Welcome back to the Strategic CSR Newsletter!
The first Newsletter of this semester is below. As always, your comments and ideas are welcome.
The article in the url below profiles the efforts of an one man’s attempts to marry the growing green economy with the social needs of depressed U.S. communities (Issues: Community, p215):
"What is considered green is usually for the eco-elite. … But if we are actually going to meet the challenge of global warming, we are going to have to weatherize millions of homes and install millions of solar panels. That's millions of new jobs. We need to connect the people who most need the work with the work that most needs to be done."
The man featured in the article, Van Jones, has big plans in his effort to “link the green movement with issues of race and class”:
“Last year, Jones led a coalition of business, labor, and environmental groups that persuaded the Oakland City Council to provide $250,000 in seed money for the country's first green-collar-jobs corps, which will train low-income youth in the renewable-energy, organic-food, and green-construction industries. The organization he founded and heads, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, also helped draft the Pathways out of Poverty legislation for the federal Green Jobs Act of 2007, which pledged $125 million to train 35,000 people a year in green-collar jobs. And in February, Jones launched Green for All, a national advocacy organization whose goal is to procure $1 billion in federal funding by 2012 for green-collar programs, and lift as many as 250,000 Americans out of poverty.”
In spite of the attention he is receiving, Jones remains focused on the immediate reality:
“Jones attacks conventional environmental appeals -- bemoaning the plight of polar bears and other "charismatic megafauna," as he puts it -- because they don't speak to poor urban dwellers who have more pressing needs, like scraping together bus fare or keeping their kids out of gangs.”
Have a good semester.
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther
“I’m Bad! I’m Slick!”
Oakland activist Van Jones is on a mission to bring green-collar jobs to the urban poor. His mightiest weapon: His mouth.
Fast Company Magazine
From: Issue 125 | May 2008 | Page 103 | By: Linda Baker
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/125/im-bad-im-slick.html
