The Sundance Channel, founded by Robert Redford, recently launched the first prime time programming block dedicated to social responsibility and environmental sustainability. Hosted by Simran Sethi, an environmental journalist and writer and host of Ethical Markets, and MacArthur fellow Majora Carter, founder and executive director of Sustainable South Bronx, “The Green” airs Tuesdays at 6:00 p.m. West Coast time. The channel also features a discussion board and video segments online.

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Last week, California Academy of Sciences contractors began planting native California plants and wildflowers on a 2.5-acre undulating rooftop in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The living roof will adorn the newly renovated museum, which is also seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification. Designed by Renzo Piano, construction of the new facility began in September of 2005, and the museum expects to move exhibits and animals back to Golden Gate Park from its temporary location to reopen in October of 2008. According to the Academy, the new living roof will reduce storm water runoff by up to 2 million gallons of water per year and produce over 5 percent of the museum’s annual energy needs using rooftop solar cells.

While garden-covered rooftops possibly date back to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, maximizing a rooftop’s potential for capturing solar energy and rainwater and cooling buildings is gaining popularity as a high-potential solution for addressing global warming and preventing runoff pollution. It has been widely demonstrated that green roofs, also called living roofs, improve air quality, conserve energy, reduce stormwater runoff, cool buildings, and lessen the urban heat island effect. For over a hundred years, sod and plant covered roofs have been popular in Europe, especially in Scandinavian countries. The city of Chicago is one of the country’s leaders in green roof projects.

For the San Francisco Bay Area, the Bay Localize web site is a good hub for information on green roof resources. The Oakland-based nonprofit is studying ways to create living roofs on a variety of building types by assessing the feasibility, including load-bearing capacity, and benefits of rooftops replete with food gardens, solar panels, and rainwater catchment systems.

And on Saturday, June 23 from 10:00am to 1:00pm, the San Francisco Botanical Garden Society is hosting a “Living Roof Demonstration and Workshop” taught by Brent Bucknam of Rana Creek, a living roof ecological design firm for the California Academy of Sciences.

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On May 22, 2007 Van Jones, President and Founder of the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center, testified in Washington D.C. at a special hearing called, “Economic Impacts of Global Warming: Green Collar Jobs.” He was there to push Congress to make “clean energy jobs” and “green-collar job training” for urban youth and low income communities a top priority.

He reported back on his trip to Washington in the Ella Baker Center blog, Grist Magazine, and the Huffington Post.

Jones defines a “green collar” job as a “vocational job in an ecologically responsible trade.” With the increasing demand for alternative energy sources such as solar panels, waste reduction, materials re-use and recycling, and sustainable agriculture, skills in these trades will give unprecedented opportunities to low income communities - if training programs are designed and delivered effectively.

At the hearing, Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis (CA-32), a Member of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and the House Energy and Commerce Committee, delivered a statement called, “Green Jobs Will Create Pathways Out of Poverty.” Congresswoman Solis is currently building support for federal funding of “green collar job training” programs, which would help give low income communities access to the skills they will need to compete in the new green economy.

According to Jones, The Ella Baker Center initially introduced the concept of green collar job training as a pathway out of poverty to Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this year, which led to the beginnings of legislative language by Congresswoman Solis. The Center is expecting the proposal to be a part of the historic U.S. energy package, to be introduced on July Fourth (”Energy Independence Day“).

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People’s Grocery is having a second workday of the 2007 year at the Sunol Agriculture Park and Farm. On Sunday May 22nd, staff, interns and volunteers will be heading down to Sunol, near the city of Pleasanton in eastern Alameda County, to plant peppers, watermelon and okra. They are looking for more hands to help out with springtime seed planting and working the land. The garden supplies fresh and organic food for the West Oakland community and is transforming the local food system.

To join the group, RSVP Jason Uribe, Farm Manager for People’s Grocery at (510) 504-3664 or email at Jason@peoplesgrocery.org, by Friday 5/20/07.

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