For Immediate Release
September 24, 2008
Contact: Kari Fulton
(202) 210-1766
kari@ejcc.org
Students of Color Call for More Than Just Green Jobs; They Want Green Careers: Green Careers Day of Action focuses on shifting conversation beyond blue-collar work
Washington, DC -- On Monday, September 29, 2008 students at universities and colleges throughout the mid-Atlantic and southeast will call on faculty and administration to green their campuses and their curriculum in an overall movement for access to careers in the burgeoning sustainability field.
The Green Careers Day of Action, organized in support of Green For All's Green Jobs Day of Action, is presented by the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, Energy Action Coalition, and Al Gore’s WE Campaign. Students will meet with faculty, hold rallies, and educate their fellow students about the opportunities presented by green careers.
“Students of color want more than just green jobs. They want green careers,” said Kari Fulton, Campus Climate Justice Coordinator for the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, and organizer of Green Careers Day of Action. “When more students of color have the opportunity to get into advanced green careers then communities of color can become investors and not just consumers in the sustainability movement.”
Most actions will take place on the campuses of Historically Black Colleges and Universities—institutions that rank low in campus greening efforts. “Of the two HBCU’s that were rated Howard University got on F and Spelman College got a D- on sustainability from the Sustainable Endowments Institute,” said Fulton. “And that’s a problem. It means that HBCU's are not taking the emerging green movement seriously.”
The goal of Green Careers Day of Action is to support movement towards a world that does not try to corner young people of color into blue-collar jobs—and it begins with increasing student and campus awareness. Carla Thomas, a senior at Howard University agrees, stating, "That is why we’re telling our administrators: green campuses, green curriculum, green careers, we're ready!”
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The Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (EJCC) is a diverse, consensus-based group of U.S. environmental justice, climate justice, religious, policy, and advocacy organizations working together to promote just and meaningful climate policy. Our mission is to educate and activate the people of North America towards the creation and implementation of just climate policies in both domestic and international contexts. Recently, EJCC released the influential report “A Climate of Change: African Americans, Global Warming, and Just Climate Policy in the U.S.” For more information, visit www.ejcc.org or call (510) 444-3041 ext 305.
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