Green collar exploratory research: report of findings, 31st March 2008

The Dusseldorp Skills Forum (DSF) is focused on building the debate around sustainability and to this end is investigating the ‘green collar’ concept in Australia and current beliefs about sustainability amongst workers to help drive the agenda. This was an exploratory first stage of research, designed to find out how interesting and motivating sustainability is, what are the values and attributes associated with it and what are the ‘hot buttons’ to focus on. The intention from the research is to identify the current landscape regarding sustainability amongst workers and how best to take advantage of the concept to advance the sustainability agenda. Six extended group discussions were conducted, covering the key audiences for green collar, with the intent to get a broad perspective and illustration of differences between the audiences. Groups comprised: school students; young workers in apprenticeships and service trades, some self-employed; older workers, mainly in ‘blue collar’ trades, some self-employed; [vocational education and training] VET educators; and middle managers.

Excerpts from published introduction. Show less