Mitchell Kapor Foundation Weblog

This past weekend, we attended two excellent gatherings: Applied Research Center’s National Facing Race conference and the 7^th annual Green Festival.

CARMEN:

The Facing Race conference provided an important opportunity for national organizers, activists, elected officials, artists, academics, and everyday community members to sit together and develop strategies in order create a national movement whereof race could be the centerpiece. Sponsored by the Applied Research Center (ARC), which is the home for media and activism on racial justice, the conference introduced the Compact for Racial Justice as a plan for fairness in and across communities throughout the country. This conference proved to be an important learning experience for all of those involved, as the large plenaries engaged issues ranging from the current economic crisis to teaching participants skills on how to place race at the center of current social justice debates.

The conference also built in smaller sessions where specific issues, movements, and programs could discuss their work using the issue of race as the frame. For example, I attended a discussion on how to inject a racial justice perspective into the emerging debate on green jobs. The presenters included Maka Agbo from Ella Baker Center’s Green Collar Jobs Campaign, who described the ways the campaign moved between policy making to job training in order to provide a comprehensive pathway towards a green economy.

In the days following the event, ARC’s media team pulled together a great set of informational videos like this one from the plenary titled “Race & The Election: November 4^th and Beyond”, which highlights key presentations from the conference. This, along with the many other informational sessions allowed for great discussions and a whole lot of learning.

TIFFANY:

The Green Festival was co-sponsored by Co-op America and Global Exchange and hosted 125 speakers, 350 local and national green businesses, and a number of community and nonprofit groups. All exhibitors were screened for their commitment to sustainability, ecological balance, and social justice using Co-op America’s green business standards. As a person who struggles to find consistent ways to incorporate a ‘greener’ lifestyle, I learned a lot from attending this event.

One of the most interesting speakers I heard was Dr. Ellis Jones, a professor from U.C. Davis, who has done extensive research on “the social and environmental responsibility of every company on the planet AND making it available in practical forms that individuals can use in their everyday lives.” This research was incorporated into a website, http://www.betterworldshopper.org/, that gives ‘grades’ to commonly used companies based on their environmental practices. If you’re curious about how the companies you frequently support are doing in the environmental arena, please check out the website. Dr. Jones said that every dollar we spend is a vote for or against environmental sustainability. I will definitely be tweaking the companies that I support as a consumer.

The most pertinent message that I took from Dr. Jones’ presentation is that each person can create a unique contribution in this movement to create a more sustainable environment. He said that our personal plans to improve our own ecological footprints will help change the world we live in. To me, this means that every effort that I make or that you make to recycle a plastic bag, or to support a local farmer, or to try walking to the train station instead of driving, or other achievable personal goals will contribute to this green movement.

I’m encouraged to push myself a little more each day, and as I travel home to Georgia this Thanksgiving, I will be sharing this message with my family as well.

Hi Grantees, Community Organizers, Green Activists, and MKF Partners!

My name is Carmen Rojas and I am the new Grants Officer at the Mitchell Kapor Foundation. It’s been an exciting couple of days as Tiffany, Cedric, and I develop our work groove and I begin to think about the future of our Green Access work.

As many of you know, we are deeply committed to participating in and supporting the conversations and organizing efforts occurring in the areas of climate justice, green jobs, and building healthy and sustainable communities of color throughout the Bay Area. I am here to make sure that we are a stakeholder in all of these areas as well as to support organizations that are on the ground doing and thinking about this work. Specifically, I will be overseeing and managing the grantmaking process in the area of Green Access as well as working with partners to define the opportunities and challenges for the future of this work.

I’m currently wrapping up a dissertation in the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley so  I’ll only be in the office part-time until January, but I am excited to meet you in the coming months and start laying the foundation for our future work together.

The notion of a green economy is one of the hottest topics today. There have long been crusaders for humans to live more sustainably with Mother Earth—from Native cultures to Al Gore’s recent book & film, An Inconvenient Truth. But, there has been a notable shift in the movement towards ‘mainstreaming green’ such that things like sustainable buildings and composting aren’t only heard in the conversations of the elite. Nothing is more evident of this than when, during the second town hall style Presidential debate, a female, African-American college student and department of children’s services employee asks Obama and McCain what they would do to address climate change during their administrations, if elected. She was the only person to bring up environmental issues during that debate. A green collar economy is another facet of how this environmental conversation has become mainstreamed—so that all people regardless of status, race, or zip code can benefit physically and economically from green principles.

Right now, one of the most prominent voices advocating for this green economy is Van Jones, co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and founding president of Green For All, both Mitchell Kapor Foundation grantees. I just started reading Van’s new book, The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems. I’ve only read up to page 10 :), but so far, my favorite line is on page 6 in regards to using corn as a source of fuel: “In a world full of hungry people, burning food should be criminally punished—not financially subsidized—by the U.S. government.”

Doesn’t that politically charged, social justice-oriented quote make you want to go out and get your own copy of this book?!? I know that I can’t wait to finish reading it to find out more about what kind of solutions Van has to suggest regarding green jobs and alternatives to our dependency on fossil fuels. If you want to find out more about this book, you can go to Van Jones’ site, or you can go pick up a copy at a bookstore nearest you!

Following up on the August 7th summit, Green Collar Jobs: Green Economy and Workforce Development - A Learning Agenda, that the Mitchell Kapor Foundation helped sponsor in Sacramento, local philanthropists came together on September 30th to recap the event, learn findings from months of research, and share strategies to continue advancing California’s green economy. Paloma Pavel and Carl Anthony from Oakland’s Earth House Leadership Center facilitated the discussion.

Since the project began, AB 3018, the Green Collar Jobs Act of 2008 (F. Nunez), has passed the state legislature and is now awaiting the Governor’s signature. This statute mandates a “Green Collar Jobs Council” that would — among other tasks — build public, private, and non-governmental partnerships to boost workforce development opportunities for Green Collar Jobs throughout the state. Not only does AB 3018 join a series of groundbreaking policies in California to curb global warming (like AB 32), it also recognizes that while California’s economy develops, it must also lift up the formerly incarcerated, emancipated youth, veterans, and others who’ve historically found barriers to employment.

As outcomes of the 9/30/08 meeting, those attending the meeting proposed:
• To join the Green Collar Jobs Council (still in formation) and to identify intersecting goals with the Environmental Justice Advisory Committee
• To meet with the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, Workforce Investment Board, Dept. of Education, and other agencies to facilitate implementation of the statute on regional and local levels.
• To fund collaborations regionally among green industry employers, local community colleges, and grassroots organizations for mutually beneficial school-to-career pathways.

CLICK HERE to read the Executive Summary on the August 7th Summit!

Photo by Brooke Anderson via Flickr; from Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and the Apollo Alliance rally for a green jobs corps in Oakland.

This past Tuesday we co-hosted a reception here in our offices for the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, a project of Redefining Progress. Members of the EJCC Steering Committee from locations across the country came to the Bay Area for a two-day update and strategy session; the reception provided an opportunity for local funders and guests to meet steering committee members and hear more about EJCC’s work.

Last year when we first started to learn about EJCC, I was impressed by their focus on developing emerging leadership to address climate change issues on behalf of people who otherwise would largely be left out of such conversations, namely people of color and low-income communities. In certain ways they have two audiences: a) bringing diverse representation to a largely white and wealthy discussion on climate change solutions, and b) building advocacy movements in communities of color to push for energy policies that benefit everyone (and don’t leave economically marginalized people bearing the brunt of global warming’s ill effects). When we first heard of their work, we saw a natural alignment with our Green Access grantmaking priorities.

Among many other achievements, EJCC sponsored a delegation of staff and youth to the annual United Nations Conference of Parties/Meeting of Parties on climate change in Bali, Indonesia. They authored (with Redefining Progress) and introduced a landmark report, A Climate of Change: African Americans, Global Warming, and a Just Climate Policy for the U.S., at a U.S. Congressional briefing this past July. They also shared with us their impressive Climate Justice Corps Training Manual, full of information vital to any emerging and established climate justice activists. And I always appreciate talking with the fierce and forthright Nia Robinson, EJCC’s Director.

Thanks to the terrific EJCC/Redefining Progress staff for making the reception a success. We’re happy to have supported EJCC as they carve this path to a green future for us all.

Photos by Tiffany Price and Michaela French.

Back in August, the Mitchell Kapor Foundation co-sponsored Green Collar Jobs: Green Economy and Workforce Development - A Learning Agenda. This summit in the state capital provided a forum for various sectors to share the progress they’ve made in preparing for and advancing the state’s green economy.

Over 80 people attended, from Speaker Emeritus Fabian Nunez, to Labor and Workforce Development Agency Secretary, Victoria Bradshaw, to the Bay Area’s “clean tech” entrepreneurs, community college leaders, foundations, and grassroots organizations. The summit was organized by the EarthHouse Leadership Center and funded by the Tides Center, the Bank of America Foundation, and the San Francisco Foundation as well as the Mitchell Kapor Foundation.

The summit was a terrific opportunity for state agencies to talk with private foundations, for nonprofits to talk with regional collaboratives, and for private sector employers and investors to talk with public agencies - in other words, for all of  us to reach across our respective silos. In doing so, we developed a deeper understanding of how we can work together to build a more sustainable and equitable green economy in California.

The work of the summit continues on September 30th with a meeting of local foundations hosted by the Tides Center. The meeting will further develop a learning and action agenda for foundations to examine best practices and make the most effective investments in California’s green economy.

For more information about the summit, please visit the Funders’ Network for Green Collar Jobs.

Mary Newson helped to organize the summit on behalf of EarthHouse and is currently working with the Foundation on systems issues.

Check out the job description and send us your materials if interested!

Three years ago, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the accompanying chasms it exposed impelled me to think about how I might be able to work harder and and more broadly for justice. The following year, I was fortunate to meet former Vice President (and future Nobel Laureate) Al Gore, who presented his Inconvenient Truth in our offices (he’s buddies with Mitch and Freada). And soon thereafter, the awesome Van Jones joined us for a lunchtime talk on eco-apartheid and the burgeoning green movement.

These three events were major forces in shaping my interest in the climate crisis and “green justice.” From early on, the Kapors have been committed to dedicating ongoing resources to respond to these critical issues. Together we figured out a frame for ensuring that people of color and low income communities would be included in the green movement in proactive ways, and our Green Access program was born.

We’re looking for a Grants Officer to oversee our Green Access portfolio. I think we’re off to a great start, and want to continue the momentum that we’re building, particularly around green jobs. If you’re interested, check out the job description and send us your materials. As Gustav has just shown us, we’ve made some progress but there’s so much more to do.

Flickr photo credit: katrina remembered IV; “Not as seen on TV”. Originally uploaded by notnA.