strategic initiative led by the United Steelworkers
and Sierra Club and including many other "blue"
(read: blue collar/labor) and "green" (read: environmental)
partners. The alliance focuses on three key issues:
n Global Warming and Clean Energy;
n Fair Trade; and
n Reducing Toxics.
Blue Green Alliance is currently concentrating efforts in six states -- Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin -- with plans to expand to additional states in 2008.
The goals of the BGA are to:
- Heighten public awareness about the job-creating potential of solutions to global warming;
- Use existing economic development tools to expand investment in clean energy and green chemistry;
- Accelerate green building, energy efficient retrofits, and related spin-off industries;
- Create more investments in green jobs, including those related to fuel-efficient vehicles; and
- Reform trade agreements so they include binding labor rights and environmental standards.
To acheive these goals, in each focus state the BGA
program features a series of Town Hall meetings, establishment of a
Blue Green Roundtable for dialogue among environmental and labor
leaders, endorsement of the US Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement
by additional mayors, and research reports promoting investment in renewable energy and green chemistry.
The Blue Green Alliance is one of the most important
initiatives undertaken by the environmental movement in decades,"
says Carl Pope, Executive Director, Sierra Club.
"Good jobs and a clean environment are important to American workers -- we cannot have one without the other," says Leo W. Gerard, International President, USW.
The Public Health Institute
The Public Health Institute (PHI) is a program partner of the Blue
Green Alliance and also fiscal agent. PHI is a nonprofit organization
that focuses on education and strategy development to build alliances
for social and economic justice. Founded in 1986 in the wake of the
Bhopal tragedy in India, PHI helps labor, environmentalists, and public
health groups understand each other's issues, foster positive dialogue,
and search for common ground.
