green jobs

What happened and who was there?

Well, I’m back home from the Good Jobs, Green Jobs national conference last week in Pittsburgh, and I’ve digested the speeches, the workshops, the press conferences, and the two major reports released at the event: “Green Collar Jobs in America’s Cities [PDF]: Building Pathways out of Poverty and Careers in the Clean Energy Economy” and […]

National convergence April 4-6 for green-collar jobs

Hundreds of activists, youths, and dreamers from communities of color around the nation are about to come together for The Dream Reborn in Memphis, and the green-job market is a big reason why. The conference is hosted by Green For All and marks the anniversary of MLK Jr.'s assassination by seeking to deepen relationships and skills in the arena of climate justice and building opportunity for poor communities in the new green economy. Van Jones, Majora Carter, Winona LaDuke, and others are going to lead the conversation, and it's going to be rich.

You probably knew that already. But did you know that they're also looking for a few more sponsors, a couple more green business exhibitors, and also help with giving scholarships to all of those whose presence is most needed at the event?

And if the thrust of this event is your bailiwick, then get registered, because hotel rooms in Memphis are filling up ...

Send your questions for the National Green Jobs Conference

A big collection of policy makers, activists, job-training types, and labor union honchos are getting together later this week in Pittsburgh for “Good Jobs, Green Jobs: A National Green Jobs Conference,” and it’s my job to be there to watch it all go down. It’ll be a good opportunity to find out what’s hope and […]

Notable quotable

"I helped to pass legislation to begin a training program for green collar jobs. I want to see people throughout Ohio being trained to do the work that will put solar panels on roofs, install wind turbines, do geothermal, take advantage of biofuels, and I know that if we had put $5 billion into the […]

Notable quotable

"We’re going to have to invest in infrastructure to make sure that we’re competitive. And I’ve got a plan to do that. We’re going to have to invest in science and technology. We’ve got to vastly improve our education system. We have to look at energy and the potential for creating green jobs that can […]

How do we define the green-job economy?

Photo: iStockphoto If my inbox and recent headlines are any indication, the green jobs bandwagon is rolling on jet fuel and it’s “game on” for labor market consultants. Having announced the imminent arrival of the green economy, we’re scrambling to define exactly what that means and to generate hard data about job descriptions, training requirements, […]

Sexiest jobs lists ‘forget’ to include eco-professionals

In a crushing blow to environmental types everywhere, two "sexiest jobs" lists emerged recently and neither one picked an eco-professional among the sexy. According to CareerBuilder.com, the sexiest jobs are: Entertainer/Model Cocktail Waitress Athlete Firefighter Cowboy Nurse Artist Military Professional Construction Worker TV/Anchor Personality Salary.com selected: Firefighter Personal Trainer CEO Bartender Pilot Nurse Surgeon Photographer […]

MBA students do care about green issues, contrary to BusinessWeek article

Do today's MBA students care about the environment? You'd answer "no" if you took seriously a January BusinessWeek article by Derek Thompson, which was based on a recently released study by the communications consulting firm Hill & Knowlton.

BusinessWeek is an authoritative publication, with the largest U.S. circulation of any business magazine. But even if you can't balance your checkbook and wouldn't recognize a cash flow statement if one bit you, there's no need to abandon common sense when reading the magazine.

The headline of Thompson's piece reports the finding that "A good environmental reputation doesn't make the grade when it comes to rating a company as a prospective new employer." This assertion is based on the fact that "only 34 percent" of MBA students participating in the Hill & Knowlton survey consider a prospective employer's "environmental or green policies" to be "'extremely' or 'very' important." But "only" 34 percent? Doesn't this figure support an opposite conclusion from the one the article trumpets?

Obama lauds green jobs and clean tech in economy speech

In a speech on Wednesday at a GM auto plant in Wisconsin, Barack Obama outlined his economic agenda for the country. He described his stimulus plan, promising to boost green jobs, help the middle class, dole out tax cuts, negotiate worker and environmental protections in upcoming free-trade agreements -- and, to help pay for much of it, end the costly war in Iraq.

The environmental highlights of the speech are below (audio available here):