Obama Taps Van Jones as Green Jobs Adviser

March 11, 2009

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Activist and green jobs visionary Van Jones will be joining the Obama Administration March 16 as a special adviser for green jobs, enterprise and innovation, announced the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Jones will work with agencies and departments to advance the administration’s climate and energy initiatives, with a special focus on improving vulnerable communities, according to WhiteHouse.gov.

Jones is the founder of Green For All, a national organization that promotes an inclusive green economy, and is also the co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Color of Change. He is the author of the 2008 New York Times best-seller, “The Green Collar Economy.”

Jones has long been a proponent of environmental justice. He, along with other advocates like Majora Carter, tries to raise awareness of the fact that the communities most hurt by unsustainable practices are often the poorest, reports U.S. News & World Report.

Here, Jones speaks on a panel at the first official meeting of the Middle Class Task Force in Philadephia.

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Reader Comments

Van Jones is not all that he seems to be. He actually hasn’t done alot of ground work in Oakland. In fact, save a handful of kumbaya-singing multicultural-leaning activists, most native Bay Area Black people have never heard of him. He is a carpet-bagging, self-hating professional type that takes credit for the work of other long time activists in the Bay Area, that don’t seek the lime light as much as himself. If he is to have any real political future, he must check in with the people who’s hard work he plagarized and make it right with them. I read his book The Green Economy and he made no mention of the real Black Activists who are truly making a difference instead he took the easy route and name dropped a bunch of his fellow carpet baggers. He has been a disappointment thus far, hopefully obama will get more truth out of him that oakland ever did.

lilbobby | March 11th, 2009

Ah, another worthless “adviser”. Keep on rewarding your useless friends, Obama. I am becoming increasingly concerned with the damage these “advisers” can do to our economy. For the most part, they are not experts and most of them have radical agendas. This is total, to put it politely, nonsense.

Glennis | March 12th, 2009

What about influencing corporate culture to shift? That’s where I want to see Mr. Jones make his mark. I’d also like to know what he thinks about certifying business and investment professionals who are leading the fight against climate change? I created a new certification called the ClimateChanger™ designation. ClimateChangersTM are described as “business people who have demonstrated an eagerness to reduce carbon emissions in their industry of practice, and the knowledge and creativity to achieve that goal.”

Let me know your thought?

Read the article on FastCompany Here.
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/glenn-croston/starting-and-growing-green-businesses/changing-climate-green-leaders

EcoConnoisseur | March 20th, 2009