Posted 12/19/2008 - 02:53:18pm by David Bank in Green Encores

Greetings,

The brainstormed ideas from our recent Green Encore working group seemed to break down in four main areas (with obvious overlaps between the categories):

• Green transitions and training.
• Management skill-sharing and networking
• Local organizing and community building
• Policy issues

I’ll start separate discussion threads on each topic at http://encore.org/green-encores, but so you have it all in one place, here’s what I took away from our meeting:

Green jobs and training:

There’s an opportunity to involve encore careerists of various backgrounds (i.e. trades, professional, business) in training and mentoring younger people in entry-level green-collar jobs. This would increase the capacity of existing organizations that are already working on creating green opportunities for youth and disadvantaged communities (Green for All, Apollo Alliance, etc.), and counter perception of generational competition (a concern expressed by several people in our group).

Rick Cherry described an one- or two-week orientation or symposia on green encore opportunities, which could serve as a green-transition for people with experience in adjacent fields (i.e. electricians, plumbers, building trades people; also managers and educator/trainers). Partnerships with job training programs, youth job, national service, community college and other green-collar career pipelines, the encores could identify short- or long-term stints as trainers, mentors, advisors, team leaders, consultants.

Lee Botts suggested enlisting support of trades unions in this.) Joe James suggested that a first step is an inventory of existing job training efforts (such as SCSEP and the EPA’s Senior Environmental Employment Program)

David Bank is also working on this idea, and has interested partners in the East Bay (SF) and Milwaukee in addition to NY (Rick C.).

Management skill-sharing and networking

Spencer Jourdain suggested the need for an “intake” mechanism and an ability to match skills with needs. John Armstrong, who’s one of the initial Encore Fellows in the Silicon Valley pilot, suggested an analagous “Green Encore Fellowship” program to place transitioning encores with green orgs.

Both of these ideas could be part of a larger effort to assemble an inventory, and ultimately a skills bank, of encore talent that could be deployed for the benefit of green enterprises and green projects, a need identified by Joe James and others. Joe suggeste dthe equivalent of regional SCORE + Green knowledge banks to identify potential management teams of encore careerists to consult to/ manage green enterprises.

One online versions of such knowledge-skill sharing is Guru.com, John Armstrong said.

Eric Utne proposed training to create a “mentor bank” for green projects.

Dennis Hayes suggested that one function of such advisors/consultants could be quick “due diligence,” both business and scientific, about green proposals, to be able to quickly separate and pursue viable ideas.

Joe James suggested that another network could develop into an “Green Angel” investing network, similar to the Charleston Angel Fund he works with.

As one specific idea, Rosa Ramos suggested the development of specific local plans for green food production and ecotourism as ways of promoting economic development and reducing pollution.

Local and net organizing and community building

Eric Utne is working on a network of Earth Councils to create a context for meaningful community building efforts. The effort could benefit from assigned business and IT geeks for each council

Kay Kohl suggests webinars on the variety of opportunities, and regional recruitment efforts.

Encore.org may be a good place to plan/ pilot/promote such activities. It’s easy to create specific action groups and pages.

Policy and advocacy:

One suggestion was regional trainings on how to engage city councils on building code changes  green =energy savings. (Hal Harvey, ex- of the Hewlett Foundation and now head of ClimateWorks is very keen on this idea and has lots of experience with code change work).

Jock Brandis suggested Solar H2O heating as “low-hanging fruit” along with retrofitting.

There’s a need to better integrate the Green and boomer planks in the proposed national service expansion legislation (aka Serve America Act, Encore Service Act.). The Encore Fellowships in both of these bills could be effective year-long transitions to nonprofit/green encore careers in program/project leadership and management. Again, need to avoid perception of generational competition and foster a “bigger pie” approach.

Please insert things I forgot or new ideas and add details and links, or break off a specific topic into a new discussion.

Thanks for participating.

David

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