It's exciting to see the term "green collar" has become "official" by making it into Merriam-Webster's. The induction still carries significance, while also bringing into focus the process by which our culture changes through language. As a term's definition solidifies over time, so to does its acceptance and visibility in the discourse.

Interestingly, "green collar" has been somewhere in the vernacular for quite some time. Wikipedia dates it back to 1976 in Patrick Heffernan's, “Jobs for the Environment — The Coming Green Collar Revolution.” More than 30 years later, I have to wonder what Heffernan intended when he used the word "coming" in his congressional presentation.

In a more recent work,  Green Collar Jobs: The Alternative Energy Industry and Labor Markets,
Noam Segal chronicles the potential for new jobs in our current markets. Much of Segal's analysis focuses on the process by which "green collar" has come to be understood.    

In order to effect cultural change, we must have a collective understanding of the concept. For a new term to carry weight it needs to exist in the physical -- not just literal -- world. Yet the dictionary definition of "green collar" bears little resemblance to the application for which it is intended.