To you faithful blog readers, sorry I’ve been behind on my Biznik Live updates. If you didn’t get a chance to listen to the Van Jones Biznik Live show, I’d suggest you do it now or download it to iTunes for later. This interview is full of helpful suggestions about how to both green your business as well as how to increase your business during these economically rocky times.After a short discussion with Seattle Greendrinks founder Gabriel Scheer about an exciting upcoming project (Re-Vision Lab -site just barely up) aimed at gathering and supporting local green entrepreneurs, we jump into issues like:
- How Van’s amazing grass roots social marketing campaign launched his book to #12 in the NY Times. How can we do the same?
- A summary of his book ‘The Green Collar Economy‘
- What are the upcoming green entrepreneurial opportunities?
- What can you do to speed up sustainability policies in your local gov. and schools?
- Much more…
[display_podcast] A little message from Van on Youtube…
TRANSCRIPT OF SHOW (after leap)(Note: Editing is far from 100% accurate)
Van Jones: Biznik Live Interview
| Biznik Live, collaboration beats competition. Leif Hansen: Hello and welcome back to Biznik Live, everybody. I’m your host Leif Hansen and this is our fourth show in our series on “Surviving and Thriving Amidst Economic Uncertainty”. Biznik Live connects you with nationally recognized authors whose powerful ideas will help you make successful choices for your business.So in just a minute, we’re going to be talking with author Van Jones about his inspiring and potentially revolutionary new book “Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems”.Since Van had a previous interview backed up to this one and he said he be calling in a few minutes after 10:00, I decided to invite Gabriel Scheer, founder of the widely successful Seattle Greendrinks in for a chat. If you’re unfamiliar with Greendrinks, go to Greendrinks.org or to SeattleGreendrinks.org. | |
| 01:01 | Greendrinks is an organization dedicated to bringing the environmental community in different cities together through a variety of fun, social and informative events. So Gabriel, are you there?Gabriel Scheer: Yep, I’m here. Leif Hansen: Right on! So tell us a little bit about how Seattle Greendrinks is going and what your next event is.Gabriel Scheer: Well Seattle Greendrinks is doing really well. And we are one of a larger global community of over 400 Greendrinks worldwide. Our next event is…Leif Hansen: Wow!Gabriel Scheer: Yeah. Yeah, it’s quite a big movement. But our next event is the regular Greendrinks which takes place the second Tuesday of every month. And we meet every second Tuesday. Really, just an informal social gathering to bring together the community and these days it tends to be rather large. We tend to be about 400 or 500 people but it’s a great way to connect with others and meet people and really figure out who else is doing what in the community. |
| 01:52 | Leif Hansen: That is very cool. Now, I’ve been to a couple of events in Seattle and enjoyed myself there. The mix of fun and informative stuff is a very good mix to get people motivated for sustainable causes. Again, before we have Van on in just a couple of minutes, I was talking to you and you sound like you’re working on a very exciting project that I think is relevant to today, to Van and to probably all of our listeners. You want to tell us a bit about that? Gabriel Scheer: Sure. Well basically, this a side project that’s really come up in part because of Van’s influence and sort of some of his speeches over the last few years. And then also, just looking at the broader community here in Seattle and what the perception of need is. And in talking to a variety of people, we’ve come to this point of realizing that what we really need is a physical home. A place where the environmental community, and that’s really is broadly understood as possible, can come together and connect. And more specifically, to connect around new ideas and new technologies and new economies. |
| 02:55 | So what are new project envisions is creating a building that will be the home to Seattle’s environmental business community. And we will welcome existing businesses but the primary purpose of this new space and it’s associated ventures, will be to incorporate the next generation of businesses. And to help those business whether they’re green technology such as renewable energies or computer technologies. But perhaps more importantly, localized manufacturing using local materials, waste, renewable resources, new local companies. Giving new lives to locally made materials created by local crafts people. And fundamentally, remaking our manufacturing economy in a way that’s sustainable. Leif Hansen: Oh, that’s great! Wow! So it’s basically takes some of the energy that Biznik has going on of focusing, of collaboration and people supporting each other but with a green emphasis and in a physical space. Getting people together to innovate and think of ideas and support each other. That is awesome! |
| 03:53 | Gabriel Scheer: Exactly. And basically, we were looking at the different universities and schools and such that we have around here, churning out all these amazing people with great ideas. And one of the things they’re really, in a lot of cases, are missing is some way of bringing those ideas to reality. And that sparked the greater conversation which is that this must be going on in other places. There must be all these people doing the same exact thing, running up against similar barriers in other places. And what if we could create something that not only works here and really pilot it here, make it work, give people a home and show how that can be built. But then also replicate it elsewhere and give other cities and other places the chance to do the same exact thing. Leif Hansen: That is excellent. Well, you know I’m going to give you an unexpected opportunity to share a little bit more about what you’re planning on doing. And maybe what your needs are because I’ve got an issue here where we have so many people calling in to talk with Van and to listen to this show that he is not I think able to call in. So I’m going to call him on the other line and I’m going to give you the mic. Yo! Take the mic! And tell us a bit more about what your needs are and what some of your next steps are. That would be great. I’ll be right back in! |
| 05:04 | Gabriel Scheer: Sure. Hi, everybody. I’m not sure who’s all out there but yeah. Basically, what we’re working on is really developing the blueprint at this point of how one exactly goes about doing this. We’ve got some folks interested from a funding side. We’ve got some folks interested from a building side. And helping us bring this community together and create this space that we perceive is needed. I think that some of the core components to this space and to making it a success will be connecting both the people with the ideas with the people who have the resources. Whether it’s financial resources, whether it’s experience in starting business. And sort of nurturing new ventures from start to actual fruition and into something that can produce new things. And again, we’re really focusing on a combination of on one hand, the technology side – green tech and all the associated, you know, solar power, wind power, methane capture, you name it. All the different green energy technologies but also into really more hard goods, manufactured goods. |
| 06:06 | Because obviously one of the challenges of our current economy is that a lot of people who are, frankly the people Van Jones is speaking to, the green collar workers, are really needing those new economies. Those new methods and models for which to gain employ and to feel like they’re doing something of value in the community. Leif Hansen: Awesome. All right!Gabriel Scheer: That’s actually what we’re working to do.Leif Hansen: Thank you so much, Gabriel, for giving that and for covering me there. Van, are you on right now?Van Jones: I am on. Can you hear me?Leif Hansen: Excellent! Yes, we can hear you. And let me just give you a quick introduction. Van Jones is the Founder and President of Green For All, a national advocacy organization based in Oakland, California. Green For All is committed to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift millions of people out of poverty. He’s a tireless advocate championing green collar jobs and opportunities for the disadvantaged people. And he’s committed to creating green pathways out of poverty while greatly expanding the coalition fighting global warming. |
| 07:04 | In 1993, he was a Yale Law graduate. He’s also a husband and the father of two small boys, which as a husband and father myself, I know that this is one of the most important and most energizing work one can do. His advocacy for the toughest urban constituencies and causes has earned him many honors. As a matter of fact, there are so many honors that I can’t name them all here but I have posted a longer bio on the Biznik Live page. So Van, how are you doing? Van Jones: I’m doing well. I’m excited. We had a tremendous grassroots push around my book “The Green Collar Economy”. And literally, hundreds and hundreds of grassroots organizations, labor unions, environmental groups, all pushed the email out and bought multiple copies. And we got the book onto The New York Times Bestseller List. So “The Green Collar Economy” is the first book by an African-American environmental writer ever to get on to the bestseller list. So that’s a huge community victory. I’m excited about that and definitely excited about next week and all the opportunities that hopefully the new election will open up. |
| 08:17 | Leif Hansen: That is great! You know you stole my first question because I was so impressed. I read a little bit about how you got onto the, I think it was – was it number 12 for The New York Times Bestseller List? Van Jones: Yeah. We went from number, like sub-3,000 on Amazon to number 12 on The New York Times in about four days just based on the grassroots, netroots activism. And I think it just shows that there are huge networks of networks. They’re hungry for change, ready for change, powering the Obama phenomenon, powering the green jobs movement. And I think we’re going to surprise ourselves on how well we do once we have a different DC configuration. |
| 08:57 | Leif Hansen: That is awesome! Now tell us, as a number, most of our listeners are probably entrepreneurs and small to medium business owners. Obviously, you’ve got to have something that’s important, timely, that has as much passion as you do, that’s going to really help. But from a purely marketing perspective, can you tell us a little bit about how you went about creating that viral effect or helping nurture that you know. And deciding what communities to contact and what you did to get the word out there. Van Jones: I think it’s really great that I’m on with one of my heroes who create the whole Greendrinks movement. That really is essentially the underlying strategy. I mean I for years have gone to different causes, I’ve met people, I’ve collected business cards. And over time, you get a sense of who the keen nodes in the network are. You know who are the people who are respected, and I’ve tried to earn the respect of people I respect. And at a particular moment you can sometimes ask them all to take action at the same time. |
| 10:07 | Leif Hansen: That’s great. So you really need to know who your audience is and who your supporters are in an industry to be able to know what those hubs are. Van Jones: I think that’s right. And I think that a lot of times people, “What’s the magic formula?” Well the formula is only magic in hindsight, you know.Leif Hansen: “What did you do right?”Van Jones: Exactly. But I do believe that, yeah, because of YouTube, because of the blogosphere, because of email, we do have the ability to go around. Ordinarily, if you’re a first time author, especially you’re a black guy with green book that nobody’s ever heard of that before. You’ve got to be on Oprah Winfrey or spend a million bucks to get on The New York Times Bestseller List.Leif Hansen: Yes.Van Jones: And we were able to do it essentially for free through viral marketing. And I think that’ll be increasingly the way things get done |
| 10:55 | Leif Hansen: Yeah. Yup. Definitely. So on that note, what are some other tips if your audience right now is entrepreneurs and business owners. With this current economic situation right now and the focus of your book being on sustainable issues and this new green market. What advice would you give them to help them survive and thrive right now during these times? Van Jones: I think the most important thing to do is to understand where we are in the big picture. The big picture, we are at the end of particular moment in the US economy. For the past 20 or 30 years, both political parties, not just George Bush, both political parties have sold us on the idea that we can run the US economy forever based on a consumption, not production. Based on debt and not thrift and savings like our grandparents and based on environmental destruction as opposed to environmental restoration. That is a definition of a non-sustainable approach to our national economic life and it just came to a crashing end. |
| 12:00 | Now our challenge is, as entrepreneurs - social entrepreneurs and business entrepreneurs – is to turn this breakdown, this inevitable breakdown, into a breakthrough. Back toward what I would call a green economy, which would respect people, respect the earth. Get it away from borrowing money from overseas and building here at home again. Away from relying on overseas credit and relying once again on US creativity to power our economy. That’s the big concept I think we’re operating in. Leif Hansen: Wow! Your tagline for your book is about two problems but as I was reading your book, I realized there’s really more like about six or seven problems. This focus that you have is aimed at social injustices, it’s aimed at the energy crisis, it’s aimed at the economic crisis, the job crisis. And obviously the environmental crisis but also a crisis of meaning. I think people are, and you talk about some in your book, people are feeling like their jobs, their just kind of cogs on a wheel on a machine that’s breaking, that’s broken. And so you’re also helping this focus on green job is bringing meaningful work. Can you talk a little bit about that? |
| 13:12 | Van Jones: Well, sure. I think people want a paycheck, they also want a purpose. And right now, again, look at the mindless consumerism. The entire world economy now is based on credit cards in the United States - mindless consumerism. Our sisters and brothers in India and China, the only way for them to get out of poverty right now is to leave their villages. Leave their languages, leave their families and cram themselves into mega cities that are polluted to make crap for us. I mean the entire world has been distorted to make this so-called American dream work but who’s happy? People are covering the holes in their lives with these flat screen TV’s and plug in the holes in their lives with these iPod earbuds and we stick ourselves in these cars and drive ourselves around. Guess what? It’s not working and thank goodness it’s kind of come to an end. |
| 14:08 | Now, where’s the entrepreneurial opportunity? The entrepreneurial opportunity really is going to be focused in the next couple of years on energy. We’re going to have to reboot, repower and retrofit a nation. That is going to be the way that the Democrats want to stimulate the economy. We just spent a trillion dollars bailing out the bankers and that whole thing but we didn’t bail out ordinary people, we did not bail out the planet. The minute this election is over, next week, the congress is going to go back into session to do what they’re going to call “a stimulus package”. They’re going to put 150 billion to 300 billion more dollars on the table but this time it’s supposed to stimulate the US economy, not just bail out the banks and try to unfreeze the credit markets. Now guess what? The last time we did a stimulus, we did a stupidest stimulus probably in the history of the world. Because we passed out all these checks to people, just willy-nilly, everybody ran down to Wal-Mart, bought flat screen TV’s. We stimulated the economy in China where they make those flat screen TV’s. We didn’t stimulate our own economy. |
| 15:12 | So now we’ve got an opportunity to do it right. The Democrats are going to put money into now infrastructure and investment and there’s going to be a green core to that around energy infrastructure. If people want to make money, get ready to sell services and energy conservation, weatherizing buildings for instance. Blowing in clean green insulation, double panning glass, replacing old inefficient boilers with new ones, slapping on the solar panel when you get done. That kind of energy retrofit agenda is going to be very attractive as cities, states and the federal government look for opportunities to put people to work. And then also, in the renewable energy field, solar panels don’t make themselves, they don’t put themselves up, neither do wind turbines. Everything that’s good for the environment and global warming is also a job and therefore can be good for the economy. That’s what the book is about but it’s also going to be I think the biggest economic play for little guys and big guys in the economy. |
| 16:14 | Leif Hansen: OK, so it’s clear that if you’re thinking of starting a business or if you’re already in a sustainability focused business that there is big opportunity here. And that is what your book is primarily about. What about listeners who already have a business, maybe they’ve got an online marketing business or they’ve got a clothing store? What advice would you give them both to take advantage of the opportunities you’re speaking of and maybe also about how to green up their business and save some money. Van Jones: Right. The most important thing I can say is that for too long we’ve thought about green as this expensive, cumbersome, guilt ridden thing we’re supposed to do but usually don’t. And I think that it’s time for us to think about the green economy less as a place to spend money, more as a place where people can earn money and save money. And putting that on as an entrepreneur, greening up one’s business it mainly means running your business the way your grandma would have run it, with a real attention toward thrifts, towards savings, towards reducing waste. |
| 17:25 | Green is another word for wise, it’s another word for how grandmamma would have done it. And yet if we do these things that are actually cost savings early, we can reduce some of our expenses. For instance, if you’re running a shop, even if you’re not in a position to switch over to energy conservation services, getting some of these free consultations or city paid for, utility company paid for consultations. To at least make sure you’re not spending extra money on energy, which hurts the planet but also hurts your pocketbook, would be a very, very smart move. A lot of times a utility company will come and do energy audits for free, the same with water conservation. There are all kinds of small things you can do and then guess what? That’s something else that can be a bragging point to customers, certainly any entrepreneur that’s seeking to sell their services to cities, wanting city contracts. |
| 18:24 | Greening up your business, while things are down, taking some online courses or getting some books or getting some training is a direction of green so that you can then be more competitive. As a contract, I can meet this food services contract and I’m green. I can meet this building contract and I’m green. This is a time to invest in your own entrepreneurial ability and I would say do it in a – whatever your field is, do it in a green way. You’re going to be more competitive. Once this economy picks back up, the green train, you’re either going to be on it and driving it or it’s going to run you over. Leif Hansen: Excellent. So just to see if I’m hearing your right, the two primary threads, the first is sort of the like grandma. You said just becoming more thrifty and thinking of how you can become more green in your actual practices. But then also being able to advertise your sustainable focus and maybe add services is going to give you a competitive edge when you’re marketing yourself to be able to toot that horn a little bit. |
| 19:27 | Van Jones: I think that’s right and in some ways that might seem obvious and some of your listeners might say, “Yeah, yeah. I know that.” But the other thing you got to remember is, the bar keeps moving. So whatever you did to be Mr. Green and Clean two years ago, guess what? Your cousin is doing that now. You’ve got this cutting edge. Leif Hansen: The free-range chickens, then you had the chicken eggs, then you had the organic free-range chickens, then you’ve got the chickens that we take to Hawaii on vacations every couple of months and kind of moving them up.So we actually need to open up to some questions. So it’s our time to jump in the second half here. If you’ve got questions you can call (347) 884-8009. I’ve already got a few listeners on. We’ll find out if they have questions. You can also send a message to BiznikCatalyst@gmail.com or use the chat widget within the BlogTalkRadio. |
| 20:23 | So I’m going to go ahead and take a call here from looks like Oregon I believe, a code 530. Are you there and do you have a question for Van? Area code 530, do you have a question for Van? All right, I’m going to move on. How about from area code (425) 885, first part of your number. Do you have a question for Van? Uh-oh, do you have a question for Van? Hello? Van Jones: You know when I called in I was talking to you but you couldn’t hear me. There might be something going on with the service there.Leif Hansen: Yeah. I’m unmuting the microphone. I’ve got a couple more here from (206) 349 and then one that just came on. We have a question here from (206) 999. Do you have a question for Van? |
| 21:21 | Mike: Yeah, I do. I’m wondering about a couple of things. Mainly… Leif Hansen: Can you introduce yourself for us first?Mike: Sure, my name is Mike. I’m in Seattle.Van Jones: Hi, Mike!Mike: Hi! And I’ve got a couple of questions. One, you mentioned the flat screen TV’s. And I thought I saw a note on the front of the paper the other day about more chemicals pouring into the atmosphere than we expected. That weren’t in our previous global warming formulas based on flat screens and also the melting permafrost. Sending a lot of stuff up into the atmosphere that’s going to rapidly accelerate global warming. And it just talks about how do we put the breaks on if the economy hasn’t already been in tow. How do we put the breaks on the manufacturing of all the goods and things that are really hurting us. |
| 22:21 | Leif Hansen: So I’m hearing how can we help put the breaks on products that are clearly having a negative net effect on the environment. Any thoughts on that, Van? Van Jones: Obviously, you try to educate consumers and hope they do better but at the end of the day, markets work according to rules. And right now the rules are wacky. In that if you to try to do a clean, green, organic, etc., you’re going to get punished by the competitor across the street doing it the cheap dirty way. And so what we want to be able to do is to get the government to stop being on the side of the problem makers in the US economy. And instead, get on the side of the problem solvers in the US economy.What that would require, number one, we need to stop paying the polluters and make the polluters pay. Right now polluters in our economy get a triple subsidy. First of all, we’re talking about big oil, big coal, we write them big checks every year, subsidizing that way. Giving them all kinds of tax breaks, tax credits that kind of stuff. Number two, we defend them all around the world through the Pentagon. Spending trillions of dollars to protect our right to spend trillions of dollars to buy this stuff, and then we let them pollute for free. |
| 23:35 | And so now what we’ve got to do is stop paying the polluters. Make the polluters pay. Put a price on carbon whether you’re talking about a carbon tax or cap in trade or carbon tariff. So high carbon content goods, when they come across the border, you got to pay more for them so it’s more economical to build them here and not ship them. These are the kinds of solutions that will then radically reduce this runaway train in the direction of flying food around the world, start flying goods around the world. Flying over the heads of poor people who need jobs and destroying our environment. But these are big picture solutions. We’ve got to stop thinking only about changing light bulbs and start thinking about changing laws. |
| 24:21 | Leif Hansen: Excellent. I’m going to take another question here from a Mr. Inquist. He says, “As a real estate investor who buys distressed properties, how do I market the green improvements I will make when I fix and flip?” Van Jones: Part of that is just making sure that as you do your fixing and flip strategy that you not only advertise in the normal places, in the normal ways. But also make sure that you are advertising on the environmental parts of the Internet and the environmental publications. Everybody doesn’t care about green yet so number one, you got to target those green conscious consumers. But the other thing is a green home is a healthier home. A green home is a more energy efficient and therefore less expensive to run home. A green home wastes less water. |
| 25:24 | So I think that we also have to not just – I think it’s important the eco-elite and eco-chic and the eco-freaks, all of us, get targeted, that’s great. But I think for the regular buyer needs to understand that green isn’t just a psychological benefit, it’s an economic benefit, it’s a health benefit. And I think foregrounding that in the marketing is also important. Leif Hansen: Yeah. Isn’t that just strange that there’s been so much guilt around it? It’s seems that it should be a natural marketing point. Like you said, there’s health benefits, there’s economic benefits. It’s benefiting in every single way. So I think the answer to that man’s question is just simply that it’s all over the place. You just need to make it really clear.Van Jones: Yeah. And I think if somebody could just break out a calculator and say, “This is how much money you’re going to save on water and energy over the course of 20 years versus the standard home.” So that the home might look “more expensive” because of some of these green amenities but if you actually look at it, you’re likely to own this home for 15 years, seven years, 20 years. Over the life of the mortgage, this home is actually probably 20% or 30% cheaper than the other home. And that’s not counting the fact that you’re not likely to get asthma and cancer and other things in a green home. |
| 26:45 | Leif Hansen: Excellent. We have question from Eric Ferrer and asks, “Van, can you speak to greenwashing?” Van Jones: It’s all over the place and unfortunately, it is a necessary outcome of success. People keep going, “Oh my God! I can’t tell the Sierra Club commercial from the commercial. It’s terrible!” Well it is terrible…Leif Hansen: Can you first describe, Van, what greenwashing is for those of us that might not be familiar with the term? |
| 27:11 | Van Jones: Sure. Greenwashing is when someone has a product or a candidate that is essentially committed to pollution and waste and horrible things. But rather than them changing the product, they just change the advertising. So you still have the same dirty, dangerous product, or candidate, but now you’ve got solar panels and lush trees in the commercials. And people assume it’s a green product when in fact it’s not. That’s called greenwashing. Well it’s inevitable. We’re going to go through a phase where those people who are committed to the dirty, polluting status quo who’s no longer… Remember, we beat them. They used to spend their time trying to confuse us about whether there was a problem at all. Whether global warming was real, whether you should take these environmental nutcases seriously. They try to confuse us about the problem. We beat them, they lost, Al Gore beat them.And now, they spend their time trying to confuse us about the solutions. Can we have clean coal and all these other fantastical notions or we’re going to actually have to have real clean energy and solar, wind, geothermal, etc. |
| 28:21 | Well this is a phase that we are going to have to go through. And what it’s going to force us to do is to up our game. We need much more transparency, we need to use technology now to be able to rate and rank and compare and delivery to people on their cellphones the reality of out in the stores is a green product or not. You should be able to hit a button and find out the answer. That is not Chevron’s job, that’s not going to be the government’s job. That should be civil society’s job to make sure that an awakening public is not put back to sleep by the false lies and lullabies from the pro-polluters. But in fact are further awakened and empowered by an engaged civil society. That’s our job.Leif Hansen: Yeah, you hear that technology innovators out there? What about creating a little widget on a website where users can rate the environmental and discuss the environmental impact of your products and service. And they can just easily plug that in. There’s a little opportunity for you.I’m going to jump to a couple of questions here. We have from area code 360, number starting 371. Did you have a question for Van? |
| 29:28 | Female 1: Yes I do. I’d like to know what’s the best way to influence our legislators, our representatives? Van Jones: Well, the great thing is that we have a number of organizations that have emerged recently that are committed to a job generating, carbon-cutting pathway for America. One of them is a group called 1Sky, 1Sky.org. 1Sky is passionate about getting ordinary people engaged in changing congress. Engaging with your congress people, with your local congressional office to get congress to do the right thing on carbon in a way that creates jobs and help save the earth.I encourage everybody to get involved with 1Sky. Certainly my organization GreenForAll.org, we don’t have numerals in ours. There’s a numeral in 1Sky, there’s no numeral in Green For All, it’s all letters, GreenForAll.org is another organization, it’s mine. Definitely want people to help, get involved, all signed up there. There’s also the Apollo Alliance and other organizations that are national in scope that are trying to get people directly involved. So I encourage people to reach out to groups like that. |
| 30:42 | But I also got to say, your local utility, wherever you are. Your mayor, your community college, your school board, there are things that they can do right now that do not require an act of congress, do not require federal legislation. They can begin to dramatically cut carbon and create jobs. For instance, each school district – and I know in the Seattle area there’s been real progress there but every school district should have 25% requirement that the food there is local and organic. Every public utility should be cooperating doing creative financing to help people weatherize their homes, put up solar panels, and do energy retrofits. And then pay that back on the bill over time. So because weatherization and solarization sources pay for themselves in energy savings, there’s a great financial opportunity there to let people get solar panels up right now when we need them to start cutting carbon and pay it back on their utility or through their property taxes. |
| 31:42 | But people, they need to come together now. And you’ve got a great mayor in the Seattle area obviously, the national leader on this stuff that I don’t have to preach at you. But the reality is that creative, local, innovative leadership where school boards, community college boards, public utilities, mayors, city councils begin finding ways - even on the purchasing side. If a city says, “We’re only going to purchase green products made locally for 50% of our office.” Whatever it is you create local green markets, you don’t need an act of congress to do that. And I encourage people not only to get involved at the national level but to continue to help the local level lead the way. Leif Hansen: Excellent. Gosh, thank you, Van. We did have a question that you covered a little bit, but if you can maybe say a bit more. We have a question from MyNewPeace who says, “How can we get our local schools to go green?” And you had said something about the 25% food being organic. Any other things that you would want to say about that? |
| 32:43 | Van Jones: I just think that one of the big problems that we have in terms of getting good, healthy food into our school system is that federal and state allowances for school lunch programs are very low. I think it’s like $1.25 per kid. That’s got to change. But one way to help change it is to do gardening projects right there on rooftops and have edible schoolyards. And do all these stuff that Alice Waters have been talking about for years and to do that more aggressively. And to have public/private partnerships to make those things more affordable until we can get the federal government to get behind it and push. But the great thing about schools is they are community centers and they can be a locus of real empowerment in terms of education mobilization and also entrepreneurship. Often, since I’m talking about high school students, we should be turning all of our high schools into green business microenterprise incubators. |
| 33:47 | These young people have tremendous talent, ideas especially in terms of technology. You mentioned all these widgets and this kind of stuff. Why not have every school be a producer of local green food and green power? Put those solar panels up there, take them down and put them up every year so people can learn how to do that. And also a producer of green businesses. So you can have an incubation program for microenterprise pointed at green solutions. We don’t have time to waste. Everything single asset and resource that we have in our community should be mobilized for a clean energy revolution that puts people to work, cuts carbon. Let the United States be the world leader not in pollution but in solutions.Leif Hansen: Yeah. What if we took all of the high school gym classes, took all of their energy, and tapped it for – we could power the entire planet, huh? |
| 34:43 | Van Jones: You can definitely power the gym. Leif Hansen: Yeah, or find a way to tap into the hormones of teenagers. There’s got to be some way to do that, right?Van Jones: Exactly. That’s a renewable resource right there.Leif Hansen: All right. So here’s another question. By the way, we are about three minutes over the time you’ve committed. Is it OK if we go keep going with a few more questions?Van Jones: Yeah. I can do one more question then I have to go. But I’d love to come back maybe after the election and talk a little bit more.Leif Hansen: Excellent. All right. So the question is, “Do you have some advice about how to harness the power of viral marketing to build a business?” So basically returning back I guess to some of what you did for your book. A little bit more specific on how to actually harness that. |
| 35:29 | Van Jones: Like I said, magic formulas are only magic in hindsight. So I can only be autobiographical and tell you what we did. I increasingly am a believer that the concept of buzz marketing which was captured and polluted but corporate America. And actually hiring people to walk around in malls and have fake conversations. That’s the wrong way to do it. But I believe that the best salesperson you’re ever going to have is not the salesperson on your payroll, it’s the salesperson in your Rolodex. And treating your entire Rolodex like a sales force, a potential sales force is a real break through in the direction of figuring out how you’re going to actually move a product. |
| 36:23 | Now the difference is that when you have somebody on your payroll, they’re benefit is the money you give them or the percentage of them. When they’re not on your payroll and they’re just in your network, what the benefit is you have to be there for them too. Are you talking about creating networks of reciprocity and generosity? So that you’re essentially imagining a barter, in some ways a barter economy, a barter in buzz. A barter in honest communication about things that we’re excited about. The economy of leverage passion rather than leverage buyouts. Now what I would argue is that almost anybody calling into this show, is that if look at their email address book and they look at their cellphone has a to die for sales force for what they’re trying to get done. But they’re not thinking about it in that way. Now they also, most of the people, they would be happy to help in any way and will love to do and wouldn’t take a penny to help most of the people in their Rolodex. |
| 37:33 | It’s not about exploiting your friends but it’s about saying to your friends, “Hey, it’s about to get tough out here. How can we all help each other?” And the Greendrinks phenomenon is the best example you’re ever going to find but the people who understand networks. And who understand how to use network power to solve political, economic, ecologically and other problems are going to be inevitably the most successful people in a network information and hopefully solar age. Leif Hansen: Excellent. I hate to tie it back to a little bit of self-promotion here but I cannot think of a better tie-in to Biznik.com. In that, Biznik is about business networking that doesn’t suck. We don’t want to be about a fake transparency or greenwashing. It’s really about genuine connection and collaborating.And why we’re excited to get together with you is to help you out because we love your book. And there’s a thread on the site talking about your book and we want to help promote it. And you can also add some buzz by getting people involved who already love your book and your cause with Biznik. We’re tying that together so it all helps each other out and we need to not be fake but have genuine passion underneath this and that’s what’s exciting about you. |
| 38:47 | Van Jones: Well I appreciate that. And anything I could do to be helpful. I believe in what you’re doing. Fundamentally the difference between the corporate fake buzz marketing and like you said the networking that’s transparently awful, transparently sucks. And what we’re talking about in terms of really building an economy of generosity and reciprocity is the authentic love and passion that we have for each other’s work. And I love what you’re doing. I appreciate your love for what we’re doing and let’s stay together. Leif Hansen: Thank you, Van. So the best way for them to get a hold of you, I believe there’s VanJones.net and the Green For All community site?Van Jones: That’s right.Leif Hansen: That’s right? |
| 39:29 | Van Jones: Exactly. VanJones.net and GreenForAll.org. No numerals, all letters, GreenForAll.org. Leif Hansen: Excellent and I think, Van, you were probably listening in when Gabriel was telling us his idea of trying to get people into a physical space in different cities. Who are interested in collaborating, innovating and incubating their green ideas. I think that’s an awesome idea. If we had more time I’d love to hear if you have other companies and think tanks that are trying to do that. But we’ll blog about that and talk about that on the site. And thank you so much for your time and look forward to seeing you the rest of guys at Biznik.com. Take care everybody!Van Jones: Thank you. Bye-bye.Leif Hansen: Thanks, Van. Bye-bye. |
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