Van Jones is a globally recognized, award-winning pioneer in human rights and the clean energy economy. He grew up on the edge of a small town in rural west Tennessee, where he was instilled with the values of education and faith. Van's late father was a United States Air Force veteran, who became an award-winning middle school principal; his mother was a public school teacher. Van's late grandfather was a Bishop in the Christian Methodist Episcopal church. Before attending law school, he graduated from public schools, including the University of Tennessee. Van is a 1993 graduate of the Yale Law School.
Van is the author of The Green Collar Economy, the definitive book on "green jobs." In 2008 — thanks to a low-cost, viral marketing campaign — his book became an instant New York Times bestseller. It is today being translated into six languages.
As a tireless advocate for disadvantaged people and the environment, Van emphasizes that work, innovation and entrepreneurship in the clean energy sector are the keys to solving our nation’s economic and environmental problems. Van helped to pass America's first "green job training" legislation, the Green Jobs Act, which George W. Bush signed into law as a part of the 2007 Energy Bill. He is the co-founder of several successful non-profit organizations, including the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Green For All.
Van is the recipient of many awards and honors, including the Reebok International Human Rights Award; the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leader designation; and the prestigious, international Ashoka Fellowship. Van was included in the Ebony Magazine "Power 150" list of most influential African Americans for 2009. In 2008, Essence magazine named him one of the 25 most inspiring/influential African Americans. TIME Magazine named him an environmental hero in 2008. In 2009, TIME named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
From March to September 2009, Van worked as the special advisor for green jobs at the White House Council for Environmental Quality. In that position, he developed policy recommendations to help implement the Obama Administration’s commitment to clean energy jobs. His central focus was home energy efficiency – the fastest way to save Americans money on their energy bills, reduce pollution from power plants and create good jobs. Toward this end, he led a 12-Department inter-agency process, which designed proposals to weatherize and retrofit millions of American homes, including by leveraging private capital. Those proposals are in various stages of review and implementation.
Van also helped run an inter-agency group that assisted federal Departments in information-sharing, coordination and accelerating Recovery Act results. He also worked to include the specific needs and concerns of vulnerable populations, including rural Americans and minorities. In the Obama Administration’s first nine months, the federal government made unprecedented progress toward increasing the number of green job opportunities available to all Americans.
To learn more about Green Jobs,
Purchase the paperback version of The Green Collar Economy
Watch this clip of Van’s explanation of how Green Jobs will renew America
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