April, 2008 | ModeShift

Green-Collar, Where it Started

by Keith SchneiderApril 22, 2008January 26, 20120

In 1999 Alan Durning, the author and director of the Sightline Institute in Seattle, published a prescient and well-received book about natural resources and economics entitled â€œGreen-Collar Jobs.â€ â€œA sustainable economy can generate employment just as well as an unsustainable one,â€ Durning wrote. â€œFor every declining industry, like those that log old-growth forests, make farm chemicals, and build roads, there is an emerging one to take up the slack, like those that advise organic farmers, …

Flip: In Time for Earth Day, A Sustainability Primer

by Keith SchneiderApril 18, 2008April 18, 20080

The University of Michigan Center for Sustainability Systems just posted this very good online interactive primer on how we use resources. This is a clear and concise check on our excessive use of resources, and a strong way to get kids engaged. It’s also a keen deployment of design and online interactivity. Nice work Michigan.Â Â Â

Obama, His Shorthand, Energy, and the Frustration of Self-Interest

by Keith SchneiderApril 16, 2008April 28, 20081

SAN FRANCISCO — A couple of people I know out here in the Bay Area attended one of the San Francisco fundraisers more than a week ago, during which Barack Obama talked about white working class Americans in Pennsylvania and the Midwest who “get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who arenâ€™t like them.” The comment attracted no attention at all among the liberal, well-heeled Democratic donors gathered in theÂ …

Marty Lagina and the Pursuit of A Clean, Green Economy

by Keith SchneiderApril 13, 2008January 25, 20155

Nearly 13 years ago, in a first floor conference room of the Park Place Hotel in Traverse City, Marty Lagina and Frank Mortel sat side by side across a large wooden table, glowering at me through narrowed eyes. Lagina (with wife Olivia above) was the founder and chief executive of Terra Energy, an independent that had grown to become the most active driller and one of the largest producers of natural gas in Michigan. The …

Casual Carpool Plus Transit, A S.F. Commute

by Keith SchneiderApril 12, 2008April 15, 20082

SAN FRANCISCO — Since late March I’ve been living in a one-room cottage behind an old Craftsman-style home in Berkeley, and commuting to downtown San Francisco. It’s not your typical daily trip. But as gas prices rise, congestion mounts, and family incomes fall, it may well become a new kind of commuting norm in the United States. Of course it may not, too. This being San Francisco. And the weather is just unbelievably good most …

The Dream Reborn, Onward to New Governing Coalition

by Keith SchneiderApril 1, 2008April 3, 20080

Two weeks ago, at the Take Back America conference in Washington, Majora Carter took a moment to explain the motivation behind The Dream Reborn, a celebration this weekend in Memphis that honors the life and marks the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death. “The work now is solutions-based,” said Carter, who founded and directs Sustainable South Bronx, a seven-year-old non-profit environmental and economic development organization in New York. “We’re applying our knowledge, …