ARC releases guide to ensure shared benefits from the green economy

11.10.2009 – Media Contact: Debayani Kar 510.338.4917 or dkar@arc.org

November 10, 2009: Applied Research Center (ARC) is releasing a Green Equity Toolkit: Standards and Strategies for Advancing Race, Gender and Economic Equity in the Green Economy  today to help community organizations, public agencies and individuals maximize and share the benefits of green economy jobs. The Toolkit provides a guide for creating high-quality jobs that are fully accessible to people of color and women.  

Visit http://www.arc.org/greenjobs to read and download the toolkit.

More than $200 billion in the Recovery Act was earmarked for green jobs programs. Though stimulus recipients must comply with anti-discrimination laws, racial and gender equity are not mandated in the recovery nor is race or gender data being collected. The Toolkit highlights the impact of recovery monies and provides analysis of recently released Recovery Act data. 

On November 18 at 10AM PST/1PM EST, ARC will convene a Webinar on the Green Equity Toolkit. The webinar will feature Toolkit coauthors Yvonne Liu and Terry Keleher of the Applied Research Center along with Elsa Barboza of Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE). In Los Angeles, SCOPE convened the local chapter of the Apollo Alliance and won passage of a green retrofit ordinance for municipal buildings that will create high quality jobs for communities of color struggling with the economic crisis. Register here for the webinar.

ARC has carried out comprehensive research to define good, green jobs and demonstrate how communities of color and women might experience shared benefits. The Toolkit includes Principles, Goals, Outcomes, Strategies, Success Indicators and Examples for making race, gender and economic equity a priority in green-collar job creation. In the months ahead, the Toolkit will be supplemented by Case Studies and a Model Policy Bank.  

“The Toolkit highlights green equity success stories and provides practical steps for how labor and community advocates can create equity and inclusion in the green economy,” says Yvonne Liu, Senior Research Associate at the Applied Research Center and coordinator of the Green Equity Toolkit. “The green promise means those communities most devastated by the recession -- women and people of color – can mobilize to ride the green wave.” 

Visit http://www.arc.org/greenjobs to read and download the toolkit. 

FOUNDED IN 1981, the Applied Research Center is America's leading think tank on racial justice. ARC investigates the racial consequences of public policy initiatives and develops new frameworks and solutions to address racial inequality. With offices in New York, Chicago, and Oakland, ARC engages in media and journalism, strategic research and policy analysis, and leadership development. ARC is the publisher of ColorLines magazine.