GREEN FOR ALL RELEASES UNPRECEDENTED GUIDE: “GREEN-COLLAR JOBS IN AMERICA’S CITIES”

OAKLAND, CA – Green For All, in partnership with the Apollo Alliance, Center for American Progress, and the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, today released a guide to help cities across America develop strategies to spur the creation of green-collar jobs and opportunity in their communities.

The new guide, “Green-Collar Jobs in America’s Cities,” is a first-of-its-kind publication that addresses the demand for this information and outlines a strategic framework in which local policymakers and advocates can develop a green-collar job initiative that responds to the realities of their local economies and communities. 

“Our green future will be invented at the local level,” said Van Jones, founder and president of Green For All.  “This report offers those leaders some of the best thinking and models currently available for building green-collar jobs and the training pipelines necessary for city residents to fill those jobs and claim the promise of living wage careers.”

The guide encourages policymakers to take a four-step approach.

First, set a baseline to start from. Identify your environmental and economic goals, and assess local and regional opportunities for achieving those goals.

Second, develop a green economic development plan.  Enact policies and programs to drive investment into targeted green economic activity and increase demand for local green-collar workers.

Third, ready your workforce.  Prepare your green-collar workforce by building green-collar job training partnerships to identify and meet workforce training needs, and by creating green pathways out of poverty that focus on recruitment, job readiness, job training, and job placement for low-income residents.

And fourth, build on your successes.  Leverage your program’s success to build political support for new and bolder policies and initiatives.

The release of the guide coincides with tremendous momentum at the state and federal levels for green-collar jobs.  Today in Washington, DC, the Senate and House are scheduled to vote on their respective budget resolutions.  Both include funding for the Green Jobs Act –  the landmark federal legislation that supports pathways out of poverty through job training for workers in energy efficiency and renewable energy industries.  And in Olympia, Washington, Governor Christine Gregoire signed House Bill 2815, an unprecedented piece of legislation that for the first time in any state links a green-collar jobs initiative with greenhouse gas reduction strategies. 

“This bill provides a legislative complement to our recommendations, “ said Jason Walsh, national policy director at Green For All and co-author of Greener Pathways,  a companion state guide to developing green-collar jobs. “We hope to see more locally-tailored action plans for fighting pollution and poverty at the same time.”