It's taken a devastated economy and years worth of job losses to get here, but politicians, business owners, and everyday Americans seem to finally be joining the conversation about how creating "green-collar" jobs is key to repairing the nation's economy.
In Chicago, the Green Exchange is emerging as an example of how -- with a little federal support, the backing of local officials, and some ingenuity -- a revitalized economy could be just around the bend.
Located on the city's Northwest Side, the Exchange is a sprawling, sustainable office/retail complex set to open next spring. The building will house a variety of eco-driven tenants, from solar panelists to developers to a dry cleaner. What's innovative about the project, however, is its ability to harness the kind of public and private capital that researchers, economists, and environmentalists say is key to cultivating a national green economy.
Incoming businesses, for example, will have access to a government-backed, $500,000 loan pool, which they can dip into for hiring and training workers. Amid a credit crunch, the low-interest loans (which come in the form of a Community Economic Development grants) will help these small businesses at the same time that banks are curtailing their lending. As many as 58 permanent, full-time jobs will be created as a result of that relatively small investment.
If a half-million dollars could foster that kind of growth in a small corner of Chicago, imagine what could be accomplished by investing billions across the nation. The Center for American Progress, a D.C.-based liberal think-tank, recently decided to explore that possibility.
In a "Green Recovery" study released this fall, they found that a $100 billion federal investment -- dedicated to six "green infrastructure areas" such as retrofitting homes and expanding wind and solar energy -- could create two million green-collar jobs in just two years.
Van Jones, a leader of the green-collar movement, has drafted his own proposal for a national Green Energy Corps program. He says this is an opportunity America can't afford to pass up:
[F]or too long, we powered the U.S. economy with consumption, not production ... massive debt, not smart savings ... and environmental destruction, not restoration. Those days are over. To green the economy, we stop borrowing and start building. We stop relying on credit from overseas; we start relying on creativity here at home. And we generate jobs by protecting America's beauty, not destroying it. We can turn this breakdown into a breakthrough - if we make clean energy the cornerstone of the new economy, not credit cards.
That's exactly the kind of thinking that helped the Green Exchange to grow from a risky, albeit innovative, idea into an example of what's possible across the nation.
"We hope that people take notice," the Green Exchange's Jennifer Schellinger said. "We want to show that something like the Green Exchange is possible in every state in the nation."
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