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05 July 2011: Green Jobs and Ethical Workers

Dr Lynne Pettinger has been awarded a British Academy research grant to study work in 'green' or 'eco' organisations - those organisations working in green technology and green lifestyle - and will carry out research into two specific areas of work: Eco-lifestyle businesses selling to end consumers, and Green technology organisations such as environmental consultancies.

At the heart of the project lie questions about the interactions between ethics and markets. Dr Pettinger will explore how ‘green’ ethics influence behaviour in labour markets and product markets.

The project will involve life history interviews and observations of behaviour with workers from two types of organisation based in the UK:

• Green consumer businesses (e.g. those selling products made of recycled waste)
• Green consultancies (e.g. those providing environmental impact assessments)

Dr Pettinger will explore how the workers in green consumer businesses negotiate their own ethical beliefs in relation to others, and what the relationship is between knowledge, education, work-orientation and eco-ethics for workers in consultancies.

Dr Pettinger said: "As policy makers turn to promoting green industries as a solution to the twin threats of recession and environmental degradation, the ‘green job’ becomes a salient subject of study. This comparison focuses attention on the different orientations to the market and hence possible difference in participants’ beliefs and understandings of the ethics of markets and the ethics of environmental work."

This is a one-year project, starting in August 2011, and forms the start of what will hopefully become a larger, cross-national study of workers in 'green' organisations in construction and manufacturing sectors.

Contact for more information: Dr Lynne Pettinger, Department of Sociology, University of Essex