Building the Green Economy

Kevin Danaher, Shannon Biggs, Jason Mark

“This is a practical book about on-the-ground successful green businesses and neighborhood initiatives that live sustainability, not just talk it. There are also pages of Crisp interviews with practitioners and thinkers including Rocky Anderson, Mayor of Salt Lake City and Lois Gibbs, the extraordinary organizer against toxics regarding this emerging sub-economy that challenges greed, concentrated power and destruction.” —Ralph Nader, www.nader.org, Dec 17, 2007 “Like politics, all sustainability is local. A sustaining world can only be measured as the sum of trillions of answers executed at the grassroots level. This book inspires us to look closely for the issues that face us all everywhere.” —William McDonough, co-author of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things “Building the Green Economy tells the real stories of what is both possible and necessary to restore power (metaphorically and literally) to the people, to save the nation, and save our world. It should be on every American’s ‘A’ reading list.” —Thom Hartmann, Air America radio host and author of Cracking the Code: The Art and Science of Political Persuasion “Building the Green Economy: success stories from the grassroots, by Kevin Danaher, Shannon Biggs and Jason Mark will help you see us, humanity, again. It is a manual for those of us who need to remember we are a can-do people, full of intelligence, heart, courage, and, sometimes, wit. A staff of a book, to lean on in these hard times.” —Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple

• Introduction; Toxic Avengers; Chapter 1 Sick and Tired of Living Next to (S)hell; Chapter 2 Conversation, Lois Gibbs; Chapter 3 Sludge Busters; Chapter 4 Conversation, Gopal Dayaneni; Chapter 5 What You Can Do; Food & Water; Chapter 6 Green Acres In The Windy City; Chapter 7 Conversation, Maude Barlow; Chapter 8 Seeds of Change; Chapter 9 Conversation, Anuradha Mittal; Chapter 10 Loggers & Lizards Find Common Ground; Chapter 11 Green Revolution; Chapter 12 Street Beets; Chapter 13 What You Can Do; From Mean Streets to Green Streets; Chapter 14 Breaking the Chains; Chapter 15 Conversation, Van Jones; Chapter 16 Participatory Budgeting & Direct Democracy; Chapter 17 Culture Shift in the Land of the Giants; Chapter 18 Conversation, Thomas LinzeyEsq.; Chapter 19 Patriot Actions; Chapter 20 What You Can Do; Power to the People; Chapter 21 Give Me an “E”; Chapter 22 Conversation, David Morris; Chapter 23 Beyond Hot Air; Chapter 24 Conversation, Ben Namakin; Chapter 25 Crude Awakening; Chapter 26 Sweden Declares Independence from Oil; Chapter 27 Harnessing the Saudi Arabia of Wind; Chapter 28 What You Can Do; The Freedom of Everyone to Be Enterprising; Chapter 29 Putting Mom and Pop First; Chapter 30 Conversation, Rocky Anderson; Chapter 31 Green Grapes; Chapter 32 No Boss; Chapter 33 Conversation, Omar Freilla; Chapter 34 “Your Business Plan Is Complete Garbage”; Chapter 35 Conversation, Michael Shuman; Chapter 36 What You Can Do; conclusion Conclusion;