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Growing a Green Economy for All from Green Jobs to Green Ownership

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Growing a Green Economy for All from Green Jobs to Green Ownership Growing a Green Economy for All From Green Jobs to Green Ownership Deborah B. Warren and Steve Dubb The Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland June 2010 About the Authors DEBORAH B. WARREN has spent much of the past three decades working to promote social and economic justice in the American South. She was the first Executive Director of both the Southern Rural Development Initiative (SRDI) and the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina (CRA-NC). Since 2007, Warren has consulted for a variety of local, state and national non-profit organizations. STEVE DUBB is the Research Director of The Democracy Collaborative. Dubb is the prin- cipal author of Linking Colleges to Communities: Engaging the University for Community Development (2007) and Building Wealth: The New Asset-Based Approach to Solving Social and Economic Problems (2005). Growing a Green Economy for All From Green Jobs to Green Ownership Deborah B. Warren and Steve Dubb The Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland June 2010 The Democracy Collaborative 1140-F Tydings Hall University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 Copyright © 2010 by The Democracy Collaborative This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/deed.en_US Contents List of Figures . v Dedication: John Logue, Ohio Employee Ownership Center . vi Acknowledgments . vii Preface . ix Executive Summary . 1 Introduction . 5 The Promise of Community Wealth Building . 7 Mapping the Green Economy . 13 Potential for Community Wealth Building . 16 Community Wealth Building in the Green Economy Today . 19 Case Studies: Innovation in Green Community Wealth Building . 39 Austin Energy (Austin, Texas) . 39 Washington Electric Co-op (East Montpelier, Vermont) . 42 Coastal Community Action and the Graylands Wind Energy Project (Washington state) . 43 Windshare—and the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative (Toronto, Ontario) . 45 PV Squared (New England) . 46 Green Worker Cooperatives (Bronx, New York) . 48 Excellence by Owners: The EBO Group Goes Green (Sharon Heights, Ohio) . 49 The ReUse Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota) . 50 WAGES (Oakland, California) . 52 The Evergreen Cooperative Business Network of Cleveland, Ohio . 54 iv Growing a Green Economy for All Meeting the Challenges . 59 The Role of Intermediaries . 69 The Role of Philanthropy . 73 The Role of Policy . 77 Recommendations . 83 Conclusion . 97 Appendix A: Interview Subjects and Contributors . 99 Appendix B: Selected Resources . 101 End Notes . 112 List of Figures Figure 1: Green Community Wealth Building Model . 8 Figure 2: Growth of Community Wealth Building . 10 Figure 3: Green Economy—Six Leading Sectors . 13 Figure 4: Community Wealth in the Green Economy . 20 Figure 5: Case Study Overview . 40 Figure 6: Facing the Challenges . 60 Figure 7: Intermediaries and Their Actions in the Green Economy . 70 Figure 8: Philanthropic Approaches to Building Community Wealth in the Green Economy . 74 Figure 9: Policy to Build Community Wealth in the Green Economy . 78 Figure 10: Outline of Recommendations—Building Community Wealth in the Green Economy . 84 In memory of John Logue (1947–2009) For more than two decades, John Logue was a national leader in employee own- ership, a primary mechanism for building wealth among working Americans by broadening the ownership of capital . Due to his efforts and those of his colleagues at the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, Ohio has more employee-owned com- panies and more employee owners per capita than any other state . John was also a leader of the Evergreen Cooperative Initiative in Cleveland, which is profiled in this report . We dedicate this report to John’s memory . Acknowledgments All reports build on a body of work that precedes them and this work is no excep- tion . Much has been written on green jobs in the last few years, but a few works de- serve special mention . One is Raquel Pinderhughes’ book, Alternative Urban Futures: Planning for Sustainable Development in Cities, which outlines the concept of “green collar jobs” and helped frame The Democracy Collaborative’s initial work in this field . Another is Van Jones’ book, The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, which made a huge contribution in popularizing the concept of green collar jobs among policymakers . A third key work is a paper by Phil Mattera of Good Jobs First, titled High Road or Low Road? Job Quality in the New Green Economy, which acted as the framing paper for a February 2009 “Good Jobs, Green Jobs” conference jointly convened by the United Steelworkers of America and the Sierra Club . This work aims to build on those works and others by introducing the concept of ownership into the debate . Ted Howard, Executive Director of The Democracy Collaborative, played a key role in framing this project and the Kendeda Fund pro- vided essential support that made this project possible . In researching and writing this report, we relied on the good will and contribu- tions of several dozen individuals . These practitioners, experts, and scholars par- ticipated in interviews, suggested additional key people to interview, and helped us track down important articles and information . A full list of interview subjects and their affiliations is included in an appendix . We also gratefully acknowledge the help of the following individuals who read and commented on the entire draft or segments of this report: Dave Heidenreich, Mark Kapner, Avram Patt, and Bill Stillinger reviewed the case studies on their businesses, providing valuable feedback and fact checking . Hilary Abell, Martin Bourque, Anne Claire Broughton, Courtney DeOreo, Carla Dickstein, John Farrell, Ted Howard, Marjorie Kelly, Heather McCullough, Raquel Pinderhughes, Corey Rosen, Bill Schweke, Dan Swinney, and Stockton Williams read and commented on larger sections or entire drafts of the report . While it is not possible to fully incor- porate all of the valuable feedback we received, the final product is immeasurably improved due to their contributions . All responsibility for errors and omissions remains, of course, our own . A few individuals deserve special mention for their contributions . Bob Schall, Rob Sanders, and Mark Fick shared their institutions’ efforts as CDFIs engaging in viii Growing a Green Economy for All green lending . John Farrell contributed greatly to the development of the policy sections of the report in particular and thoroughly reviewed the report’s policy section . Stockton Williams also provided valuable feedback on the policy section that resulted in substantial changes . The late John Logue steered us to a set of Ohio ESOPs that are working in the green economy . Corey Rosen called attention to the important efforts of Namasté Solar in Colorado . Jennifer Grove identified power- ful examples of community ownership in the Northwest . Raquel Pinderhughes persuasively urged us to look at businesses focusing on local markets and hiring the most disenfranchised . Carla Dickstein, in addition to sharing what Coastal Enterprises has learned about the green economy, gave us her valuable insights about potential ownership structures for new green enterprises . Marjorie Kelly pro- vided substantive comments that greatly improve the readability of the report . Bill Schweke and Dan Swinney called our attention to the need to highlight the role of manufacturing in the green economy and to more clearly define community wealth building . Courtney DeOreo and Heather McCullogh gave valuable sugges- tions regarding ways to improve the overall presentation of the work . Thanks are also due to Hilary Abell, Martin Bourque, Jennifer Cimperman, Sonia Picardo, Mick Pulsifer, and Bill Stillinger, who provided photos of their work on the ground and to Tom Croft who shared an advance copy of his new book, Up from Wall Street: The Responsible Investment Alternative, which assisted us greatly in our discussion of green investing . Lastly, we would like to thank our partners who watched us work on the report from beginning to end . Debby Warren would like to acknowledge the patience and support of Gregg Warren . Steve Dubb would like to acknowledge the love, friend- ship, and support of Barbara Berglund . Preface By Gar Alperovitz and Ted Howard Over the past several years, the vision of a new and transformative green American economy—one capable of employing millions of workers in renewable energy, green construction, clean transportation, recycling, and more—has exploded across the nation . Unions, business groups, and activists are all strong advocates of public investment in this green new world . The Obama Administration and Congress herald its virtues to the point where “green jobs” has become a central theme of federal policy . The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or “stimu- lus bill” passed by Congress in March 2009, marked our nation’s largest investment in green jobs development . To date, green jobs have been seen primarily as a new employment strategy and workforce development opportunity . The jobs that are envisioned are little differ- ent in quality from the economy’s traditional employment opportunities: some of the new jobs will be high wage, but most will not; some will be unionized, but most will not; virtually all of the companies in the green sector will either be privately held or owned by outside investors . While many billions of dollars in public monies will be devoted to building the green economy and its jobs, little
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