using Standard Occupational Classifications (SOCs). For the creation of GGS-OCC estimates, the same sampling frame was used, and OES staffing patterns were matched to the firm’s green percentage calculated with the GGS. The results of the GGS-OCC survey showed that 30.6 percent of 2011 employment was in establishments producing a green output and that occupations whose duties are expected to be directly linked to green activities are also employed in non-green establishments (e.g., environmental engineers, environmental scientists and specialists).

# The process approach

The **process approach** estimates the number of workers involved in technologies used to reduce the environmental footprint of the firms in which they work, regardless of the outputs the firm produces. This approach is useful when analysts’ main objective is to understand firms’ labor needs to implement new technologies, but without a tight link to occupational and skills data this approach falls short of generating enough information to adequately design skills policy solutions.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. developed this approach and designed a survey to apply it. The Green Technologies and Practices (GTP) survey is a firm-level survey that captures whether firms use certain environmentally friendly technologies and practices (or GTPs) that can reduce environmental impact.<sup>24</sup> The survey also collects information on whether workers are involved in these GTPs by researching, developing, maintaining, using, or installing GTPs, or training other employees on them. In cases where workers spend more than half of their time involved in the GTPs, the survey also collects the occupational job description, which is then used to code jobs into the 4-digit Standard Occupational Classification (SOC), along with wages for such jobs. The following are the GTPs surveyed:

1. Generate electricity, heat, or fuel from renewable sources primarily for use within the establishment

2. Improve energy efficiency within the establishment 3. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions (other than by 1 and 2) 4. Either reduce the creation or release of pollutants or toxic compounds produced, or to remove pollutants or hazardous waste from the environment 5. Reduce or eliminate the creation of waste materials 6. Conserve natural resources In 2011, the BLS carried out the GTP survey. It sampled 35,000 firms stratified by region and 2-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) sector. The survey results showed that 75 percent of firms used at least one GTP. Not surprisingly, the top GTP was improving energy efficiency, for which any firm using at least one Energy Star certified appliance would qualify, followed by reducing the creation of waste materials, for which any firm recycling waste—a widespread practice and mandatory in some cities in the U.S. The GTP is not exempt from the measurement challenges. First, while the survey provides examples of each GTP and includes the most salient types, it does not include an exhaustive list of GTPs, leaving room for respondents’ subjective interpretation on whether they use or not a GTP. Second, the respondents of the survey are not the workers themselves, but employers or CEOs, which might lead to biased answers about the importance and applicability of GTPs by workers.

> 24 BLS (2011) and BLS (2012b).

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