Van Jones was recently on an airing of Tavis Smiley on PBS, and we were fortunate to catch the program.
Van Jones truly is a hero of the environment, the economy and the working, underprivileged and underrepresented classes in our country.
Everything Van Jones said in this interview really touched us and we want to share it with you. Please watch the interview here on the PBS website.
One of my favorite blogs is the Green Economy Post, an excellent resource for all things about the emerging green economy.
And one of my pet peeves in this sector is the scarcity of women in high profile roles (this goes for the tech world as a whole), so I was very happy to see a blog posted on the Green Economy Post that was focused on networking opportunities for women looking for green careers.
This post provides valuable information and links to great resources for women. I’d like to explore some of these organizations in future posts..
The way I came to find this particular post was from yet another great story in GreenBiz about yet another way Walmart is helping the green economy and women at the same time through a collaborative effort between the Walmart Foundation and the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation (BPW).
In much the same way as Green For All provides training for low-income community members to get into green collar jobs, Walmart and the BPW are working together to provide training for women for green jobs. $60,000 in grant money is going to training programs.
What’s missing here is what training and for what jobs? Maybe this hasn’t been hashed out yet, but I’d love more information on this. I’ll keep watching and post here as I find more information on the training – the where, when and what of it all.
But for now, I’m very happy to see that this is a priority for some.
I was very excited last month when I read the SFGate article about the new graduates from a premier green-collar job training program.
Inner-city, Oakland youth have been given an opportunity to get real training for real jobs in such sectors as solar technology and green construction.
Today I read a similar (yet more in-depth) story at GreenBiz that talks about, not only the green collar grads, but the green economy in California and Gov. Schwarzenegger’s commitment to get recovery funds into CA for this very reason, as well as to bring other green projects to the state. Boy, do they need it!
I am very excited about this prospect. Education for youth for green jobs. It doesn’t get any better than that!
Clean Energy Jobs Within Reach
This Huffington Post article highlights the commitment from world business leaders to set a price on carbon and therefore help in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction.
The world business summit on climate change stated an estimated 2 million jobs could be created in the U.S. if we increase our reliance on clean energy for our needs.
“EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the CEOs of major international corporations that similar investments could produce a million new jobs in European Union countries.”
Now this is global, folks. Good news for everyone, in my opinion.
I know, things seem to be chugging along at a snails pace at the moment, but reports like this one give me hope that change actually is coming. It feels like it’s coming slowly, but things are moving out there and I feel confident we’ll feel it and see it within the next year.
UNEP report details surprising green energy investment trends worldwide
We have been reading a lot about the downturn in investments into green and clean tech. Well, the UNEP report is a beam of light for our green economy. Seems as if investment, worldwide, into renewable energy is high even though investments in these sectors have fallen a great deal in 2009 compared to 2008 levels.
The report highlights the need for growth of investments to bring us where we need to be in the race against climate change and the health of Earth and its citizens.
It also states the need for society to accept the change to renewable energy and also to accept government help in this area.
In this tough economy people are forced to cut expenses to the very basics of lifestyle choices. It
