Green jobs are sprouting in New York City, with the help of nonprofit social enterprises.The Doe Fund has hired or is training 15 formerly homeless or incarcerated people to collect used cooking oil from restaurants to be made into biodiesel. The Doe Fund's RWA Resource Recovery workers expect to be collecting oil from 700 restaurants in the city.

Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/nyregion/29ink.html

Van Jones has authored a new book that you should read: The Green Collar Economy. It delivers real solutions that rescue our economy and save the environment. To see a Video Q & A with the Author, go to http://www.vanjones.net/page.php?pageid=2

The City of Newark has partnered with the Apollo Alliance, and other national organizations, to bring together local community, business, and government leaders around creating a sustainability roadmap. The "Newark's Green Future" roadmap outlined the strategies, priorities and city-community collaboration necessary to realizing a sustainable economy - one that creates "green jobs" for residents, positively impacts community health, enhances public infrastructure, and increases opportunities for future generations.

The Green Jobs Now Day of Action on 9/27/08 will engage citizens in a nationwide call for increased voluntary community and national service opportunities, investments in green jobs and a more sustainable economy and for the protection and preservation of public land. Be The Change, Inc., along with City Year, Civic Enterprises and Points of Light Institute are helping coordinate the ServiceNation campaign. The public is encouraged to attend existing events or organize new ones.

For more information visit www.greenjobsnow.com.

Click on the link below for reports from the Social Enterprise World Forum in Edinburgh from 2-5 September 2008.

http://www.socialenterprisemag.co.uk/sem/features/detail/index.asp?id=64...

The City of Oakland recently greenlighted $250,000 for a Green Jobs Corps Training Program. The program is a partnership of community educators, a pre-employment training program and workforce intermediary, including:

* Laney College: one of the region's premier community colleges, providing green vocational education;
* Cypress Mandela Construction Training Program: a renowned pre-apprenticeship program that serves young adults with barriers to employment, and that has strong connections to the building trades unions;
* Growth Sector -- a workforce intermediary that connects employers, government and community agencies.

In his testimony at a hearing of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee on July 30, 2008, Dan Reicher, Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives at Google, recommended that the Feds weatherize 1 million low income homes per year for the next decade. This is a ripe opportunity for social enterprises to develop new green jobs.

Read more about it at http://jec.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.HearingsCalendar&Con...

Chicago's Growing Home Inc. and Shorebank social enterprises, among others, were recently featured in this leading business journal of the midwest. Click here to read the story.

The Global Knowledge Partnership has posted video clips of their Tiger's Lair SE biz plan pitching sessions and talk show: Social Entrepreneurs Spearheading a Better Future, held at their May 21, 2008 Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, held in Kuala Lumpur.

The four young social entrepreneurs who pitched plans to VC "Tigers", were selected through the GKP Youth Social Enterprise Initiative Programme, (www.ysei.org). The GKP will also hold a Social Entrepreneurship Forum: Empowering Youth, on August 13, 2008 in Quebec City in conjunction with the World Youth Congress.

To download the video clips, go to http://www.globalknowledge.org/gkps_portal/newsmaster.cfm?&menuid=2&acti...

Thought you'd be interested in some new and old texts that are available on the web and could be of assistance to social entrepreneurs planning their next enterprise.

Managing the Double Bottom Line:
A Business Planning Reference Guide for Social Enterprises, By Sutia Kim Alter
356 Pages, Revised Edition, 2000.

Business Planning for Enduring Social Impact, by Andrew Wolk and Kelley Kreitz

Social Enterprise Planning Guide