On a walk from the Dupont Circle Metro station to the recent Good Jobs, Green Jobs 2013 Conference held in Washington, I met a young woman, a recent graduate and Puerto Rican resident, attending the conference. I was surprised that someone who lived so far from Washington was attending the event.
Yet this chance meeting was a lens through which I came to contemplate the diverse mix of speakers and attendees at the event. As a sustainable business professional, I was at first surprised, but then very encouraged, by how complex and wide-ranging the area of sustainability and “green” has become. Today’s green movement touches everything from recycling and urban planning, to politics and justice, to science and technology, and witnessing this diversity of areas offered me a promising glimpse of how much the green movement is poised to grow in the next few years.
Among some of the many different issues I saw in play were unionized building maintenance workers, including those from the Healthcare Career Advancement Program, discussing “green systems change” (recycling, waste reduction, elimination of toxic chemical use); community leaders explaining the greening of urban spaces and the creation of jobs via local agriculture and CHICA programs (Community Health: Innovation Cooperation, Action programs, as in San Bernardino, California); and leading politicians, such as House Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and academic researchers defending the need for domestic and international policy supporting sustainability efforts.
Jacqui Patterson on the stage
One of the more memorable speakers I saw was Jacqui Patterson, Director of the Environmental and Climate Justice Program for the NAACP, who remarked that sustainability and the green economy are tied to principles of equity and justice. She said there are “barriers to participation in the green economy,” but what is needed are “policy initiatives, scorecards for legislators, youth engaging in science fields, youth entrepreneurship [and] campaign finance reform.”
Another notable speaker for me was Kevin Knobloch, President of the Union of Concerned Scientists, who said that we must “Push into a place of action; [the] science is well-established. Now it’s about politics, not establishing science or proof.”
Seeing these speakers, I got the impression that many efforts were coalescing around action and passing supportive government policy. In this way, Kevin Anton, Vice President and Chief Officer of Sustainability for Alcoa, rallied the audience by stating that the innovation needed to solve climate change is to this generation the same as President Kennedy’s challenge to go to the moon: “If you want to go fast, go by yourself; if you want to go far, go together.”
All in all, the breadth and diversity of speakers and issues I saw at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs 2013 Conference point to an exciting future for the green movement.
Do any of the issues above hold particular interest for you? Please let me know your thoughts.
<Our guest blogger>
Sasha Cohen
Sasha Cohen is a business development professional with particular interest in sustainable business operations, distribution and policy. Her work includes projects embedding CSR goals at a law firm in Ireland, grant funding for a renewable energy partnership between Europe and the United States (biomass), membership in the host committee for the NY Green Festival as well as participation in domestic and international sustainability conferences.
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