Green Options » green for all

This Video Says It All

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 23:40:23 +0000

Editor’s Note: This guest post is originally published at Green For All.

People often ask me what the environment has to do with poverty, and why communities of color are getting so active in the fight against climate change.

Today, we released a new video that says it all.

The New Green Economy Must Include Low-Income and Minority Familes

Jennifer Lance — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:19:10 +0000

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Thank you Green for All!

(Now) It’s Official: Van Jones Tapped as Green Jobs Adviser

Timothy B. Hurst — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:44:32 +0000

White House House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) chairwoman Nancy Sutley has announced that Van Jones will help direct the Obama administration’s efforts to create new green collar jobs.

Jones is the founder of Green for All and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. He will reportedly begin work next week as the Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, with a particular focus on “vulnerable communities.”

“Van Jones has been a strong voice for green jobs and we look forward to having him work with departments and agencies to advance the President’s agenda of creating 21st century jobs that improve energy efficiency and utilize renewable resources,” Sutley said in a statement.

When rumors began to swirl around the interwebs on Monday as news broke that Van Jones would likely be named as some sort of “Green Jobs Czar” in the Obama administration, many of us here at Green Options were reminded of David Anderson’s persuasive argument for Van Jones as the next “Secretary of Prosperity.”

I’ve argued before that Van Jones gets what green collar jobs are all about and understands what they mean for the environment and for the economy. Jones’ brand of environmentalism is not so much about the preservation of pristine wilderness areas (though I’m sure that’s part of it), as it is about creating jobs in urban communities in the construction, building efficiency, and renewable energy sectors.

Notwithstanding the fact that there is actually no such thing as a Secretary of Prosperity (yet), we’re pretty jazzed about the Van Jones appointment and look forward to seeing what he can accomplish working from inside government, because we’ve already seen what he can doing working outside it.

Image: Center for American Progress

Van Jones’ Green Collar Manifesto

Timothy B. Hurst — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:59:22 +0000

Few people have been able to inspire the kind of critical thinking and political action considered a necessary component of “success” in the modern environmental movement. But if you were to make a list of those few, Van Jones would definitely be on it.

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.

Green Collar Jobs Defined

Angelique van Engelen — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:15:29 +0000

Green collar jobs are rapidly becoming fashionable. The new trend represents a shift to the mainstream of the good old environmentalist approach to life. But what exactly makes a job green? The experts are far from agreed.

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.