Schwarzenegger expects the first phase of the program to consist of a 20-month pilot program enlisting at least 1,000 of the state’s at-risk young adults.

Explaining that he and President Obama mutually value the priorities of this project, Schwarzenegger says, “Green jobs are exactly what our economy and environment need right now.”
Part of the program will be funded by the economic stimulus package.  Technical, construction and skilled jobs will be included in the Corps training.

State Secretary for  Service and Volunteering Karen Baker of CaliforniaVolunteers will oversee the nationally ground-breaking program.

Additional information can be found at http://gov.ca.gov/fact-sheet/11753.

The University of California at Davis, in preparation for their commitment to become a zero waste college by 2020, provided the venue for the first annual Plan Green Conference on February 18, 2009.  The Plan Green Conference focuses on providing the tools and information for planning sustainable events from small-scale meetings and banquets to conferences and trade events such as Green Cities™ Florida (May 19-21, 2009).

Socially responsible meeting and event practices are center stage at Plan Green Conference.  Keynote speakers sharing their expertise on green event planning at Plan Green included Seven-Star, Inc. Co-Founder Joseph Malki, Green PEAS Events Janet Cooperman, SCS Engineers and Vice President of the California Resource Recovery Association Leslie Lukacs.  These speakers and others reveal their perspectives on how green event planning has evolved, the role of food, beverage, waste, transportation, and conservation in event planning, and what the future of the industry holds.

The UC Davis campus works toward planned 75% waste reduction by 2012 and zero waste by 2020 through continuously changing their business model to make a positive impact on their campus and community.  The annual Plan Green Conference is both a great opportunity to learn how professionals establish green events as well as a mile marker of how far the sustainability movement has come.  The green community has evolved into an expanding collection of businesses and individuals working on the same problem and moving toward a common goal.  For more information on Plan Green Conference and for updates for the 2010 Plan Green, visit http://plangreen.ucdavis.edu/plangreen/.

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Our favorite resource here is the blogging. In the space of 5 minutes, I found out about this, this and this. We did some more snooping… and found the following authors in their blogging family:

Bryan Hassin – Entrepreneur, Energy Professional & MBA Candidate, IMD Business School
Ceylan Oney – Vice President of Marketing, CleanTechies
Gary Zieff - Principal & Founder, dissigno
George Karayannis – Executive Director, Newberry Theater Foundation, Energize America
Ian Thomson – Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, CleanTechies
Kevin Gardner – Consultant, GARDNER
Jason Gross – Business Associate, FPL Energy
Javier Benson – Student, The Wharton School
Jeff Kart - Environmental Journalist, The Bay City Times
Mackinnon Lawrence – Attorney, Self-employed
Marco Schmoecker – Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder, CleanTechies
Mark Higgins – Deal Associate, MMA Renewable Ventures
Matthew Benson - New Business Architect, PD3
Nat Kreamer – President & COO, SunRun
Steve Ross – Partner, Elysian Group
Tom Strong – Co-founder, 50 Mile Farms
Victor Salviati – Project Analyst & Developer, Carbon Market Consulting
Vincent Gautier – MBA Candidate, IESE Business School
William O’Connell - Principal, WR O’Connell Consulting
William Hargett - Director of Commercial Development, BG-Capital

[ 50 Greenest Cities in America: Full Rankings ]

Gavin Newsom and Jared Blumenfeld discuss SF Forward in the video window below: