Excellent. I heard Mr. Jones speak at the Craigslist Foundation boot camp last year and continue to be impressed by him and the Ella Baker center. He points to some of the fundamental weaknesses of the environmental movement and its blindnesses where impacts close to home are borne.

This is great stuff. I think there's at least two lessons / ideas here that (mostly white) folks who are focused on the philosophical and theoretical aspects of sustainability and 'lifestyle' choices/changes need to get.

1 - It's about the economy, stupid.  Think about the real goals of creating a sustainable economy. An aspect of sustainability HAS to be creating an economy where there are jobs for everyone, and everyone has an opportunity to improve their standard of living.  Perhaps a fundamental missing element (only to be engaged in as a parallel and supplemental campaign) is trying to change what is thought of by the general public, the working class, as a good standard of living.  The idea that being healthy, eating well, having time to spend with family, living in an adequate home in a cohesive neighborhood, these things are more important than having a big/nice car, or getting the latest pair of designer whatever, or having the newest tech gizmo that you probably don't need.  Consumer education and independence from corporate advertising will free up a LOT of working class energy and money.

2 - If you really want to make a difference, stop preaching to the choir and listen to all the everyday concerns that regular folks have about their lives.  Value these concerns as their owners do, and think about and speak to ways in which a new, localized and personalized sustainable economy could address some of these concerns.  There are a LOT of folks who have been riding the bus long before you started, not because of an idea, but because they couldn't afford to own a car.  Most folks don't see a lot of the current 'eco-elite' solutions, such as driving a hybrid, upgrading their home or buying (more expensive) local and organic as options because they simply can't afford them, OR, just as importantly, they think they can't afford them or that it's a net economic loss.

Think about all the ways in which the kinds of changes that sustainable development can INCREASE the number of choices the average person has in their daily lives, and ways in which it can actually benefit their pocketbooks in the short-term.  Like it or not, most folks think in the very short term, and very close to home.  Instead of making them out to be wrong for this, overtly or implied, speak to their concerns.

I presented a similar idea to the Obama campaign several weeks ago. Unfortunately, I've not received a response. As a master gardener who works on watershed restoration and other "sustainable horticultural" projects and one who's begun working with a Baltimore City nonprofit to help reclaim public areas, I believe we could transform cities and communities like Baltimore by redirecting money into "green jobs" and sharing the ideas and wisdom of sustainability and self sufficiency.

This article is full of thought-provoking stuff. I was especially taken by the message that jobs of the sustainable future need to be the kinds that have to be what I'll call "in-sourced," or done locally by local people and can't be out-sourced to other states or countries. Installing environmentally-friendly building improvements or energy-conserving technology isn't going to be done over the Internet. Other examples of environmental practices will evolve into local responsibilities and help us to better care for the planet.  Giving people roles or the freedom to create them is empowering and helps everyone.

Sure, it's a great idea, but insulting and dismissing the allies you're trying to recruit is a piss poor idea.  As a long time (and now professional) environmentalist, I've been hearing about how we environmentalists are such racists for not placing the needs of minority communities at the tops of our agenda.  I have worked for the Sierra Club for a while, and guess what?  The agenda gets set BY THE PEOPLE WHO VOLUNTEER TO DO THE WORK.  Sure, this is all true, that a green economy has to be more than something scratching the surface.  But guess what?  who's working for universal health care? those rich white liberals.  After all, head start families turn out for elections at about a 3% rate.  So, who is left to do the work of running a campaign and registering those Oakland parents to vote?  Who's working for working wages?  Rich white liberals.  Who's working for affordable childcare and good schools?  Yeah, those rich liberal marin environmentalists.  Why?  Not for us.  We already have those things.  Why?  because it's the right thing to do.  

oh, but we're all a bunch of racists.  Ooops.  I forgot.  silly me.  Maybe I'll just go back to trying to save polar bears from extinction instead.  After all, I must like them because they are, after all, white.  Yep.  That must be it.

I think Van has great ideas and yes we need jobs that cannot be outsourced.
We need good people and they do come in all colors/races. We must not get caught up in the race game and name calling. There are good and bad in all races, communities. WE need to remember that not everyone is rich (no matter their color). I live in coal country and are communities are mostly white but we have some of the poorest communities. Yet I watch millions of dollars of coal pass by me every day. So let's focus on helping each other out of poverty and not so much about skin color. Everything where I live is very political. Nothing happens without the blessing of coal and their elected minions. So please let's stay focused on the job ahead and get it done. No one else is going to do it for us!
I support Van and everyone working for green, sustainable jobs for all!

In response to Guinho, the people who volunteer to do the work that you speak of do it because they have resources available to allow them to do it.  I would imagine that the head start families you refer to probably don't do a lot of volunteer work because they are too busy working 3 jobs so they can pay their rent.

Also, I don't think that Van Jones was calling anyone a racist, but instead trying to point out that the more ethnically and economically diverse the environmental movement becomes, the more effective it will be at getting the message to take hold.  Unfortunately, there is a very very large portion of people in this country who make purchasing decisions on price alone and the environmental movement has done absolutely nothing to get the message across that going green isn't going to cost blue-collar and working poor families an arm and a leg.