Community Workforce Agreement in Portland guarantees expanded job opportunity and standards for thousands of clean-energy jobs

On September 30, 2009, the Portland City Council passed a resolution (download) endorsing a groundbreaking Community Workforce Agreement (download) that will lead to the creation of thousands of good jobs in the clean-energy economy for low-income workers.

Green For All is proud to have partnered with the City of Portland to craft this landmark agreement, which serves as a model for the nation.

Watch our video about this success:

Listen to our National Call about Portland's Innovation and learn how other cities can learn from this model.

The unprecedented Agreement calls for creating contracting, subcontracting, training and employment policies that will ensure high-quality work, safe conditions for workers, and strategies for establishing career pathways for low-income and other historically underserved populations.

These standards and community benefits, which were created through a partnership of public, private, nonprofit, community, and labor organizations, apply to a home energy retrofit project called Clean Energy Works Portland.

Clean Energy Works Portland is an effort led by the city to deliver affordable home energy upgrades to homeowners in Portland. It is embarking on a pilot project phase during which approximately 500 homes will receive energy audits and be retrofitted by the summer of 2010.

After the pilot phase, Clean Energy Works Portland will scale-up to retrofit an estimated 100,000 homes, with the potential to create as many as 10,000 local jobs over the next 10 years. Going forward, Green For All will utilize our national expertise to support and guide the effort to bring the pilot project to scale.

This project leverages federal recovery dollars to reduce carbon emissions, lower utility bills, and create jobs. It is one of the nation's leading models for how to use Recovery Act funds not just to stimulate short-term economic activity, but to lay the foundation for long-term economic, environmental and community health.

The Community Workforce Agreement is yet another pioneering step for Clean Energy Works Portland, which is the first energy retrofit program in the nation with on-bill financing, an innovative approach that allows residents to pay back the cost of retrofits directly through their utility bill savings.

 
Portland Mayor Sam Adams spoke of the project and partnership with Green For All,

“In Oregon, a state with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, this program stands to provide a scalable national model by leveraging federal recovery dollars to put people back to work and achieve significant carbon reductions. 

“In partnership with Green For All, we have the ability to promote social equity in a measurable way, providing an opportunity for under-employed youth and adults to gain career training in the sustainable building industry, and ensure that Portland stays at the forefront of the green economy.”

Through the Community Workforce Agreement and Clean Energy Works Portland, the city establishes one of the nation's leading models for how to put Americans to work doing the work that most needs to be done: transitioning from the dirty, pollution-based economy of the last century to the clean and green economy of the new one.

Portland is showing the entire country how to move forward with a new model for economic growth that is good for families, workers, business, and the environment.

Green For All is honored to partner with the City of Portland to build a more diverse and robust local clean-energy economy ripe with broad access and opportunity.

Resources

• Listen to our National Call about Portland's Innovation and learn how other cities can learn from this model.
• Download the Press Release from the City of Portland
• Download the Community Workforce Agreement
• Download the Portland City Council Resolution
• Watch Video from Green For All
• Clean Energy Works Portland's website: www.cleanenergyworksportland.org.