Greening the Rhode Island Economy

In this exclusive excerpt from Joel Makower's new book, "Strategies for the Green Economy," a four-minute history of green business.

Three organizations have each received about $1.13 million to help small trucking companies upgrade diesel engines or add technology to reduce emissions and save fuel.

Marketing strategists Dev Crews, the chief sustainability strategist for Luminesa Communications, Sean Dunn, partner and account executive at Groove 11, and David Almy, principal at ADC Partners, shared their advice on building credible brands and strong foundations for eco-friendly businesses at the 2008 West Coast Green Conference.

A behind-the-scenes look at what went in to my new book -- my first in 14 years -- which is just hitting the bookstores. Strategies for the Green Economy is the product of the past few years of speaking, writing, publishing, and working with a handful of both large and small companies.

The wine industry is pursuing alternative fuels, sustainable packaging and green building at a time when high gas prices and other factors are having a negative impact on their costs and profits, according to two recent surveys.

Here at the Green For All office, we're just beginning get in photos from Green Jobs Now events around the country. And the results are amazing! We'll keep you updated as the events keep rolling in from nearly all 50 states. Here's a few highlights for now:

From Chester, Pennsylvania, Desire Grover writes, "The event was a heart warming success. Community leaders, Developers, Architects and Teachers throughout Chester attended along with young adults who just wanted to be in the know about where the, potentially new, jobs might be."

 

In White Plains, New York an event put on by Community Housing Innovations (CHI) rallied nearly 50 people in support of a green economy. “Green Jobs are good jobs and can reverse the erosion of construction jobs in America,” said CHI Executive Director Alexander Roberts. “We need educated carpenters, crane operators, plumbers and heating contractors, not to mention solar panel installers—all of which pay higher than those in our service economy.”

 

And it's not just solar panels going up on rooftops. In San Francisco, CA, community members gathered at Glide Church to celebrate the opening of a new rooftop garden. The garden was planted by children in the church's youth program. Many of them turned out for the event and called for green jobs.

 

They'll be lots of new green projects happening in New Mexico thanks to the work of green jobs organizers there. In Santa Fe, Santa Fe Alliance and ¡YouthWorks! celebrated the success of an innovative pilot "Green Collar" jobs program. The City of Santa Fe contributed approximately $162,000 toward this pilot, making this the second largest municipal commitment to a green collar jobs program in the country, second to Oakland, California.

Thanks to these great events and many more today's media coverage has been phenomenal! Here are some of the highlights:

New York Times: "Green the Bailout"

The Flint Journal: "A Green Flint"

The Times Picayune: "Rally Promotes Green Jobs"

Congratulations to all of the event organizers and everyone who came out today to celebrate the new green economy. Keep checking the green jobs now website for more event updates!

I'm about to run out to the Oakland event, but wanted to share a couple of photos that have come in so far today...


"I just wanted to send you a picture from one of our Greater New Orleans crews that I took this morning (attached)... in this project, youth are rebuilding Archbishop Hannon High School in Meraux Louisiana.  The former parochial school facility has since been donated to St. James Parish (county) to be a public youth center."

- Reed Dickson, Director
   Conservation Corps of Greater New Orleans

there are some other awesome ones from outside of the debate in mississippi...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29107673@N04/

New York - Urban Agenda, the New York Apollo Alliance, and students in green-collar training programs are ready!

Pictured here - students from the Consortium for Worker Education's SMaRT training (Sustainable, Mechanical and Retrofitting Technologies) completing a class at the Association for Energy Affordability.

"All these students are on the pathway to employment in retrofitting and building analysis. They are ready for the new green economy!" - Rebecca Lurie, Consortium for Worker Education – a member of the NYC Apollo Alliance Steering Committee.

Urban Agenda, convener of the NYC Apollo Alliance, is leading advocacy efforts to ensure NYC's sustainability policies create good jobs and enhance New York City's environment.  Urban Agenda is also spearheading the Green Collar Jobs Roundtable Campaign to urge New York City Mayoral and City Council candidates to commit to a workforce development plan that connects green jobs with jobseekers.

 

It's happening...

In Atlanta and in Clayton County, GA... it's happening. 

Communities are feeling the pressure of the grey economy more acutely than in any time past.  Atlanta has been without significant gas for over a week and there is no end in sight.  Folks are driving to 5 and 6 gas stations to find enough to fill up because stations won't sell over 4 gallons, and the price is sky high. 

Ironically Newt Gingrich and his Drill Here Drill Now! team are in Atlanta speaking about "new Solutions," unfortunately his solutions are far from new, and based on more oil pollution.

Fortunately for Atlanta and for the rest of the country, Newt isn't the only person in Atlanta this weekend with solutions.  Marcus, Khadijah, Tony, Richard and hundreds of Atlanta students will gather at Adair park Saturday morning in preparation of delivering 6500 compact florescent lightbulbs to hundreds of houses in this Atlanta community as part of the Let's Raise a Million campaign (LRAM).  This campaign will deliver real savings (aka solutions) to families that are facing ever increasing energy prices. 

Lets' raise a Million chose the Day of Action as the day to kick off their largest bulb delivery effort yet.  I stood in the LRAM warehouse as 2(!) UPS trucks worth of lightbulbs were delivered for this weekend's effort.  And the day of action is just the beginning for LRAM, they wont stop until a million lightbulbs are provided for families that need the saving most!

But Tony and LRAM aren't alone in ATL this weekend.  In Clayton county just outside of ATL, Joe White is gathering with community leaders to discuss how green jobs can address what he calls Clayton County's Triple threat: 37% housing price decline, 15% unemployment, and a recently de-accredited public school.

Thats right, there are real problems in this community, and Joe is ready to solve them with real solutions.  He see his county as poised for a comeback, and more than that, poised to lead Georgia into the clean energy future. 

The Governor has already signed a commitment to lower GA's energy use by 20% in 7 years, and Joe knows that  Clayton county can provide thousands of workers to perform the energy saving retrofits that goal will require.   Joe's solution is ensuring Clayton Counties residents are trained and ready for the jobs being created by the Governor's energy mandate.

Again, Real Solutions!
 

I have been in New Orleans for a couple of days now and am so excited for the big day! Lafayette Square, where important community gatherings often happen in this beautiful city, is where the Green Jobs Now rally will take place in the afternoon.

About twenty different groups are going to congregate there, and many of them will be doing service projects throughout the day -  park restoration, changing traditional lightbulbs to CFLs, community garden beautification, and demonstrations of sustainable building practices. In the evening, there will be a forum for congressional candidates, with a focus on the opportunity to transition New Orleans into a cleaner, greener city.

I am so amazed seeing the hard work these groups have put into making this day of action happen, especially as I know that they've had to work twice as hard to make sure their day-to-day work gets done as well! New Orleans truly has a dedicated community of folks who are making beautiful and positive things happen. I'm blessed to be here.

This evening, Nicole Godfrey from the NOCCJ, John Moore from the City of New Orleans, and I watched the presidential debate with a lounge full of people occupying every chair, couch, and last bit of floor space. Afterward, we handed out fliers to the event and folks were so excited! It was almost unreal to see how many people truly wanted to take part in the event, and pass on the message to their representatives( including whichever presidential candidate may win) that they are ready to grow this economy in a sustainable way, honoring both the earth and the people who occupy it.

In this city that has endured so much, there is a distinct and growing sense of hope. I can hardly wait to see all the beaming faces tomorrow, saying that they're ready for just and clean communities, that they're ready for GREEN JOBS NOW!!

UPDATE 9/27, 11 AM: Here's a Times Picayune article about the New Orleans event: http://www.nola.com/home_and_garden/t-p/index.ssf?/base/
/living-2/122249286783440.xml&coll=1

Tonight there were some TVs in Chicago that were not tuned to the presidential candidates. Instead, dozens of Chicagoans gathered tonight to speak about the green jobs that have already come to their city and the potential of those to come. With the support of T.R.U.E/GREEN IMAGE Landscaping, the City of Chicago Department of Environment and North Lawndale Employment Network, "Green and Sexy Edutainment" was one of the first of many amazing events to mark the beginning of our transition to a clean energy economy. Chicago  The evening brought together the CEOs of a local, Chicago green building company, natural product line, and landscaping firm as well as graduates of Chicago's Greencorps and a member of the first, soon-to-graduate, class of Building Beyond, a local green job training program. A representative of Representative Danny K. Davis was among the speakers.

Before this fantastic evening, earlier today, I had an even more inspiring moment. A friend and I went to South Chicago to pass out flyers for Green Jobs Now events going on in Chicago this weekend. On the way to make more copies, we passed by a group of men gathered outside of a building marked "Community Assistance Program." Seeing a flyer in my friend's hand, one man asked, "do you guys have jobs to hand out?" Although we had to answer honestly, no, we didn't have the jobs yet, we were able to engage this group in an honest disucssion about what they knew already. They were ready to know! Everyone wanted to sign the peition to create a Clean Energy Corps and they all wanted to come out to hear more about what was going on their community. The best part, one of the guys even came to tonight's information session and walked away with some new tools in his job-attaining belt. These green jobs are needed now by people nationwide. What is more, the planet needs these people to do the work. I'm so excited about green jobs now and I can't wait to see what amazing events happen tomorrow. Green and Sexy Education in Chicago is only the beginning!

       
         

Brennan Taylor is the Development Associate at Green For All.  She is in Chicago to support Green Jobs Now events over the weekend.

The following news comes from Apollo Alliance in Los Angeles

Apollo Alliance Goes to City Hall with Plans to Make Los Angeles More Equitable and Green.

[LOS ANGELES, CA] On August 13 and 15th, over 100 Los Angeles Apollo Alliance members, grassroots leaders and allies visited City Hall to encourage City Council members to create a first-of-its-kind program that would “Green” all of its over 1000 municipal buildings, starting in low-income neighborhoods and provide jobs for inner city residents. This program will establish Los Angeles as one of the first cities to create a municipal green retrofitting program that addresses poverty and economic justice.

Apollo Alliance members, including grassroots leaders from South Los Angeles, private and public sector unions and environmental organizations, gave testimony on Wednesday, August 13, at the Housing and Community Economic Development Committee in support of creating quality jobs through municipal green retrofits. Los Angeles Apollo Alliance members also visited City Councilmember’s offices to share their proposal for creating green jobs and ask for support to ensure that low-income communities of color are part of the emerging green economy.  In addition, Alliance members collected over 1400 postcards from community members asking the city to create quality green jobs and training programs to connect disadvantaged communities to careers.

On Friday, August 15, City Council unanimously agreed to begin drafting an ordinance that would set into place a municipal retrofitting program. At the meeting, City Council President Eric Garcetti called the Green Retrofitting proposal a “landmark project" and he compared the historic nature of the work to shape a new green economy with past efforts to put a man on the moon, calling our efforts “the next new frontier.”

More details on the story below:

City Council President Garcetti went on to say “[The new frontier] is embodied by the community, it isn’t something that comes top-down from the White House.  It is bubbling from the ground up – from South Los Angeles and from Central Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley and East Los Angeles, to demand that your tax dollars become green in more ways that one and that those jobs get to every single person.  So thank you for being part of this history,” said Garcetti.

Los Angeles Apollo Alliance Allies also spoke about the importance of this project and IBEW local 11 member Francisco Alvarado shared that this project has dual benefits.

“We support this program for the benefits that the city would get in energy and water savings and also for the jobs created.  The jobs created would help a lot of the inner city residents to enter into an apprenticeship program and not only get a job but also get a career,” said Alvarado.

Residents of South Los Angeles shared with city council members the need to reinvest in the inner city.

“I support this initiative because I have lived in South Los Angeles for 20 years.  I have seen all the good paying jobs leave my community.  It’s time to invest in South Los Angeles and create green, good paying jobs in our green industry for our youth and people like myself.  I’m surrounded by freeways, our children have asthma, it’s time to invest in a green development and clean up our community,” said Oria Green, a member of AGENDA, a grassroots organization in South Los Angeles.

An ordinance establishing the Green Retrofit program retrofitting buildings that will begin in low-income communities and connecting residents to jobs, an Advisory Council, interdepartmental task force and a green jobs trust fund will be drafted and brought before city council in the fall.

August. LA Apollo A. City Hall

Today my head  cleared up and the future looked bright.

Jonathan Henderson and I participated in a radio interview and show on a local radio station WBOK. It was perhaps one of the first times I presented this movement to such a potentially large audience. It was great, it was smooth, and after that I knew we've done the best we could with these events.

The Loyola University Community Action Program will be participating in one event and sponsoring another.

The first event is an important rally in Lafayette Square here in New Orleans. We've made our pitch to students to come and volunteer, we've got giant posters, we've talked it up with every interested party. We will have a bus that will bring us over to the rally sponsored by some fine organizations like New Orleans Council for Community and Justice (NOCCJ) along with The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University, Job 1, Conservation Corps Network and Arc of Greater New Orleans Louisiana Green Corps. The rally should be filled with great speakers, great music, food, and a lot of environmental education. 

The event LUCAP has assisted in organizing is a 2nd Congressional District Forum on the environment. It is going to be held here on campus at Roussell Hall at 7:00 PM that day. We've got all the congressional district candidates commitments to attend. We've got a moderator from one of the most prominent media networks in the south, WWL, we've got folks who will video tape it, we've got volunteers to wear t-shirts and hard hats. 

Today I was asked about the importance of young people getting involved in the movement. Now more then ever have I seen why that is so important. Almost every revolutionary struggle on earth has been fed momentum by the under 30 crowd,  especially in the United States. This is a movement about the future, about protecting the planet, and creating a better future for the communities in which we live and originate. Frankly the young folks have a whole lot of future left. So we better get revolutionary.

This will most likely be my last post before the “Day Of Action”. I cannot give a bigger thanks to all those who helped expose me to this movement and assist us in organizing these events. I am humbled by your passion and commitment.

Peace and infinite blessings.

Loyola University Community Action Program fully supports and is more than ready for a new green economy!

Rob Harman

We just checked in with some Green For All staff members who are scattered across the country, supporting various Green Jobs Now events... here's a very brief taste from everyone...

Meanwhile, in the Oakland office, we've been calling media outlets all morning, frantically uploading video and photo, and working to support the Ella Baker Center's local event in Mosswood Park tomorrow.

CHECK-INS

Parin (Pittsburgh) - Collecting biodiesel. Event will be solar powered by a local union. Pittsburgh is happening!

Stacy (Seattle) - Picking up 3 solar panels for event now...

Brennan (Chicago) - Frantically flyering for event. Had an idea to go to an employment agency. Guys at the agency excited about green jobs... they signed petition and are totally ready!

Julia (Oxford MS) - Windmills are going up.

Mahfam (New Orleans) - Going great. Expecting good turnout for the rally, really excited about the musicians.

Alli (Los Angeles) - Leaving a meeting at PV jobs in Los Angeles. They have 3000 positions filled with 70% formerly incarcerated. Rocking it in L.A.

Ibrahim (DC) - Frantically sending photos of Congressional Black Caucus  members from DC.

 

Hon. Antoine M Thompson, NYS Senate, 60th District - Buffalo with Ibrahim Ramey Board member of the Climate Crisis Coalition at CBC

I arrived in Seattle Wednesday afternoon, and it has been a whirlwind since.  Wednesday night, the steering committee for the White Center Energy Festival & Prosperity Project met at the White Center Heights Elementary School to walk through the site of our Green Jobs Now event this Saturday and discuss how the event would unfold.  We also had our first volunteer training that night, in which we welcomed and thanked volunteers for coming out despite the cold and wet night, explained the significance of and urgency behind the Day of Action event, and trained them on how to educate their neighbors about energy conservation and efficiency while entering them into a drawing for a free energy audit.   The volunteers will also be asking their neighbors to sign the Green Jobs Now petition and to support the Seattle Climate Action Plan.  After the volunteer training, we all got together to stuff thousands of reusable eco-bags, filled with a voter registration form, energy conservation tips, free CFLs, and a fact sheet about CFLs.  It was wonderful to meet all the people who are putting this event together.

We have 128 people registered to volunteer at http://events.greenjobsnow.com/greenforall/events/show/5211 and we're expecting a large turnout.  We'll also have some great VIPs in attendance, including Governor Gregoire's daughter, state legislators, county representatives, and community leaders.  The entertainment for this event is full of soul and spirit -- we start the day with a Native American blessing and the rest of the day is filled with spoken word, warm-up exercises, spinning from DJ KUN Love, storytelling, facilitated drawings, two dance troupes, and a live show by Global Heat!

Today we are nailing down last-minute logistics and coordination.  In about an hour, Stacy Noland (CEO and Founder of Moontown Foundation) and I are picking up solar panels at Shoreline Community College, which will be featured at the eco-village on Saturday, along with other cool educational energy exhibits.

Congressman Keith Ellison en route to the vote on the bailout bill, earlier today, with Nimco Ahmed (L) and Zayneb Aden (r) at the Congressional Black Caucus.