Atlanta

Rep. Lewis: Union Members and Environmentalists One Family

This morning, Good Jobs, Green Jobs South – the first of four regional conferences being held throughout the United States throughout 2012 – started with a keynote address from U.S. Representative John Lewis. Representative Lewis told the attendees about he was inspired when learning about Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King growing up.

He called on attendees to do what he was inspired to do, “It’s time for us to get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble. We’re too quiet in the country.” In addition to this call to action, Representative Lewis reminded attendees that our planet is “one house” and that environmentalists and labor organizations must work together. “It doesn't matter if we're labor or environmental groups. We are all one. We are one people, one family, one house.”

Congressman Lewis speech was a perfect introduction to the conference, reminding us of why we must continue to fight for good, green jobs in this country. We must ensure jobs are available for the unemployed throughout this country, and we must ensure these are good, family-sustaining jobs that are protecting our environment. As Congressman Lewis said, “This little planet is not ours to waste and not ours to destroy. We must preserve it for future generations.”

Greener Schools, Better Schools

The "Healthy Schools, Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities" workshop took a complete look at what makes a school green and the work being done to make our schools healthier and safer. One of the topics tackled was the prevalence of PCBs in schools, and the efforts being made to ensure our schools are safe places for students, teachers, and support staff. The PCBs in schools, particularly older districts, may come from ballasts in older lights. New York Lawyers for the Public Interest estimates that 25 million lights are old and at risk for containing these chemicals. To replace those 25 million lights, they estimate that 19,000 jobs would be created.

Mark Bishop from the Healthy Schools Campaign, a national organization based out of Chicago, focused on environmental justice and expanding awareness of green schools.

"Let's raise the floor, so we can have a safe and healthy environment for all," Bishop said. "We have to make sure health and environment are recognized as an intrinsic part of a quality education."

Gretchen Gigley, the Director of Eduation for The Clean Air Campaign, spoke on how transportation figures into the green schools mix. They have developed a menu of programs aimed at reducing parents idling their engines while waiting for their kids to get done with school, advocating for riding the bus or carpooling, and creating lesson plans focused on cleaning the air. "This an an opportunity to educate students and empower them at their schools," said Gigley.

Green Ribbons Schools -- a program of the U.S. Department of Education to recognize schools efforts to become greener -- were also a topic of discussion. The three pillars of Green Ribbon Schools are environmental impact/energy efficiency, healthy school environment, and environmental education. Schools that qualify as Green Ribbon Schools are schools that have achieved excellence in those three categories.

"Even in America, the richest country in the world, we're sending kids to schools that were built in the 1800s," said Sean Miller from Earth Day Network. "Every kid in America deserves to go to a healthy school. Let's get going on that."

Remembering “Forgotten Communities”

According to Dr. Beverly Wright, Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, the coverage of the City of New Orleans after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the BP Oil Spill put into pictures a fact known all too well by those in the environmental justice community: low-income and minority populations are the ones suffering most due to climate change.

The aftermath of these incidences, in fact, showed this inequality over and over again:

JunctionATL.org Starts Its Engine

As we discussed during the first day of Good Jobs, Green Jobs South, in order for the South and America to move into the green economy, we must make smart investments in new transportation technologies and infrastructure projects. We were excited to learn that Southern Environmental Law Center will be helping us in these efforts today when they announced their new blog JunctionATL.

This blog – written primarily by SELC attorneys Brian Gist and Wyatt Kendall – will “dig deep to explain how local, state and federal policies affect transportation and land use in and around Atlanta” and discuss issues like transit funding, sustainable development, high-speed rail, pedestrian and biking projects.

This blog will be an important resource for individuals wanting to learn about transportation issues in and around Atlanta and for keeping the discussions happening at Good Jobs, Green Jobs South continuing after the conference ends on Friday.

Make sure to check out SELC’s exciting coverage at http://www.JunctionATL.org.

Thank you, Atlanta!

Thank you to the wonderful city of Atlanta, Georgia for hosting the first Good Jobs, Green Jobs Regional Conference!

Georgia Congressman John Lewis -- often called "one of the most courageous persons the Civil Rights Movement ever produced" -- opened up the first plenary session with a speech where he called union members and environmentalists "one family." 

Check out his speech, as well as the speeches from National Wildlife Federation President and CEO Larry Schweiger and others, from the plenary session.

In the afternoon, Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen, Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, and others discussed plans to create good jobs in the 21st century. Watch it now.

There's still plenty of time to register for the Conferences in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Detroit. Register today and book your hotel room.

Also, if you would like to join with the dozens of organizations that are helping us put on these conferences, visit our page explaining how you can become a 2012 Good Jobs, Green Jobs Regional Conference Convener today.

“Oil Spills, Twisters, Hurricanes and Other Hazards”

There has been extensive media attention about how 2011 was one of the most disastrous years for environmental disasters. With these disasters, there has been an increased interest in environmental disaster preparedness and response plans.

At Good Jobs, Green Jobs South, I attended the “Oil Spills, Twisters, Hurricanes and Other Hazards: Responding to Workplace and Environmental Disasters” workshop where experts from the BlueGreen Alliance, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), United Steelworkers (USW) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) talked about how we’ve learned from past disasters and what is being done to ensure America is prepared for the next one.

Two Days in Atlanta

The Good Jobs, Green Jobs South Conference — held February 23 and 24 in Atlanta — was a tremendous success. Atlanta is a great American city. Filled with wonderful people who made all of us — both the staff that put on the Conference and those attending — feel right at home. We hope they enjoyed having us there as much as we enjoyed being there.

Hundreds of participants from all over the South gathered to hear ideas and share their own on how we can sustain the efforts we’re already making to build a green economy with good jobs that are good for our environment and take them even further.

The 40 workshops were filled with people seeking to learn more and discuss their own successes and failures to help others in their communities from South Carolina to Tennessee to Florida to Texas. We did some blogging about a few of the workshops, you can find the blogs here.

Atlanta Mayor Joins Heartland Forum to Urge Investments in Sustainable Economy

The following blog on the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation’s Good Jobs, Green Jobs South Conference, written by Marco Trbovich, Vice President of Strategic Communications for Tricom Associates, is cross-posted from the HuffPost Green blog. The Good Jobs, Green Jobs West Conference kicks off next week in Los Angeles March 15, 2012. Read more here about the upcoming conference.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed led a presentation on his city’s initiative to retrofit a wide range of commercial, public and residential buildings in a 400-block area of downtown that proved the highlight of a gathering of investors, pension fund managers, business, labor and community leaders at Heartland Capital Strategies’ first Responsible Investment Forum.   The forum, sponsored in collaboration with the BlueGreen Alliance, addressed the need for greater alternative investments to sustain the real economy, an investment arena largely abandoned by Wall Street.

Thank You!

Thank you to all those who attended any of our four 2012 Good Jobs, Green Jobs Regional conferences along with all of our sponsors (South, West, East, and Midwest), conveners, presenters and volunteers. We could not have put on these four amazing conferences without your support.

We hope you'll join us next April when we return to Washington, D.C. for the Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference Aptril 16-18!

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