From the grass-roots up: Lawyer sees a green future

OAKLAND - For more than a decade, Oakland has been home to a little-known crusader who has made it his mission to save the planet and the inner city.

In January, Van Jones, co-founder of the local Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, flew halfway around the world to tell the prestigious World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, about a new partnership model that he pioneered, bringing government, business and unions together to create jobs and clean up the environment.

Green for All began as a local, nonprofit campaign to put poor people to work on green projects, such as installing solar panels and weatherizing buildings. Today, the program has grown so large it had to move into its own office space downtown from its original location at the Ella Baker Center at 344 40th St.

Besides being feted at the World Economic Forum, Jones was profiled in ``Time'' magazine, recorded an episode of the Comedy Central show ``The Colbert Report'' -- which aired April 1 -- and saw his work recognized by Hillary Clinton in her opening remarks during the Jan. 21 Congressional Black Caucus debates.

The Oakland program took off after Jones, a 39-year-old Yale educated lawyer, worked with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to win passage of the federal Green Jobs Act, which provides funding for ``green collar'' jobs.

``In the last century, we could pretend that our energy policy, human rights policy, environmental policy and social policy were all separate,'' he said. ``In the new century, we have to recognize that it is all interrelated.''