“Green Economy:” How do we start off on the right foot?

The earth is warming. Unemployment is rising. But in Massachusetts, a solution is emerging from the people hardest hit by the economic and environmental crisis.

Over the past few months, polls have shown that fewer Americans believe in man-made global warming, even though the science is telling us that the earth is warming. The last decade was the warmest on record and 2009 was the second warmest year since 1880. The Copenhagen Climate Conference in 2009 further emphasized the immense gap between rich and poor nations, a gap that we desperately need to close if we are ever going to solve the climate crisis. This is a lesson we have taken to heart in Massachusetts, where climate activists, low-income communities and labor groups have united to form the Green Justice Coalition (GJC).

In 2008, the Green Communities Act was passed and it set in place new energy efficiency standards that greatly expanded current programs, creating an opening for quality green jobs creation in Massachusetts. In 2009, the state’s utility companies incorporated the GJC’s suggestions to create good quality green jobs, provide pathways out of poverty for local residents and jumpstart global warming reductions in communities around the state. More on the plan after  the jump.

The GJC’s plans look like this:
•    Hire trusted community organizations to canvass their neighborhoods, sign up hundreds of people for home weatherization, and “bundle” those homes into one contract.
•    With contracts that large, responsible contractors can pay good wages with benefits, hire local residents and provide quality training and paths to careers.
•    And find upfront financing so residents can afford “deep” energy efficiency retrofits.

Using this approach will create six thousand good green jobs over the next three years. It will also put low-income communities and communities of color at the forefront of the fast-growing green economy. Up until now, our communities have endured the most toxic waste sites, the most trash transfer stations and the highest lead and asthma rates. The Green Justice solution can start solving the environmental, economic and equity crises we face by helping the most marginalized communities that have the draftiest, oldest and least energy-efficient homes have access to weatherization programs.

This spring the GJC will launch pilot projects in Chinatown, Lynn, Chelsea and Springfield to prove our solution works. This is just the beginning of what we can accomplish if we put our ideas and our power together.