Journal of Environmental Management 262 (2020) 110314 Available online 2 March 2020 0301-4797/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Research article Green jobs, definitional issues, and the employment of young people: An analysis of three European Union countries A. Sulich a, * , M. Rutkowska b , Ł. Popławski c a Wroclaw University of Economics, Faculty of Management, Computer Science and Finance, ul. Komandorska 118-120, 53-345, Wroclaw, Poland b Wroclaw University of Technology, Faculty of Computer Science and Management, ul. Smoluchowskiego 25, 50-372, Wroclaw, Poland c Cracow University of Economics, Faculty of Finance and Law, ul. Rakowicka 27, 31-510, Krakow, Poland A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Ecodevelopment European public goods Green jobs Protected areas ABSTRACT This article considers intertwined issues relating to the green economy, protected areas, green jobs, and the Environmental Goods and Services Sector (EGSS). The article discusses the most common approaches towards greening economies, all these being based on the concept of sustainable development, and presents an analysis of how green jobs can be used to address the issue of unemployment among young people in Poland, the Czech Republic and Belgium. Data were compared for selected groups in the European Classification of Economic Activities (NACE). It is observed that in both Poland and Belgium around 15% of young people find their first employment in the green jobs sector, but in the Czech Republic, the proportion is far lower (1.83%). It is concluded that an increasing emphasis on building the green economy provides excellent employment oppor- tunities for young people seeking their first job. 1. Introduction Green management aims for sustainable and durable development without degrading the environment (Demk� ow and Sulich, 2017). The international literature contains many definitions relating to the green economy and green jobs, and these often vary between countries. Furthermore, it is tough to estimate the number of people working in green industries or doing ‘green jobs’ without settled definitions of what these are. Difficulties arising from different definitions lead to various problems, including a lack of standardized data. Currently, the world’s most significant environmental problems stem from economic issues resulting from the effects of the 2008–2009 global recession, these endangering progress on issues of environmental sustainability because the economic recovery has been given priority over environmental sustainability. Nevertheless, proposed solutions to the world’s urgent environmental problems are mostly based on the sustainable develop- ment approach. Sustainable and durable development is ‘a course of inevitable and desirable economic development which does not affect the human environment in a significant and irreversible manner, does not lead to degradation of the biosphere, and reconciles the laws of nature, eco- nomics and culture’ (Poskrobko, 1998). For the purposes of this article, we assume that sustainable and du- rable development is ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (Brundtland Commission, 1987). This contains two key concepts: the concept of ’needs’, in particular, the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and the idea of limitations imposed by the current state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs. This article presents a review of the most critical issues in environ- mentally sustainable development and chooses one issue in particular for closer scrutiny: the extent to which young people’s first employment is in the green economy. The text is organized as follows. First, issues and data relating to Poland, the Czech Republic and Belgium are considered. The results of these efforts are then synthesized to suggest possible ways in which green jobs can be used to solve youth unem- ployment problems. 2. The essence of protected areas and green jobs The three intertwined topics of employment in protected areas, green jobs, and the employment in Environmental Goods and Services Sector * Corresponding author. E-mail address: adam.sulich@ue.wroc.pl (A. Sulich). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Management journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110314 Received 7 May 2018; Received in revised form 24 December 2019; Accepted 19 February 2020