Van Jones

Van Jones is founding president of Green For All and a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress. He is also a Time Magazine 2008 Environmental Hero, one of Fast Company’s 12 Most Creative Minds of 2008, and the New York Times bestselling author of The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Solve Our Two Biggest Problems (HarperOne 2008), which is endorsed by Nancy Pelosi, Tom Daschle, and Al Gore.

Green For All is a U.S. organization that promotes green-collar jobs and opportunities for the disadvantaged. Its mission is to build an inclusive, green economy—strong enough to resolve the ecological crisis and lift millions of people out of poverty.

A 1993 Yale Law graduate, Jones is a husband and the father of two small boys. He is a tireless advocate, committed to creating “green pathways out of poverty” and greatly expanding the coalition fighting global warming.

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American/Pop Culture

Politics and Religion

The Green Collar Economy

How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems

Talking Points

Jones was named one of The World’s 100 Most Influential People of 2009 in TIME magazine. He is the rare speaker who leaves the audience wanting more. His plenary and keynote addresses have brought audiences to their feet at conferences like Bioneers, the Institute for Noetic Sciences, BALLE/Business Alliance for Local Living Economies and the Investors’ Circle. He wins enthusiastic applause in elite college auditoriums - and also in tough public high school gymnasiums. From the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, to the Media Reform Conference in Memphis, Tennessee, Jones is a showstopper.

Description

“When many people hear the term ‘green’ today, they still automatically think the message is probably for a fancy, eco-elite set-and not for themselves. And as long as that remains true, the green movement will remain too anemic politically and too alien culturally to rescue the country.” Van Jones

Provocative, personal, and inspirational, The Green Collar Economy is not a dire warning but rather a substantive and viable plan for solving the biggest issues facing the country. The failing economy and our devastated environment are the two looming crises facing the United States today. From a distance, it appears that these two problems are separate, but when we look closer, the connection becomes unmistakable.

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