9 - Green Micro-loans
Andy Posner, 24, USA -Â Van Jones and others are showing how a green collar economy can solve both social and environmental problems. My idea is to take that one step further by using the power of micro-credit and targeted green entrepreneurship training and mentoring to ensure that the green businesses of tomorrow are started by women, people of color, and low-income individuals, all of whom have been traditionally left out of the old, “grey” economy.
By providing affordable loans of $500 to $10,000 and combining them with additional support and training, my initiative will create jobs, a more vibrant, inclusive green economy, and solve environmental problems through the power of entrepreneurship.
I am working with experts in the fields of business skills and green job training to create a curriculum to support the entrepreneurs. In addition, I have spent the last five months laying a groundwork for the creation of a micro-finance program in Providence, Rhode island–a city with both high unemployment and poverty rates.
Working collaboratively with a number of community partners, a “buzz” has already been generated in the community. The impact of this program will be that all entrepreneurs with great, green ideas will have the chance to realize their dreams.
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Andy, this is a great, great idea with so much potential!
I started a conversation to explore the potential of peer to peer micro lending to fund green and social entrepreneurs here (http://tinyurl.com/greenloans) and would like to share resources and help you with your idea. Please drop me an email at Joe[@]EngageJoe.com.
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This is such a bright idea! I’ve heard a number of Californians — a state that is, of course, ahead of us east coasters on the road to energy-efficiency — say that they’ve made the mistake of not including green job development from the get-go. Now they have technologies and incentives for retrofits, etc, but not enough people to install/do them. (I wish they would say this louder and prouder to really hammer the message in!)
Legislatures have been slow to invest money in green job development, though I think that’s starting to turn, and with a bit success, a program such as yours would be, I imagine, an attractive place for funders (which will hopefully include the federal government in the next couple years). One of its strengths is that it grows jobs slowly but solidly, the tortoise versus the hare, and ensuring that jobs don’t grow faster than demand — a major concern of legislatures, or so I’ve heard. And minority/women/low-income-owned business is a promising economic growth model, as we’ve learned in parts of the developing world.
What kind of business is yr program lending to? And what do you call yr program?
Btw, I work in green job development in the NYC building sector for City Univ of NY, and I’m a member of the Apollo Alliance/Urban Agenda’s Green Jobs Taskforce, so if I can help in any way, of if you simply want to chat/vent, drop me a line: 2050 at shermanhome.com
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