Solutions for Green: Green Business Archives

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More money is spent in California for prisons
than all 4-year colleges combined.


Van Jones helps kids in trouble get out of trouble and into jobs.  Helping mothers find alternatives for their kids in prison. Jones got burned out when he confronted all the problems in the community.  Facing the culture shock between Oakland and Marin County also brought healing that showed him that green jobs and a green economy could be strong enough to lift people out of poverty and improve community and health at the same time -- these new workers could retrofit the nation!  

Jones saw these new workers as the rescuers of their nation -- reallocate the money from prisons to green jobs.  Practical, applied, in the real world.

Green For All 2008 (VIDEO Clip)
with Van Jones. Watch video.

He was inspired by Majora Carter from South Bronx and worked for a couple years to bring green jobs to Oakland. They created "GREEN FOR ALL" for cities across the country

Green-Collar Jobs in America’s Cities New publication outlines strategies for developing green-collar job initiatives and pathways out of poverty at the local level. Co-authored by Green For All, this report describes a 4-step approach for local initiatives and highlights a dozen great efforts already underway around the country.
Green-Collar Jobs in America’s Cities
Green For All, in partnership with the Apollo Alliance, Center for American Progress, and the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, recently released this 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: Building Pathways out of Poverty and Careers in the Clean Energy Economy, 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 cities to take a four-step approach.

  1. First, set a baseline to start from. Identify your environmental and economic goals, and assess local and regional opportunities for achieving those goals.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. And fourth, build on your successes.  Leverage your program’s success to build political support for new and bolder policies and initiatives.
Green-Collar Jobs in America's Cities also includes 14 case studies of successful green-collar job training or policy in 11 communities on both coasts, the Midwest, and the South. 

Green For All
414 13th St, Suite 600
Oakland, CA 94612
510-663-6500
http://www.greenforall.org/
 


Sustainable South Bronx is fighting for "THE PROMISE OF AMERICA" by using the green economy to help people grow out of poverty and the dirty community that results from environmentally degrading industry traditions. Restoring the environment can also restore the people who live there because we are PART of the ecosystem. Unemployment, asthma, crises...they have personal and financial stake in the environment.  Their BEST program  trains youth for ecological restoration: urban forestry management, green roof installation, brown field restoration, etc.

Environmental Justice

through innovative, economically sustainable projects

that are informed by community needs.

VIDEO with Majora Carter, founder

 

Founded in 2001 by life-long South Bronx resident, Dr. Majora Carter, SSBx also addresses land-use, energy, transportation, water & waste policy, and education to advance the environmental and economic rebirth of the South Bronx, and inspire solutions in areas like it across the nation and around the world.


Watch video clips from the 2008 Aspen Environment Forum

http://www.aspenenvironment.org/live-from-the-forum


The GrassRoots Recycling Network has a vision of the world where waste is not waste – it is a resource. 

GRRN is the leading voice calling for Zero Waste (ZW) in the United States by promoting the message that we must go “beyond recycling” and go upstream to the headwaters of the waste stream which is the industrial designer’s desk. 

Zero Waste means not only 100% recovery of society’s discards, but also a redesign of the products and packaging of our lives such that everything produced for our consumer economy is non-toxic and designed to be recovered for re-use, recycling or composting.

GrassRoots Recycling Network is a national network of waste reduction activists and recycling professionals. GRRN sets ambitious standards for Zero Waste goals and policies. They provide opportunities for on-going  participation in campaigns and build coalitions to achieve zero waste policies, businesses and communities. They have a valuable website and an active email listserve (called GreenYes) of many hundreds of knowledgeable experts in both downstream recovery and upstream clean production issues.

What is Zero Waste?

GRRN developed the core message of Zero Waste in the mid-1990’s as the new vision of the grassroots recycling movement, and has been successful in using that theme to connect recyclers, innovative corporate leaders, activists, and others both nationally and globally.

GRRN's Zero Waste message combines visionary thinking with real-world practice to go beyond recycling, and in the process have described some simple, important solutions to many pressing issues, such as

  • corporate accountability
  • local economic development
  • air and water pollution
  • resource depletion

CONTACT INFO:

GrassRoots Recycling Network
PO Box 282
Cotati, CA 94931

http://www.grrn.org


The use of natural resources in an unsustainable way is, in essence, "plundering" and the result is the rapid destruction of the very earth that sustains millions of species of interwoven species...life.

Ray Anderson, citizen and corporate leader, has come face to face with his role in today's industrial role in unsustainable business shares his thought process and his solutions in this excerpt from "The Corporation".

This is an inspiring look at business's role, and the paradigm shift that is needed to be responsible for the world we leave for our children and the millions of species who are part of this delicate biosphere of life.

The book Ray Anderson credits with opening his eyes to the free-fall to earth that is better known as "business as usual" is "The Ecology of Commerce" by Paul Hawkins.

He calls for a paradigm shift of how we view business. That we look at how we are plundering our natural resources and natural processes and leaving a mess for our grandchildren. And we need to create a new revolution -- moving beyond the industrial revolution to a new revolution. One that could be called a "productivity revolution" or a "sustainability revolution."

Green MBA for Green Careers

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CEO training for tomorrow can come from a new pool of Green MBA students. Values, environment and system thinking are part of Aspen Institute's approach to recruiting business students into the green business sector. Social change and financial change can be partners in making a green economy grow and flourish.

Environmental and social impact can shape a greener bottom line.

www.aspeninst.org

Sundance Channel presents Ed Kerschner and Eco Biz

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Green investing with climate change in mind is a hot new investment strategy because awareness is high and climate change needs to be solved. It can be solved with new business strategies that help companies make money while they provide necessary solutions for risk reduction.

Green Living Solutions for Homes

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Green means sustainable -- healthful, affordable, and easy on the planet. We bring you solutions that are not only about buying more products, but things you can do without to give you more time with your family and loved ones.

Green living is about making choices...and finding solutions to your specific needs for food, shelter, companionship and productive, satisfying work. We talk straight about green building, and green products. We have real solutions for real families. Stay tuned for practical green tips and techiques as well as resources to help you make going green a whole lot easier.

Green Living Solutions for Offices

Most people think it's hard to green your office -- but with our resources and tips, you'll breathe easier in not time! We make going green easier, fun and definitely better for our greater workspace and playspace, the earth.

Green workspace is about reduction, recycling and making good purchases of the everyday things like paper and paperclips, computers and travel. We'll get you started and you'll enjoy the creative potential of green living -- and we think you'll even want to take your new green expertise home with you!

Green Living Product Categories

  • Low-energy Lighting
  • Natural Light
  • Alternative Autos and Transportation
  • Yummy Food
  • Furniture and Furnishings
  • Green and Healthful Buildings
  • Heat and Air Conditioning Efficiency
  • Water Conservation
  • Outdoor Living Spaces
  • Living with Nature

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