So, what exactly are green jobs? The answer to that question largely depends on an individual’s skills, training and experience: construction workers, computer programmers, and public relations professionals could all find themselves labeled as green collar in the right circumstances. For Dave Foster, a former official with the United Steelworkers, the phrase has a specific definition: ”A green job is nothing more than a blue-collar job with a green purpose.”

Today’s Post-Dispatch provides us with yet another example of how organized labor and mainstream environmental groups are joining forces to promote a green economy. Writer Steve Giegerich took note of steelworkers and Sierra Club members marching together recently to protest the loss of jobs at Granite City, Illinois’ U.S. Steel plant. As you can see in both the video above, and the article, blue collar workers around the country increasingly “get it”: green industry provides one of the most promising means of rebuilding a manufacturing economy in the United States.

Read more of this story »

The environmental movement has never spoken with one voice and that will likely remain the case for the foreseeable future. That said, the environmental movement shouldn’t speak with one voice, it should speak with a diversity of them, and Van Jones’ new book, The Green Collar Economy—published by Harper One and released on October 7—does just that.

Read more of this story »

The first governmental recognition of Labor Day came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. In 1894 President Grover Cleveland declared Labor Day a national holiday. Throughout the 20th century, the interests of labor groups were firmly entrenched in the populist vision and the platform of the Democratic Party. But starting in the 1960s and 1970s, a chasm began to grow within the Democratic Party between the established interests of the labor movement and the emerging interests of the environmental movement.

Read more of this story »

Green collar jobs have a magic lure to them. Not only because the people involved in the sector are supposedly making a conscious effort to salvage what’s left of the earth’s natural resources, but also because they’re hoping to drag the ailing economy out of its current quagmire.

The environmentalist visionary Van Jones, who heads up the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, is drawing massive crowds across the country to his speeches about the green sector. He has helped initiate a green jobs program in Oakland and it is in part due to his work that the Presidential candidates have included green collar jobs in their programs.

Read more of this story »

As the conference started this morning, it was immediately clear that this gathering was a bit different from most. The conference has been coordinated by Blue Green Alliance, a strategic partnership between the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club. Not an alliance I would have imagined! Would you?

The groups that came together to convene this meeting include a number of other unions, environmental advocacy groups, businesses, foundations, academic institutions, selected cities and states. As noted by a number of speakers, at first glance these groups might not seem to have much in common…except for one thing. The environment and the need to find ways to reduce greenhouse gases.

Read more of this story »

• Revitalize the manufacturing sector
• Drive green building
• Promote safer chemicals
• Realize the economic benefits of global warming solutions

I’ll be blogging while I’m there…I look forward to sharing what I learn.