This article analyzes how the environment has been added to the ilo’s agenda from the late 1970s to the present day. It shows how the environment, initially defined as a worker safety issue, was slowly integrated into the sustainable development paradigm starting in the 1990s in response to pressure from a number of actors both inside and outside the ilo. The green jobs concept adopted in the 2000s made it possible to tie the environment to the Decent Work Agenda—promoted by the ilo since 1999 – and to inscribe the environment more clearly in the ilo’s mandate. The article therefore provides an update on a process for appropriating the environmental question that is halfway between “going green” and environmentalization.