August 2011 e-Common Ground

It’s easy to find people who have a passion for saving special places. What makes The Conservation Fund different is that we combine our passion with an entrepreneurial spirit—taking risks, investing in good ideas and finding new ways to make conservation work. Here are two examples:

Good Jobs, Great Idea – GO!

If you’ve ever been to a national park, you’ve experienced a special place—and you know it’s worth saving. But sometimes beauty takes a very different form: caulk. And weather-stripping, insulation, water heater jackets, and compact fluorescent light bulbs.

These are the tools of a new generation in conservation—a promising crew of low-income teens and young adults who have received job training to make homes and buildings more energy-efficient in Asheville, North Carolina. These green collar workers learned their trade through Green Opportunities (GO), a community development organization that has grown tenfold since its launch three years ago.

GO believes that improving lives, through green job training and support, can also improve our communities, environment and economy. We do, too. That’s why our Natural Capital Investment Fund and Resourceful Communities Program have provided roughly $70,000 in loans to GO.  Our support has made it possible for GO to take on larger building projects in Asheville and also strengthen its training programs.

As GO graduates know, our best renewable energy comes from people who have good jobs, quality of life and a future invested in a healthy environment. Learn more about our efforts here.

A Fresh Market

While we’re greening North Carolina, we’re also growing farms in Michigan. With the support of a $400,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, we have launched an ambitious effort to bring more healthy food to low-income communities in the state. Over the next three years, we will be working to break down barriers facing minority farmers— strengthening their operating margins and improving their ability to make healthy, local food available to families across 11 counties.

Peg Kohring, who lives in one of the counties, was inspired to launch this project by the need in her own community—where many kids and families cannot walk to a supermarket or conveniently visit a farmers market. “Local farmers markets in poorer, rural communities often lack the facilities required to provide and sell a variety of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy—and area residents are often unaware that affordable healthy food is available right in their own neighborhoods,” remarks Kohring, our Midwest director.

Our goal is to better equip farmers, and farmers’ markets, to become a vibrant part of the local infrastructure. Over the past 15 years, we have protected 30,000 acres of farms and other land in Michigan. We know that for this conservation to last, it must make sense economically—and that means farmers, and local communities, need to benefit. Learn more on our website.

Photos: Farmer's market / Howard Walfish, Flickr (banner); Light bulb, Stephen Drescher, iStockphoto.com (top); Farmer's market in the Midwest / Parker Deen, iStockphoto.com (bottom).