Sierra Club, who will be joined by a coalition of partners representing a spectrum of civil society organisations and businesses.

Mark your calendars for the big event of the year!

We're bringing you The Green Jobs Fair 2009, on 24th September in Delhi



Check our main homepage for more info and registration details...

More on the pre-event activities soon!