Ian Kim: Making Social Justice a Cornerstone of the Clean Tech Revolution

I fully expect Ian Kim to stay on his feet when he's honored at the CLCV Environmental Leadership Awards on June 2nd. He's got too much energy to sit still, especially after several recent big victories for clean energy and California's diverse communities.

Most recently as Director of the Green-Collar Jobs Campaign at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Kim is a coalition builder and policy advocate in the city of Oakland and statewide in California, working to create "green-collar" jobs (quality, career-track, manual labor jobs in industries like renewable energy, water and energy efficiency, and green building), especially for low-income young adults and those with barriers to employment.

In 2010, Kim and the Green Collar Jobs Campaign successfully led a coalition (Communites United Against Proposition 23) that was a major force in the campaign that defeated Proposition 23, the "Dirty Energy" ballot initative to roll back California's landmark climate law.

Prop 23 was supported by big-money, out-of-state oil and coal companies and the now-infamous Koch brothers, but they were no match for the grassroots work of groups like Communities United and their allies in the clean tech, consumer, environmental, public health and small business sectors.

At a recent "Green California" event that brought together many of the partners that worked to defeat Prop 23, Kim jumped out of his seat (he was speaking on a panel on the subject) and took a literal victory lap around the room. Now that's the kind of energy and enthusiasm the environmental movement could use more of!

Kim serves on the Oakland Workforce Investment Board and was Vice-Chair of the Oakland Oil Independence Task Force. He serves on the Steering Committee of the California Apollo Alliance and the Executive Committee of the California EDGE Campaign.

We hope you'll join us in honoring Ian Kim, who represents the best of the next generation of environmental leaders, and other champions at the CLCV Environmental Leadership Awards tomorrow in San Francisco.