News
Site News
Building a local movement toward a green economy
The United States is moving from "a pollution-based economy" that has left many people behind to an "inclusive, green economy," [Van Jones] said. While technology is driving many of the changes, people need to act to make sure the new economy provides good-paying jobs accessible to all. Already, local communities are moving ahead to create green job opportunities, in cities ranging from Chicago to Oakland to Richmond, Va., Jones said. Some of the best organizing is happening in low-income communities, where many workers – in particular young people of color – can benefit.
Thousands of contracts; millions of jobs
Van Jones is the founder and president of Green for All, a national organization working to get "green collar" jobs and opportunities to disadvantaged communities. In an interview last week with Insight News, Jones said, "We have to move into a greener economy. Oil is past tense. Coal is past tense. All of that stuff is too negative to keep using. We have to keep moving into something more clean and green. Billions of dollars are already flowing in that direction. We want to make sure that there is an equal opportunity and an equal access agenda. We don't want to build a green economy that is a white only economy or an eco-elite only economy," he said.
Vangelism
What does the green jobs and justice community think about the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act? To get one perspective, Grist caught up with Van Jones, the founder of Green For All, a group that promotes green-jobs policies and environmental justice. Jones, a civil-rights lawyer and the founder and former executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, has become a leading voice for building a green economy.
We Can Build An Inclusive Green Economy
This morning, Senate debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act came to an end. It was a missed opportunity to robustly debate a critical issue facing the country. The bill had the potential, particularly if strengthened during the amendment process, to affect profound and positive change for both the American people and the planet.
With Investment, Millions of Blue and White Collars Can Be Turned Green
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Building a green economy has the potential to affect millions of workers in occupations throughout the country, and a new report highlights some of those jobs than can be transformed, with the right investment, into green jobs.
What Is a Green-Collar Job, Exactly?
What do presidential candidates John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have in common — aside from the obvious? They all love green-collar jobs. Obama promises to spend $150 billion over 10 years to create 5 million new green collar jobs. Clinton references the term repeatedly on the trail, and says her energy plan will create millions of new green-collar jobs as well. McCain is less willing to cite numbers, but he too assures campaign audiences that action to decarbonize America's economy will produce "thousands, millions of new jobs in America."
Green industries offer job growth opportunity
When a Republican candidate for president starts talking about limiting greenhouse gases during a speech at a wind turbine plant you know there’s an environmental wave going on. All the presidential candidates, including John McCain who spoke about climate change at a wind energy facility in Oregon this month, have green initiatives on their agendas, and states across the country are embarking on initiatives to cut pollution and a reliance on fossil fuels. Not to mention homeowners who don’t want to be at the mercy of electric and oil companies. Solar, wind and biofuels are all growing alternatives, and these fairly young industries will need people — people to produce, install and sell their products. That means a wave of employment opportunities — so-called green-collar jobs — could sweep the nation.
Pink slip leads to green-collar job
After getting pink-slipped a second time by an auto supplier thanks to the woeful economy, David Shaw shifted gears. "I'd had it with auto manufacturing," said Shaw, 48, a married father of two young children who lives in Harrison Township. "I wasn't sure what I would do next but knew I wanted to be in control of my own destiny for a change." Shaw spent months weighing options and kept coming back to one thing: alternative energy. With oil prices marching higher and society focused on being green, he figured that would be more recession-proof.
Report states millions of U.S. workers to be in demand for green jobs
Shifting from the "dirty fossil-fuel-based" economy to one of clean energy would be a boost for millions of American workers, according to a report released Tuesday by a coalition of conservation and labor groups. The report, "Job Opportunities for the Green Economy," studied employment conditions in 12 states including Indiana, looking at a range of occupations and income levels that would benefit from America's transition toward a clean energy economy.
Van Jones on CNN's "Issue #1"
On Monday, June 2nd, Van Jones spoke about the Warner-Lieberman bill and his vision for a green economy that can transform this country.
Green jobs coming to Albuquerque
On Wednesday of last week Mayor Martin Chávez signed a “Green Jobs Pledge” at the ICLEI summit, held in Albuquerque, committing the city to invest in community-based jobs training to ensure a skilled local workforce for emerging green industries. The green jobs pledge signed by the mayor was developed in part by the folks at Green For All, who also provided help with the creation of the city council initiative. Such across the board agreement bodes well for the future of Albuquerque workers, as well as the companies who depend on them.
Global Green Jobs
“Green-collar jobs” are a hot topic these days. This is good news, certainly, for those who seek to alter our present course toward climate catastrophe. Greater awareness of the promise of a green economy allows us to challenge the too-familiar framing of “jobs vs. the environment” that has defeated so many attempts at environmental protection.
Global-warming conference honors civil rights leader
Mix the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with efforts to fight global warming and inner-city poverty and the Dream Reborn Conference emerges. "This is the first 'green' conference honoring Dr. King and really addressing the issues of African-Americans and other disadvantaged communities," said Van Jones, 39, the Mid-Southerner who started Green For All and helped bring the Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit group's three-day conference to Memphis.
Turning blue collars green
Environmentalists say that if global warming is to be slowed, it will take wholesale change in how electricity is generated, how people travel and how they heat and cool their houses. That means installing hundreds of millions of solar panels, building thousands of wind farms and geo-thermal plants, engineering new ways to derive energy from renewable sources and weatherizing millions of homes. Green companies are rapidly hiring new workers, and indications are they will continue.
A silver lining to going green
Philadelphia hopes to model its Green Job Corps after a groundbreaking initiative in Oakland, Calif., the brainchild of environmental activist Van Jones, who has been brought here several times to share his ideas. The 39-year-old Yale-educated lawyer is considered the guru of a more inclusive green movement.
A Just Cause
In 2007, Green-Collar Jobs campaign pushed the City Council of Oakland to fund a Green Jobs Corps to educate and train approximately 40 Oakland-area youth in green trades in its first graduating class. The Ella Baker Center and Green For All worked to help pass HR 2847, the Green Jobs Act, in the U.S. House of Representatives, which authorized up to $125 million to fund a federal green job training program. The program will help address job shortages in industries such as energy-efficient buildings and construction, renewable electric power, energy efficient vehicles, and biofuels development. The Green Jobs Act will also help identify and track the new jobs and skills needed to grow the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries.
Green-Collar Jobs Offer Hope to Our At-Risk Youth and Ailing Economy
Although much of the U.S. economy is currently suffering, the green sector is enjoying growth while offering opportunities to lift people out of poverty. The Oakland Green Jobs Corps and Green for All campaigns, for example, are recruiting at-risk youth, training them for and helping to place them in green apprenticeships and employment. Providing peace of mind to workers and lawmakers alike, the jobs entail tasks that cannot be outsourced offshore — installing solar panels and wind turbines, and weatherizing homes and office buildings.
Solar conference sheds light on economy
The transformation to a green economy is under way and promises to be a fundamental shift with profound consequences. It will eclipse the industrial revolution in scale and importance. It is the means by which we can revitalize society and heal our world. The green economy acknowledges the true cost of doing business. It values the role of nature and does not "externalize" the destruction of our environment. Factoring in the true cost of doing business, whether it is creating energy, building homes, driving cars or flying across the country, causes us to do things differently. It is really about having an honest marketplace. A green economy is based on economic truth.
Green Jobs Find International Support
Sitting in a warm Capitol Hill office building last week, a panel of green-collar job activists attempted to rally support among a room of sleepy Congressional staffers. At the end of the briefing, Van Jones, a civil-rights lawyer-turned-green jobs champion, delivered the message that jolted many audience members out of their afternoon haze. "We are about to enter stagflation," Jones said. "That means people get voted out of office."
Let's not wait for the blooming of another Rose
The anniversary last week of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis brought a sold-out convention of over a thousand students, community and environmental activists, planners and scientists who are looking at ways to create new jobs in a green economy that is coping with global warming and environmental challenges. What our basketball team can't do for this city, the Memphis Regional Chamber can do. For starters, it can build community pride and economic growth by leading this city's power structure into working alliances with the environmental jobs convention organizers, Green For All, and other such vanguard efforts.
