At a time when job loss is mounting across the nation, the Wal-Mart Foundation is offering grants totaling over $5 million to help create green jobs and build a ready workforce.
It is rather fitting given President Obama’s aggressive goals to transform our dependence on foreign oil, create millions of green jobs, and build a “clean energy future” that Wal-Mart is initiating its own efforts to meet some of those goals.
The charitable foundation has awarded a grant of $5 million to the U.S. Conference of Mayors to be subsequently given to a handful of cities that have a history of commitment to creating green jobs or have just recently undertaken a green job training initiative.
“Given that 85 percent of all green jobs are expected to be located in cities and their metro areas in the coming years, this grant could not come at a better time,” says Manny Diaz, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and mayor of Miami.
The Wal-Mart Foundation is also awarding a grant of almost $750,000 to Veterans Green Jobs to support the development of green job training sites in Washington, Colorado, New Mexico and Lousiana.
“Realizing that one of the greatest barriers to creating green jobs is the lack of a trained workforce, the Wal-Mart Foundation’s grants will help break through this barrier and enable more American workers to be trained and ready to contribute in this growing sector,” says foundation president Margaret McKenna.
The Veterans Green Jobs grant comes at an important time for upwards of two million military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who will look to reintegrate into civilian life over the near term.
This grant money and forthcoming training facilities will provide a new career path for many of those servicemen and women.
