Sen. Barbara Boxer: Clean Energy Will Jumpstart Our Economy

(Huffington Post)
By Sen. Barbara Boxer


Sarah Palin's "cap and tax" opinion piece printed in the Washington Post this week reminds me of every naysayer who has spoken out against progress in cleaning up pollution.

Whether it was the debate over the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Superfund law or any of our other landmark environmental laws, one pattern has always been clear:

Time and time again, pessimists -- often affiliated with polluting industries -- predicted loss of jobs and great costs to taxpayers. And time and time again, our environmental laws have cleaned up the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the communities we live in at far lower cost than expected.

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At Wal-Mart, Labeling to Reflect Green Intent

(New York Times)

By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM

Shoppers expect the tags on Wal-Mart items to have rock-bottom prices. In the future they may also have information about the product’s carbon footprint, the gallons of water used to create it, and the air pollution left in its wake.

As the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores is on a mission to determine the social and environmental impact of every item it puts on its shelves. And it has recruited scholars, suppliers, and environmental groups to help it create an electronic indexing system to do that.

The idea is to create a universal rating system that scores products based on how environmentally and socially sustainable they are over the course of their lives. Consider it the green equivalent to nutrition labels.


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Toledo Tries to Overcome Rust-Belt Image, Become Green Jobs Metropolis

(CNBC)
By: Brooke Sopelsa, Writer/Producer

....Toledo, which has an unemployment rate of 12 percent, more than a point higher than the state average and nearly three points higher than the national average, is hoping to become not just Ohio's clean energy capital, but the country's. The city, the state, the University of Toledo and local entrepreneurs are working together to make this a reality.

"We have about 6,000 people at the moment employed in 15 research and manufacturing institutions that are focused entirely upon solar energy," says Toledo Mayor Marty Finkbeiner. "We would like to see over a decade that number grow from 6,000 to 20,000."

The University of Toledo is one of the driving forces behind the city's green makeover. In 2000, the university started looking at ways to support regional development, eventually deciding the best way was to develop a clean energy program, with a focus on solar energy.


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Green Jobs Training For Women

(Mother Nature Network)
Melissa Hincha-Ownby's Blog

A few months ago I wrote about the status of employment opportunities for women in the green collar economy. Many of the jobs that are receiving training funds are in traditionally male-dominated fields: weatherization, energy audits, clean energy manufacturing, green construction and more. Sure, women are employed in these industries but they make up only a small portion of the total employment numbers.

The Walmart Foundation and the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation (BPW) have joined forces to promote green jobs training for women. The Walmart Foundation has awarded $400,000 in grants to help launch the “Moving from Red to Green: Working Women in the Green Economy” program.

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Green Job Retooling in Five States

(Citytown.com)

Five states—Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, and Oregon—will be getting a federal jumpstart for green job training. Recently, officials from the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education (NRCCTE) and the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), at the U.S. Department of Education, launched a program of technical assistance to these states for programs of study geared to the emerging environmental sector.

Each state will focus on a different portfolio of green industries. Georgia will tackle energy, construction, and transportation. In Illinois, training will focus on energy, utilities, and waste management. New Jersey will address a grab bag of industries yet to be named. Ohio will develop programs on alternative energy, biotech, and farming. For its part, Oregon's program will deal with wind power, solar energy, and green building.

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The gray in 'green jobs'

(Christan Science Monitor)

By the Monitor's Editorial Board

Kermit the Frog was wrong. It is easy being green.

The word can mean almost anything as both federal and state governments rush to spend billions on "green jobs" – with sometimes very loose definitions.

In the US alone, $85 billion will be spent this year on green energy and transport as part of the economic stimulus. The obvious job definitions – such as solar-cell installer, wind-turbine maker, hydro-dam constructor, or home insulator – are no problem.

But beyond that, watch out.

Everyone from patent lawyers for washing machines to security guards in green buildings wants to ride on this gravy train of heavy subsidies.

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Going Green with Social Media

Going Green or being eco-friendly is a very hot and trendy topic not only in social media but everywhere. Everyone is thinking about what they can do to be more green and to help the environment. So how are people using social media to "go green"?

The most popular way is via blogging. There are thosands and maybe even millions of blogs which talk about and support the ideas of recycling, going green and being eco-friendly. These blogs offer advice for everyone from parents raising young children, to teenagers, to adults, to businesses to the elderly on how they too can go green.

However, in the past few years with the emergence of other forms of social media, primarily with social networking sites, going green with social media has expanded beyond the blogosphere.


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