Green Jobs Philly

• INSULATION CO-OPERATIVES buy and install energyefficiencies.

• LAND TRUSTS purchase local land to protect it, usually from suburbanization. They buy housing to remove it from the profit system.

• LOCAL CURRENCIES are local paper money which adds to local money supply, raises minimum wage, promotes job creation, friendly trade, local business.

• LOCAL INSURANCE COMPANIES (locally-owned nonprofit insurers which invest all premiums regionally). in-cluding locally-controlled non-profit health financing co-ops.

• LOCAL PENSION FUNDS are locally-originated and controlled, much of whose capital is dedicated to local investment.

• LOCAL STOCK EXCHANGES gather capital of all kinds for ecodevelopment.

• LOCAL TAX CREDITS reduce local fees on organic farms, solar and wind energy, realizing that tax reductions will be returned via high sales tax revenues.

• MATERIALS RE-USE CENTERS disassemble and stockpile components of discards, for resale and re-manufacturing. New buildings are constructed ecologically, using non-rainforest woods.

• MICROLENDING makes small loans at low interest, in order to help new small businesses form.

• MILITARY TO DOMESTIC CONVERSIONS retrofit vacated military bases or weapons factories for nonmilitary jobs and production.

• REVOLVING LOAN FUNDS make money available at zero- or low-interest for specified purposes when prior loans are repaid.

• SMART GROWTH is land use planning that restrains sprawl and relies on regional business rather than chains. Government invents new rules to facilitate this shift. Corporations are evaluated for their commitment to the environment and fair pay.

• SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE INVESTING is the practice of selecting stocks and bonds according to their environmental and/or social effects.

• TRADING POSTS are storefronts which enable the public to trade without cash.

• WORKER OWNERSHIP NETWORKS support transfer of business ownership to employees.

As local wealth increases through these programs, there is more money available for producing goods and services that feed the transition from dependence to strength. Local and regional self-reliance give American communities added capability to reach to each other, with ecological export industry and travel. The above examples, again, are among the hundreds of types of programs that give citizens genuine democratic power-- in the marketplace-- where it counts.