The Apollo Alliance and Urban Habitat have a new report out today on the coming green economy and the immense job potential for traditionally excluded groups — low-income, heavily minority urban communities. The report sets out a vision for green jobs in the U.S. and outlines the green industries that already exist in the country, offering policy guidance for creating better jobs for more people.
It also details programs that are working, like apprenticeships, job training, and local hiring policies, and profiles worker and career pathways in the green job market. And it presents some strategies and policies to help cities ensure new green jobs are accessible to all residents — not just middle-class white kids.
The report kicks off with a foreword by Van Jones (interviewed by Grist here), director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and a member of the Apollo Alliance National Steering Committee. An excerpt:
The national effort to curb global warming and oil dependence can simultaneously create good jobs, safer streets and healthier communities. That is the chief moral obligation in the 21st century: to build a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. We have the technology. Investors are lining up. The only question is: do we have the political will to make government support the transition — and the moral commitment to ensure that the new “green wave” in fact “lifts all boats?”
