A new report from Surdna grantee the Transportation Equity Network presents the first-ever compilation of data from all 50 states on their use of on-the-job-training and apprenticeship programs to boost job access for minorities and women in the federal highway construction field. The Road to Good Jobs: Making Training Work finds that most states are doing a poor job of using proven training programs to boost highway construction job access for minorities and women, though unemployment rates for minorities are nearly double those of whites, and female unemployment is ticking up while male unemployment is dropping.

The study finds that:

• Four states—Illinois, Indiana, Connecticut, and Minnesota—succeeded in increasing the percentage of both women and people of color in training programs from 2008-10.
• Only two states had at least 50% women in OJT/apprenticeship programs from 2008-10: Maine (75%) and North Dakota (55%).
• Community organizing by TEN members to push for broad use of OJT and apprenticeship programs led to top rankings and breakthroughs in Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois
• Indiana and Illinois were standout states in terms of the overall increase in the use of OJT/apprenticeships from 2008-10, surpassing more populous states such as California and New York.

The study also provides detailed rankings on which states are using training and apprenticeship programs to make real progress toward equity and diversity in highway construction, and which states are failing to recruit and train women and minorities. The study also describes the steps necessary to improve states’ progress, and provides local, state and federal policy recommendations.

Click the image at the top right of this page to download the report.

Yesterday in Albany New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, affirmed that energy efficiency retrofits are top job creators, and praised specifically New York’s recently passed on-bill financing law – a policy crafted by Surdna grantee the Center for Working Families. He said “this on-bill financing is a very big deal that I think every region should maximize,” adding that the program deserves more publicity than it's received.

The promise of a green economy, the idea of creating the dual benefit of jobs creation and environmental benefit, has been discussed and debated at length.  On the one hand are those who see it as having the potential to be one of the great economic drivers of our time.  On the other are those who argue that these jobs are elusive and difficult to quantify.

A new study by the Brookings Institution, "Sizing the Clean Economy: A National and Regional Green Jobs Assessment," seeks to address these concerns by presenting detailed employment statistics on the clean economy industries in the U.S. and its metropolitan areas.

Among the findings in the study:

• The clean economy, which employs some 2.7 million workers, encompasses a significant number of jobs in establishments spread across a diverse group of industries.
• The clean economy grew more slowly in aggregate than the national economy between 2003 and 2010, but newer "cleantech" segments produced explosive job gains and the clean economy outperformed the nation during the recession.
• The clean economy is manufacturing and export intensive.
• The clean economy offers more opportunities and better pay for low- and middle-skilled workers than the national economy as a whole.
• Among regions, the South has the largest number of clean economy jobs though the West has the largest share relative to its population.
• Most of the country's clean economy jobs and recent growth concentrate within the largest metropolitan areas.
• The clean economy permeates all of the nation's metropolitan areas, but it manifests itself in varied configurations.
• Strong industry clusters boost metros' growth performance in the clean economy.

Visit the Brookings Website for more information and to download the report.  In addition to the report is an interactive indicator map which provides aggregate information on the clean economy for metropolitan areas, states and the nation.

The Surdna Foundation announced today that Michelle Knapik has been named as the new Director of its Sustainable Environments Program.  Ms. Knapik will join the Foundation in mid-July, and succeeds Sharon Alpert who now serves as Surdna's Senior Director of Programs and Strategy.

For the past six years Ms. Knapik has been the Environment Program Director at the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation in New Jersey.  In that role, she developed innovative grantmaking strategies to support sustainable community solutions, in close partnership with grantees, civic and business leaders, and funding colleagues in the region.  While at Dodge, Ms. Knapik also worked closely with the Foundation's  Arts and Culture program, funding projects at the intersection of the environment, culture and New Jersey's creative economy.