Green Economy

Green for All, Albuquerque

http://greenforall.org.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/slic/albuquerque.pdf

Green for All, Albuquerque is the local chapter of a nationwide program aiming to implement scaled green job programs that provide a pathway out of poverty for low-income individuals and minority communities. To date, Green for All has brought together community partners to lead the Albuquerque Clean-Energy Careers Campaign to create city-wide comprehensive high-road clean-energy programs and policies. A key component of this program would be the use of a property-assessed clean-energy (PACE) financing mechanism that provides up-front capital for energy efficiency projects that is paid back through subsequent savings on participants’ property taxes.

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Done Right, Eliminating Food Deserts Result in Community Oases

May 1st, 2013
Building community wealth every step of the way
Pogue’s Run Grocer Mural, an initiative of the Indy Food Co-op. © Indy Food Co-op
Building healthy, vibrant and sustainable communities requires more than “bottom up” solutions. The importance of community ownership to ensure that projects that start at the bottom result in lasting community wealth for the people involved is often missing from the discussion. The local foods movement provides examples that illustrate the importance of this ownership principle in practice.
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Rob Witherell

This month we interviewed Rob Witherell, representative for the United Steelworkers union in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In addition to working on contract negotiations, benefits analysis, research and organizing, Witherell has also led the United Steelworkers’ efforts on developing union co-ops and is the union’s lead liaison with the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation. In this interview, Witherell discusses what elevated co-op organizing to the top of the Steelworker agenda, commonalities between labor unions and cooperatives, how the union co-op model will work, what its challenges will be, and key accomplishments of the movement to date.
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Creating Equitable, Healthy, and Sustainable Communities: Strategies for Advancing Smart Growth, Environmental Justice, and Equitable Development

Megan McConville

A new report from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Sustainable Communities examines how communities across the country are integrating smart growth, environmental justice, and equitable development approaches to design and build healthy, sustainable, and inclusive neighborhoods. Author Megan McConville offers a range of examples from low-income, minority, tribal, and overburdened communities that illustrate ways community groups can shape development to better respond to their needs and their values.

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Greener Reality: Jobs Skills and Equity in a Cleaner US Economy

Sarah White

The Center on Wisconsin Strategy’s (COWS) latest report is the third in a series that looks at what works (and what does not) in the green economy. Author Sarah White argues for a more coherent, cross-sectoral and broad-based approach to developing human capital and greening community economic development that is driven by equity, democratic participation, and sustainability. After reviewing the current gloomy realities of green politics, the report offers a number of possible interventions — highlighting best practices and lessons learned — that bring together workers, employers, industry and training systems in and out of typical clean energy sectors.

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