Are you wearing green today? It’s Saint Patrick’s Day and all over the place you’ll certainly see people donning all manner of green in celebration. Green is also the term attached to so many clean energy efforts. Our own Green Collar Jobs Primer uses the term. A local Seattle effort called Got Green is using the Saint’s day to kick off its work to green homes in some of Seattle’s least economically advantaged neighborhoods.
In many ways Got Green is like Sustainable Works but with an urban focus, using tools often not found in the retrofitter’s tool box like hip hop music. Got Green was inspired by the work of Van Jones and by Green For All.
What makes Got Green special is its efforts to mobilize youth to become advocates in local neighborhoods, encouraging homeowners and businesses to complete energy retrofits, and training workers for long term jobs in energy efficiency.
Got Green’s work has included light retrofits and their hope is to access some of the many funds now available to do deeper retrofits. We’ll be watching their work and that of similar efforts in the region to expand the benefits of energy efficiency to truly create retrofits for all.
