Apollo Alliance

WDI convened the New York State Apollo Alliance and supports the development of regional alliances. This unique coalition of business, labor, environment, government, environmental justice advocates, and educators has become an important voice supporting policies and programs leading to the creation of new and better jobs for New York’s working families.

As America develops a green energy sector we must rethink present policies, realign resources, break down old boundaries and forge new alliances. Apollo creates  new paradigms that abandon old approaches where the wealth of the environment was traded for the short-term health of the economy, sacrificing opportunities for new good jobs and technology innovation, resulting in economic degradation.

WDI trains people for new green jobs being created, including service technicians to retrofit thousands of homes and commercial buildings to be more energy efficient. These jobs reduce our energy costs and improve our quality of life.

WDI staff & NYS Apollo Alliance Coordinator present Congressman Tonko the Apollo Alliance program, Make it in America, detailing a way in which we can bring back good manufacturing jobs to the United States.

WDI and the NYS Apollo Alliance are taking the lead in identifying strategies to promote green manufacturing and are working with a smart grid consortium to help guide the modernization of New York’s electrical grid. These actions  play an important role in helping achieve ambitious state and national energy independence and environmental protection goals.

WDI is helping create regional Apollo Alliances in Buffalo, Rochester, the Capital Region, and Long Island. We collaborate with the New York City and national Apollo Alliance, working to educate New Yorkers about the pathways to good green jobs in the state’s clean energy future, expanding the number of partners in this conversation.

Meeting the challenge of a clean energy economy requires rethinking present policies, redirecting resources, breaking old boundaries and forging new alliances. We must move beyond approaches that trade-off the economy for and/or against  the health of the environment, sacrifice good jobs and technology innovation. The Apollo Alliance's Ten-Point Plan will create manufacturing jobs and new technologies, a stronger economy and a healthier, safer environment by pursuing the following broad strategies:

1. Green the Infrastructure. Create and retain good new, healthy jobs in New York State, fight global warming, protect the environment and grow the economy by investing in construction and retrofitting of high performance buildings with innovative financing and incentives, improved building operations, and updated codes and standards. This will reduce energy needs, promote health and safety, revitalize urban areas, improve schools and help working families, businesses, and government agencies realize substantial cost savings. It will also improve student performance and staff productivity.

2. Promote Energy Efficiency and Conservation. The greatest single source of new energy available today is increasing the efficient use of existing power generation. Green existing buildings, improve motor vehicle fuel efficiency, and expand hybrid and electric mass transit before building new polluting power plants.

3. Create Thousands of Green Collar Jobs. Make New York State a national leader in the construction of high performance buildings. Promote research and development, marketing campaigns, and technical assistance for manufacturers working in the green technology sector. Invest in existing industries to upgrade capacity and create new incentives, including investments from state and local pension funds.

4. Transition Workforce from the Old to the New. Link job growth and economic development. Create good paying jobs with benefits. Promote education to train a skilled workforce. Create new jobs through energy audits and retrofits, building deconstruction and reconstruction, brown fields remediation, and specialized pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship training. Encourage government to take the lead in creating high performance jobs with public buildings, public schools, affordable housing, parks, and transit infrastructure. Encourage the business community to invest in high performance real estate and the technologies of the future by demonstrating growth potential.

5. Promote Healthy Green Communities. Significantly expand urban open spaces and create skilled jobs by greening city, suburban and rural environments. Provide incentives for a green roofs solar initiative. Reduce air-conditioning needs in summer by planting urban trees and using energy efficient technologies, and reduce heating costs in winter through energy conservation. Promote public health by building walkable communities.

6. Build Healthy and High Performance Schools. Children are uniquely vulnerable to toxic contaminants and no one is in charge of making sure that school environments are clean and healthy. Healthy and high performance schools are designed, constructed, and maintained to optimize the health of students and staff. New York State invests over $1.5 billion annually on school construction and renovation, and nearly as much is spent by school districts locally. Healthy and high performance schools benefit children, teachers and staff and strengthen communities.

7. Invest in Renewables. Reduce dependency on foreign oil and diversify energy sources by promoting existing technologies in solar, wind, biomass, micro-hydro, and geothermal, and by setting ambitious but achievable goals for increasing renewable generation. Bring highly skilled construction jobs to New York State by augmenting incentives for residents and businesses to install solar units. Promote state and local policy -- including implementation of state renewable portfolio standard goals -- that link clean energy and good jobs. Invest in increased solar and wind power. Research and develop new technology for distributed renewable generation. Rely on indigenous resources, which retain income rather than export revenues.

8. Bolster Energy Distribution Systems. Ensure that existing energy distribution systems are adequately maintained and upgraded to prevent future blackouts and secure public safety. Make certain that New York State maintains its competitive edge by ensuring a consistent, independent and reliable power supply. Promote distributive sources of energy by enabling access to the grid without overburdening poor and working communities and communities of color.

9. Develop Transit Alternatives. Increase mobility, job access, and transportation that uses alternative fuels. Reduce air pollution, congestion, environmental toxins, and waste by investing in effective multi-modal networks including mass transit, light rail, ferries, convenient and safe bicycle routes, and low- and non-polluting vehicles.
   

10. Eliminate Waste. Move away from the throwaway society by pursuing a statewide waste reduction policy that creates green collar jobs by reusing, remanufacturing, and recycling existing materials. Through government incentives, link zero waste to green industrial retention.