Jumpstarting the New Green Economy

Thanks to the “Jump Starting the New Green Economy” conference my eyes were opened to a new sustainability hero, the independent restaurateur. For the past 17 years, Francis Schott has been a partner in the highly successful, independent restaurant, stageleft, which sits next to the George St. Playhouse in New Brunswick, NJ. What makes the restaurant special is that its management does all it can to use locally grown ingredients for the creation of its entrees and desserts. As Schott sees it, this practice of buying locally adds yet another layer to the networks that restaurants naturally create whereby the fabric of community is drawn together tighter.

When things finally start to come together for a conference like this, some serendipitous things begin to happen. People who were previously unavailable decide to show up; exhibitors sign up, even though times are tough all around; all sorts of interesting people begin to materialize, and bring new and often remarkable insights.
The “new green economy” [...]

One of the ways we’re seeking to leverage the Conference is to provide a launchpad for new initiatives. These initiatives will be presented during 3-hour action-learning workshops on Thursday, May 21 starting at 2 p.m.:
Transition New Jersey
A project of Community Green, the TransitionNJ.org initiative is designed to assist communities to start transition programs in their [...]

We’re getting close to the end of the first 100 days of the new Obama Administration (in fact, we’ll soon have to stop calling it the “new administration”), and the big question is: Is the Recovery Working?
The Administration argues that it is – we just need to give it time to become evident. There is [...]

Dr. Peter Reczek, Executive Director, NJ Commission on Science and Technology
Dr. Reczek has served as an Associate Professor in the Molecular and Cellular Biophysics department of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY since 1994. He is the founder and CEO of Quintessence Biotechnology, LLC, a company specializing in intellectual property management and drug [...]

 Bill Russell, ISE Research Fellow of Institute for Sustainable Enterprise
email:wgrussell@sknworldwide.com  phone: 201-592-0055  - http://fdu.edu/ise
Mr. Russell is a leader in advancing sustainable development aligned strategies, management systems, process improvement programs, performance measurement systems and implementing best practice information technology solutions.
He has worked with a broad range of worldwide clients including small and large corporations; government and intergovernmental organizations; [...]

Matt Polsky,  Research Fellow of the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise, Fairleigh Dickinson University and Director of the Land Trust, Passaic River Coalition.
Email:innovator3@hotmail.com  -  http://fdu.edu/ise
Mr. Polsky works on several ISE projects, including the Incubator.  He is a sustainability change-agent.  He has extensive sustainability and green economy experience, as well as unique cross-sector experience working in government, for environmental [...]

The Green Economy appears to be gaining ground worldwide, but is already starting to be opposed by some free-market ideologues. The news is full of reports on green jobs and green economy initiatives, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, but spokesmen for some conservative think-tanks are already falling over themselves to warn of dire consequences.
Max [...]

We hope to have several speakers from Green for All, the organization Van Jones founded that stands for making sure that disadvantaged communities and communities of color are not the last to benefit from a green economy, but are the first. Here’s a year-old interview with Van, along with some additional background information, brought to [...]