Thank yous all around - to legislators and their staff, to advocates, to community leaders and members. Massachusetts has a green jobs bill!

And now we're ready to figure out how to create jobs in multiple green industry sectors, for MA residents with varying skills and in different communities across the state.

This is YOUR invitation to roll up your sleeves and think with others in your community, with employers and with skill training and education organizations. What will work where you are?? Build a local answer to these questions and share it with others. We have much to learn and we already know.

Comment here with your ideas, questions and concerns!

I was a panelist on a Green Jobs panel at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention a couple of weeks ago. I joined a carpenter who works with MA YouthBuild and a woman who works with JYF Networks, a program providing basic education and skill training. The Dems had a green focus this year bringing Van Jones (THE green collar jobs guy and co-founder of Green for All) to speak both at the convention and then as an opener in the afternoon for a series of workshops called the “Greenest Democrats in the Bluest State”. Hats off to convention organizers: what a way to open the conversation up about climate change and the growing green economy by highlighting it at the state convention.

In the space of two and a half weeks, I've been to two green jobs conferences: the Hudson Valley Community College Renewable Energy Conference in Troy, NY (https://www.hvcc.edu/energyconference/) and The Dream Reborn, Green for All's green jobs conference just held in Memphis, TN ( http://www.dreamreborn.org/).

It takes a lot of energy to attend conferences so I'm always concerned about what I'm learning and taking away. And, much as I'm a green-jobs-are-coming kind of gal, I've been very keen to see if others agree.

I'd say the answer is mixed and complex... I didn't hear about loads and loads of green jobs that are here now. I did hear energy, interest, enthusiasm and possibility all of which are important, but if we're talking about growing green jobs to address environmental and economic issues we need to figure out how to actually create some jobs!

A Good Start: Two-Year Effects of a Freshmen Learning Community Program at Kingsborough Community College - Freshmen in a learning community at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, NY, moved more quickly through developmental English requirements, took and passed more courses, and earned more credits in their first semester than students in a control group. Two years later, they were also somewhat more likely to be enrolled in college. [MDRC Publications]

comments about this post. 

Anyone out there attend last week's Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference? This conference (http://www.greenjobsconference.org/site/c.rvI3IiNWJqE/b.3820537/) brought together labor, activists, policy makers and training providers to draw the big picture of green jobs. Those of you who attended, what did you learn?

Alex Risley Schroeder

Finding Earth Works

I'm headed to Troy, NY for a conference on renewable energy/ energy efficiency and workforce development. NY is making great strides in these areas - ahead of us, it seems. I'll post after the conference with tidbits from the conference.

In the meantime, what questions are out there about energy efficiency jobs in Massachusetts? Folks in Cambridge and Boston - what are you learning through the work of your Energy Alliances? Tell us about it some.

Alex Risley Schroeder

Finding Earth Works

The green jobs movement is thinking about how to grow jobs by growing industries. Take a look at the report just released by Green for All: Green Collar Jobs in America's Cities (http://www.greenforall.org/resources/gcjobsamericascities.pdf). Its a tool to think strategically about green jobs in your community, about growing green jobs for the participants you work with.

 Its not what comes first the chicken or the egg, its policy that comes first. As the report says "its how [we] enact policies and programs to drive investment into targeted green economic activity and increase demand for local green-collar workers"

 In MA there's a lot going on. We've heard from House Speaker DiMasi about his proposal for grants to young green tech companies, local entreprenuers and job training funds (to the tune of $12.5 million).

Aren't you hearing a lot of buzz about green jobs? And when the buzz is in the air, do you ask yourself: What are 'green jobs'?

I've been listening to the buzz for a couple of years now and asking these questions of folks across MA. The answers are diverse: green jobs are jobs in renewable energy and energy efficiency, green jobs are pathways out of poverty, green jobs are jobs that connect to the environment and help address climate change.