Greening the Rhode Island Economy

The panelists were full of ideas and information as to how to create green jobs and develop a green economy for Rhode Island. It will take a little while to post everything, and it's just as well ~ gives us time to digest what they said, let alone figure out what to do next.

I've begun posting the panelists remarks with those of Dr. Joseph Ilaqua, Professor of Economics at Bryant University, the first panelist. I also started with him because he made a point of saying he was NOT a green economist, yet he clearly was very supportive of the theme of the conference ~ to create green jobs NOW.

I'll be adding notes on the rest of the panelists, as well as Mayor Cicilline's remarks, Greg Gerritt's welcome, and the moderator, Connie McGreavy's, comments in the next week or so. ~ SK

Vote in the poll about Dr. Ilaqua's remarks.

Ed. note: This is the substance of Dr. Ilaqua's 10-minute presentation at the Greening the Rhode Island Economy on September 27, 2008 at New England Institute of Technology, Warwick RI. Much of the following is verbatim, taken from the audiotape of the conference.

Dr. Ilaqua began by declaring he is NOT a green economist, even though he has always been interested in green. More than 30 years ago he had insulated his house and built a passive solar room with a high-tech coal stove. Heating cost was less than $200/year! (But this was thirty years ago).

His professional interests are in labor economics and in training, which led to his involvement in the economics of the Former Soviet Union and China, focusing especially on cultural differences and how they affect economic and political decisions and how people behave.

Hardly any progress in green energy has been made in the last 30 years....

Tip O'Neill: "all politics is local."

Ilaqua: "It's impossible to change the basic political and economic system.... Understand that green is also local," but not in the sense of Think Global, Act Local.

"If we're going to get anything done in the economics of green in Rhode Island, we have to think local and act local."

This is what he means by saying he is not a green economist. He says he's "too practical" to be a green economist.

"If the next thirty years are going to be different from the last 30 years then we have to think locally, work locally, ... maybe we can help out in the rest of the world..."

"The problem is right now... we don't have time to change the world.... [but] we can change Rhode Island and the Rhode Island labor market.

"Green jobs are not that far away, and with an effort we can do that by ourselves."

"Like it or not, most Rhode Islanders actually like their position in a culture of consumerism." "What we have to do then is to do things that will work on their view of consumerism so that they see that green is a good thing to consume. We're not going to change people's basic attitudes of what they want for themselves. People know what gives them pleasure and they act toward gaining that pleasure. What we have to do is make alternatives available that help them see that there are other ways to be happy consumers, ways that are much more environmentally sound. We're not going to change basic business thinking, we're not going to change basic global political thinking but we could give them some alternatives. ...If you make green profitable, they'll come. If you tell stockholders that they have to do it because it's good for the economy, good for the world, they won't come, but if you can change their perspective, ...they will come.

We can get this done... We have to focus on green job development in Rhode Island now. That's something we can actually do.

It's near, we're not reaching for the stars...

He quoted from the press rlease about a recent Sierra Club report:

"...millions of Americans are already working in exactly the kinds of jobs we'll need to build that clean energy future. Those millions and millions more ~ from steelworkers to software engineers ~ stand to benefit from implementing the clean energy solutions we need to fight global warming."

"Workers stand to benefit ..., consumers will benefit, stockholders will benefit. If we focus on doing that in Rhode Island, we can really move forward. Maybe the rest of the world will come along.

"...We have to think about ways to develop and advance green strategies that will work locally here and help us. A quick way to put Americans back to work ... can be done through investing in a green economic environment here in Rhode Island, which will then create the green jobs.

An important part of this is to provide the training to create the workers who can fill those green jobs.

So there are two things to do simultaneously:

Convince consumers that consuming from a green perspective is good for them, which creates the demand for workers.

Prepare the workers -- all kinds of workers ... Green jobs are really not that different from the jobs that many people have now, or worse, the jobs that they had before their work was off-shored.

"What can we do now to create interest on the side of the consumer, and the production capablity on the side of the workers?

"If we can do that, it won't take another thirty years to make Rhode Island green."

I'm the creator and maintainer of this website, greeningrieconomy.com.

[There's a lot of stuff about me as I begin to develop this website, which I've put in so you have a model for entering your activities on the green economy/jobs/business front ~ Please

This page explains the work of YouthBuild Providence, a nonprofit organization that also has programs in many cities throughout the United States.