Calling all creative, green entrepreneurs!

As my maiden voyage into the blogosphere with everyday citizen, I wanted to issue a call to action.

Wanted: Innovative, forward-thinking entrepreneurs. Must be interested in saving the U.S. middle class from extinction as well as the planet from our bad habits and short sightedness. Must be able to multi-task and consider new modalities of business and energy generation. Visionary leadership a must. A basic understanding of green technology, hi-technology, and craftsmanship could lead to significant financial gains and advantages over competition. Act fast! Time is running out!

I just got back from my sixth meeting on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It was the third such meeting at which the presenters had little or no clue how to get the money flowing into local communities. All they knew was the score: $1 billion here, $40.2 million there, $6,500 per house here, but no interest or ability to talk creatively about how our communities can get on the money train.

Unfortunately for me, I have plenty of creative ideas, but no vehicle to make them reality. Not yet, anyway. After working in education, the environmental movement, local government, and in the union movement over the last ten years (not all at once, thank God), I see intersections and new pathways of which few others are fully aware. But I'm not in a position today to take a leap to start my own small business to take advantage of what i know.

Green for All, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and the Laborers International Union of North America Local 55 in Newark, NJ understand the opportunities I'm talking about. Here's the proof.

And that leads me to my call to action. If President Barack Obama is going to be successful in creating or saving 3.5 million jobs in America over the next few years - and arguably a bulk of them have got to created or saved in the next six months - an army of visionary, forward thinking business men and women must step forward to take on the challenge of localizing energy generation, distribution, conservation, and ownership or literally millions of dollars will either flow into the hands of existing industry leaders who will do nothing to change our energy future or the money will be unspent and there will be little appetite for bold, economic action to save us from assured climatic destruction in the years ahead.

So I'm here to recruit you or someone you know to take of the task of localizing energy conservation, generation, and delivery. Here's my blue print.

1. There are dollars to support job training for displaced, economically disadvantaged, young, veterans, or unemployed workers, in both low and high skill trades but few existing potential trainers know how to take advantage of the current system to get the dollars through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). If you can learn your state's WIA system, set up approved training programs targeted for these populations for energy auditors, weatherizers, electrical and general labor work, you can get stimulus dollars flowing.

2. There are dollars for public entities like local housing authorities and municipalities to conduct weatherization work on low-income housing - up to $6,500 in weatherization improvements per home. With your newly trained workers you can put them right to work in a market created by a locality applying for and receiving the dollars. Block by block the work is done - possibly by people living in the neighborhood - and the energy footprint of the community goes down in time for peak energy season.

3. With a skilled workforce completing this work, your workers are now available perhaps for more advanced training and to take on residential work homeowners wish to finance themselves - perhaps through a local bank or credit union you wish to partner with. Your workforce could even take on more complex commercial retrofits and energy conservation installation technology. Now you're creating a ladder for advancement, better wages, and higher skill levels. Businesses in the area looking to take advantage of the tax credits for such energy upgrades - perhaps even a solar panel or green roof - could do so with the local, well paid, and highly skilled labor force you offer.

4. Now that things are rolling and your new local business is improving the local economy and contributing to a greener energy economy, you must put your creative neutrons to work thinking about the ways to leverage your new growth and capital to reach new markets. Can your firm work to install small wind and solar projects? Patner with a local school district to take training into the high school? Can you provide strategic energy plans for small businesses? Start a Green Chamber of Commerce that is PRO WORKER (imagine that)?

The opportunities presented at this moment are extraordinary for those who have the ability to be visionary - see beyond what is and visualize what can be, but more importantly, mobilize the workers and capital necessary to make the localized green, high road economy dreamed of by visionaries like Thomas Friedman, author of Hot, Flat, and Crowded. I'm currently several hours into my unabridged audio book of this exceptional book. I'm hoping sometime after I complete the book I will have more to offer on how we move beyond the short term opportunities of the Recovery Act and make local sustainability an imminent reality.

Comments (2)

Greenveteran

“Empowering Veterans to Restore our Environment, Economy and Communities”

Background
There are over a million returned or returning military personnel who now face the challenging task of returning to civilian life. Without effective support and substantive economic options, many of them and their families and communities face serious hardships. Recent reports indicate that the social and economic costs of neglect or ineffective support of our veterans in these critical early years of their return could dwarf the already enormous direct costs of current war spending.

At the same time, the confluence of environmental threats, skyrocketing energy prices, and national and global economic turmoil are creating a growing economic and political demand for transitions to more sustainable “green” technologies, energy sources, and business practices. Across a wide variety of fields—renewable energy, energy efficiency, land conservation and green building—there is a rapidly growing demand for trained workers, and a growing need for the training and education programs that can prepare them.

Veterans Green Jobs was founded on the belief that veterans represent one of the most dedicated and disciplined workforces available to our society to begin the enormous task of restoring our environment, economy and communities. Together with a broad consortium of partners, Veterans Green Jobs is launching a national initiative to rapidly train and deploy returning military veterans to become leaders in a number of critical green jobs fields. The Veterans Green Jobs AcademyTM will provide both classroom-based and on-the-job training opportunities in sectors including renewable energy/energy efficiency, green building, land conservation and restoration, and disaster preparedness- response--reconstruction. Veterans Green Jobs will launch programs in six states by June of this year.

We expect to have programs operational in 10-15 States by January of 2010.

Program Strategy
Veterans Green Jobs’ objectives are to create a pathway for the largest number of veterans to find job opportunities in fields that create the greatest social, economic and environmental benefits. In selecting the specific education and training pathways to accomplish these objectives, The Veterans Green Jobs Academy is building programs based on five primary criteria:

1. The green jobs sectors chosen are a high priority for public and private investment.
2. The skills required for initial participation can be developed in a short time frame, ideally in an on-the-job training context.
3. Initial job placement will lead—through concurrent ongoing training--to a minimum of 3-5 additional career opportunities in related fields
4. Training systems can be systematized for rapid dissemination
5. Training programs can become largely self-supporting through service revenue generated in on- the-job training programs.

Core Training Programs for 2009-2010
Based on these five criteria, Veterans Green Jobs Academy will focus its efforts in developing rapid training and deployment programs in the following green job sectors:

Energy Efficiency and Conservation--The core program in the Veterans Green-Jobs Academy will be a short-term/high intensity training in home energy survey, auditing, and energy conservation/weatherization. Called HEATTM (Home Energy Audit Training) veteran graduates will be certified to work as energy auditing (existing homes) and rating (new homes) professionals at both the local, state, and national levels. Participants will also receive on-going training in the wide range of the conservation measures called for by the audits and surveys—insulation, HVAC, lighting and controls, solar PV and solar thermal etc.—each an additional job opportunity.

VGJ’s curriculum's will be integrated into educational institutions at both the state and national levels. This enables participants to receive either trade-recognized training certificates or 2 and 4 year degrees. The HEAT program trainees will work with each States Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LEAP) to provide home energy surveys and weatherization’s as part of their training. This funding, expected to increase from $250M nationally to over $5B, will provide the basis for self-sustaining programs for the next 2-3 years.

Land Conservation and Restoration—Working in partnership with Conservation Corps around the Country, Veterans Green Jobs will train and place Veterans as both conservation crew members and leaders in the massive scale-up of outdoor conservation work now being planned as part of the Stimulus package. Again, VGJ will provide both the educational and veteran services components to insure that these work and learn experiences will lead to both academic credit and job opportunities in land management agencies and industries.

Green Building & Historic Building Renovation—It is now widely recognized that the significant gains made over the past 10 years in the development of green building standards, codes and practices cannot be effectively implemented without a significant increase in the number of workers trained in green building techniques and procedures. Veterans Green Jobs will work with both green building educators and trade unions to develop training programs focused on the most essential and widely needed skill sets in these fields. As part of this program, Veterans Green Jobs will work with a coalition of partners to develop green rehab programs for buildings repossessed through government-backed mortgage foreclosures. Veterans will gain real-world construction and green retrofitting skills as part of the hands-on green building/rehab training program. These green retrofitted homes will then be made available to returning veterans using VA mortgage programs at preferred interest rates and terms.

Emergency Preparedness, Response and Rebuilding—Working with the Lower Ninth Ward and other neighborhoods of New Orleans, Veterans Green Jobs will develop and deploy a new approach to disaster preparedness and coordination that will improve the ability of disaster prone communities to more effectively mobilize before, during and after major disaster events. As part of this program, the participants will build and equip disaster response vehicles and train as first response teams prepared for deployment during the course of their training program.

Participants will also receive certificate training in green building and renewable energy skills as part of the rebuilding training focus.

The Veterans Green Jobs Organization
Veterans Green Jobs (VGJ) was incorporated as a non-profit organization in Colorado in 2007. It is a 501c3 tax-exempt organization.

Veterans Green Jobs is supported through funding from a variety of private individuals and foundations including a generous grant from the Wal-Mart National Foundation that is supporting the national expansion of Veteran Green Jobs Academy programs.

VGJ was cofounded by Brett KenCairn who serves as its Executive Director. Brett has 25 years of experience in community organizing and development, sustainable forestry and land restoration, and renewable energy. He has been the director of three sustainable development organizations and two for-profit businesses. VGJ’s staff includes both recent and past military veterans and individuals with extensive experience in non-profit development and management, education, and social services.

The VGJ’s founding board and advisers includes:

Harry Bruell—Executive Director, Southwest Conservation Corps, Durango Colorado
Graeme Bicknell—(Veteran—Active Duty) Assistant Professor, Army Master of Social Work Program. US Army Medical Department, Center and School. San Antonio, Texas.
William Doe, PhD—(Veteran) Associate Dean, Warner College of Natural Resources, Colorado State College. Fort Collins, CO
John Garcia—(Veteran) Secretary of Veterans Affairs, State of New Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Elizabeth Hawkins—Executive Director, One Freedom (Training for Veterans in Stress management and PTSD). Boulder, CO.
Gaia Mika, PhD—Retired Staff psychologist for the University of Colorado at Boulder
Demond Mullins— (Veteran) Former Iraq infantry. Currently pursing Master’s Degree in New York City, NY
Mit Parsons, Ed.D—(Veteran) Retired Wildlife and Fisheries Ecologist, USDA Forest Service, Denver, CO.

For further information about Veterans Green Jobs, please contact us at any of the following:

PO Box 1129
Boulder, CO 80306
970.846.7344
www.veteransgreenjobs.org

Posted by Greenveteran | March 23, 2009 9:51 PM

Posted on March 23, 2009 21:51

Jerry Lee Mayeux

Consider the Connection to:
Building an Economic Pyramid
Where is the Economic Pyramid
Please Google Search: CTCGREEN

Great article, Michael Fedor

Posted by Jerry Lee Mayeux | March 24, 2009 7:32 AM

Posted on March 24, 2009 07:32

Post your own comment

Name:

Email Address:

Remember personal info?

(To create links here or for style, you may wish to use HTML tags in your comments) We want to know what you think. Feel free to share whatever you'd like to:

Menu

Shortcuts

Contributing Authors