Prepared by Gregory J. Morris, Chief Executive Officer of New York City Employment & Training Coalition on June 26, 2026.
At a time when federal and even State support for climate has retreated, it is all the more important for City stakeholders to ensure that every resource we have at the local level is integrated as effectively as possible to deliver not only climate solutions but also our affordability and public service delivery goals.
Introduction: A Plan at a Crossroads
The Green Economy Action Plan set an ambitious goal of creating 380,000 jobs in the green economy by 2040. But the workforce systems needed to fill those jobs and deliver those climate solutions remain fragmented, underdeveloped, and deprioritized. If New York is going to deliver on its climate and economic goals, workforce development must be treated as economic infrastructure rather than a downstream social service. NYCETC recently released An Affordable Climate Economy, a report on how to ensure our vital climate goals are front and center—and part of the path—to delivering an affordable, growing, and effective city.
“Green” Is the Wrong Word — Affordability Is the Right One
Most workers and small businesses are motivated by economic opportunity, not climate terminology. Framing the green economy around the lower costs, affordable housing, transportation savings, and reduced utility bills that climate solutions—such as denser construction, better mass transit, renewable energy, and public tree and park systems—produce will build broader public support and stronger participation.
City Government Is the Green Economy’s Biggest Missed Opportunity
The public sector was largely overlooked in the Green Economy Action Plan despite being one of the largest and most foundational sources of green jobs in New York City. Agencies responsible for transit, housing, parks, and infrastructure have thousands of vacancies and represent a major untapped workforce opportunity. Improving their workforces improves these agencies’ ability to deliver climate solutions that improve New Yorkers’ lives.
The Small Business Blind Spot
Small businesses are at the center of the green economy, but many lack the time and capacity to navigate government programs and workforce development resources. The government must proactively engage these employers rather than expecting them to seek out sometimes confusing public resources on their own. The City’s proposed expansion of business outreach services through the Mom and Pop Czar is a strong step forward. It should be paired with Green Economy Career Navigators who can help workers move through training, credentials, and employment pathways.
Workforce Development and Economic Development Must Operate as One System
The Green Economy Action Plan cannot succeed if workforce development and economic development continue to operate on parallel tracks. Employers are identifying talent needs, workforce providers are training New Yorkers for emerging careers, and economic development agencies are investing in industry growth — yet these efforts are often disconnected from one another.
What can both ends of City Hall do to attain these goals today?
1. Pilot the Full-Cycle Model of Green Workforce Development in City Government
Direct key agencies (Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Parks and Recreation, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Department of Transportation, and Department of Sanitation) to serve as demonstration agencies by expanding career exposure, strengthening work-based learning opportunities, increasing exam frequency, and creating more transparent pathways into climate-critical civil service titles. To ensure effectiveness, report outcomes annually to the City Council’s Committee on Workforce Development.
In this model, the city government itself is the proving ground for every workforce practice we are asking private green employers to adopt. The model spans a New Yorker’s full trajectory: career exploration through expanded agency tours of railyards, treatment plants, municipal offices, and power plants starting in early high school; career preparation through mid-high-school internships and work-experience placements at key city agencies; career access through targeted civil service reform — more frequent exams, clearer trainee pathways, transparent timelines — for a defined set of climate-critical titles, without touching civil service protections; career launch through end-of-high-school apprenticeships at city agencies carrying CUNY credit; and career advancement through the same business-as-service infrastructure described above, applied internally.
If this model can work inside the City’s own famously slow hiring bureaucracy, it becomes the most credible, battle-tested template we have for scaling the private green economy — because it will have been proven on the hardest case first.
2. Explore Green Launchpad as a model for New York City’s industry partnership strategy
As NYCEDC, NYC Talent, and New York City Public Schools continue to develop industry partnerships across priority sectors, The Green Launchpad offers an employer-first model worth exploring. Convened by NYCETC, the NYC Energy Efficiency Workforce Coalition brings employers, utilities, workforce organizations, and training providers together to define occupations, competencies, career pathways, and hiring needs using a common language. Rather than beginning with available training programs, the Coalition starts with employer demand and aligns workforce investments to meet real hiring needs. As the City refines its industry partnership strategy, Green Launchpad provides a practical framework that could strengthen employer engagement and inform future partnerships across additional green economy sectors. To make these partnerships sustainable, the City Council should invest in the backbone capacity required to convene employers, coordinate partners, identify emerging workforce needs, and continuously align training with hiring demand.
3. Launch Green Economy Career Navigators
Place dedicated navigators in community colleges, Workforce1 centers, and community-based organizations to help New Yorkers understand career options, access training, stack credentials, and connect to employment opportunities in the green economy. Navigators would guide individuals through training and certification pathways, building stackable credentials in fields such as building decarbonization, energy efficiency, and electrification, while maintaining close relationships with employers to ensure that career guidance reflects real hiring demand. By providing clear, guided pathways into green careers, the City can ensure that its climate investments translate into accessible employment opportunities while helping businesses access the skilled workforce needed to implement New York City’s climate goals.
4. Create a GEAP Accountability Framework
Require the Administration to identify the priority occupations, workforce investments, hiring targets, and performance metrics necessary to achieve the goals of the Green Economy Action Plan. Publish annual progress reports, and identify key gaps so that policymakers, employers, workforce providers, and New Yorkers can both track whether the City is building the talent pipeline needed to support the projected 380,000 green economy jobs, and be a part of offering new and additive solutions where the objectives may be falling short.
5. Establish a Green Economy Workforce Implementation Working Group
The City Council should establish a standing Green Economy Workforce Implementation Working Group to guide the implementation of the Green Economy Action Plan’s workforce initiatives. Building on the foundation established by the former Green Economy Advisory Council, this body would bring together NYCETC, employers, labor, workforce providers, educational institutions, City agencies, utilities, philanthropy, and the Green Economy Network to ensure the City’s workforce strategy evolves in step with industry needs.
The Working Group would serve as an ongoing forum for aligning workforce investments with employer demand, identifying implementation barriers, coordinating across agencies and sectors, and recommending policy and program improvements. Its work should include developing an implementation roadmap, conducting periodic progress reviews, and issuing an annual public report that tracks workforce outcomes, employer engagement, and progress toward the Green Economy Action Plan’s goals.
Unlike the previous advisory structure, the Working Group should be designed as an active implementation body—one that establishes an ongoing mechanism for collaboration, transparency, and accountability, while ensuring that the broader green workforce ecosystem plays a meaningful role in shaping and advancing New York City’s green economy.
Additional Resources
Read testimony submitted by Gregory J. Morris, Chief Executive Officer of New York City Employment & Training Coalition on June 26, 2026 for the New York City Council Oversight Hearing on Implementing the Green Economy Action Plan.