S(ROI) Social Return on Investment: Crossing the Blue Line

The Birth of BLUE —

Excerpts from a speech by Adam Werbach

As vast and common as the ocean, BLUE is a platform for sustainability that goes beyond the deep, beautiful green of environmentalism. Green puts the planet at the center of the dialogue. BLUE puts people at the center.

…Green is the beating heart of the emerging BLUE movement. Green represents the simple and inarguable wisdom of ecology: that all things are connected.

…BLUE brings together a broader set of human concerns, from practice to price, from nature to society. BLUE integrates all four streams of sustainability: social, cultural, economic and environmental. BLUE puts the way we treat ourselves and each other at the center of our focus.

There are three desired outcomes for the BLUE movement. First, to measurably improve the quality of life of people (who join), Second, to engage as many people as possible in the effort and third, to increase the effectiveness of their activism...

Green Job Opportunity Perspective

Dahlia M. Moodie
President/CEO
Energy Conservation Options

The Green Jobs creation effort, brought to life by the pending energy revolution, is a very complex proposition requiring an “out the box” thinking and implementation approach. While there has been a tremendous effort by the government to pool resources, as well as create new ones, both the public and private effort will need to engage in a very deliberate and different way in order to ensure that these precious resources are carefully placed, and accessed as broadly as possible, to generate the level of widespread economic opportunity and turnaround intended, and necessary.

Further, it is important to acknowledge the diversity of skills and people who are currently idle. In most cases, individuals with trade skills and a solid work history will have a much higher ‘rate of return to work’ (RORW) than individuals attempting to transfer skills from a non-trade related work/training environment or low to no work experience. Historical trends related to job, education and training access, would suggest that the RORW could have huge implications for disadvantaged communities.

However, realizing (and building) the talents of “all” people who have the inclination to contribute to the broad effort to “Green” our nation will be necessary to truly maximize the vast opportunities inherent in the growth of the “Green Economy”. As such, this presenter believes that in order to tap our full potential, and ensure diverse access, opportunities must be created that allow for the application of talent on a broader spectrum of delineated tasks, rather than widely defined specialties.

The extensive reach of the economic slump into every class, income bracket and ethnicity has truly shifted the paradigm leaving more knowing about economic distress than generations have experienced for decades. This “hunger” to recapture a productive opportunity has great benefits for achieving the task in front of us. There is so much idle talent, with extensive experience, that there is no better time to have such an undertaking. However, we need to be careful that the playing field is level enough for broader access and that from this tremendous opportunity to revolutionize an industry, the outcome, measured in a generation from now, reflects a deliberate effort to improve the quality of living and life for all - measured by how many and who qualifies to “play”.