Back in April 2008, I wrote a piece called Where is the Eco-Sector?, describing how the Federal government’s “North American Industry Classification System” (NAICS) gives short shrift to those of us who take care of the environment for our careers.

This may seem trivial, but it has widespread impacts on the way vast numbers of people think and spend money. For example, since “Environmental Health” is not a top-tier industry category in the U.S. Government’s system, this same ommission gets spread throughout job sites, investment services, news media coverage, etc.  It’s as if our industry doesn’t exist.  In the economy, lack of attention equals lack of money, and the result is that spending and investment dollars don’t get directed into the green economy at the level needed to address our global eco-challenges.

Now there’s something you can do about it!

The other day, I got an email from the Chief of the Economic Classifications Development Branch, Bureau of the Census, informing me that the department is now accepting public comments about proposed changes to the NAICS category system.

The dealine for comments is April 7, 2009. To comment, go to the U.S. Government’s official comment site for the NAICS revision process and press the “Add Comments” button. From this web page, you can also download a PDF that describes the NAICS revision process in more detail, along with the email, fax, and phone for Mr. John Murpy, Chair of the Economic Classification Policy Committee.

Here’s what I wrote:

Dear Mr. Murphy,

I would like to request that you add a top-tier category for “Ecosystem Health Care and Assistance” in your upcoming revision to the “North American Industry Classification System” (NAICS).

This would reflect the importance of healthy ecosystems to the health of people and begin to recognize the economically valuable activities of millions of Americans working in the Eco-Sector toward these objectives.

I posted a article on this subject at http://ecosector.com/blog/?p=31 that describes my reasoning in more detail.

Thank you for your kind consideration.

Mark Winstein
Founder
EcoSector Industry Association
208-596-6500

The department reviews and proposes changes once every five years.  I’m not exactly optimistic we can make these changes this time around – I think it will take growth of the EcoSector Industry Association to accomplish a sea change like this.  However, with your help, we can at least get this idea planted and then water it so that we can eventually complete this much needed structural transformation of our economy.

Mark Winstein

Tags: government green policy, green economy

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 10:29 am and is filed under Actions, Commentary, Revising NAICS. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.