Council on Environmental Quality Blog

Lend Lease offers its perspective on all that partners can accomplish as participants in the President's Better Buildings Challenge.

Today, the Administration released a progress report on President Obama's America’s Great Outdoors Initiative (AGO) that shows on-the-ground results for American communities.

Today the Obama Administration announced a move that will speed the creation of thousands of construction and operations jobs while transforming the Nation's electric system into a modern, 21st century grid that is safer and more secure, and gives consumers more energy choices.

Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, recognizes the selection of Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Energy, Installations and Environment) Jackalyne Pfannenstiel as the 2011 recipient of the Alliance to Save Energy's Chairman's Award.

CEQ staff travelled to Annapolis, Maryland on the 10th anniversary of September 11th, 2001, to pay tribute to those we've lost through service.

The Veterans Outreach Center, Inc., in partnership with New York State’s Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), has successfully trained and placed 90 percent of their graduates in full-time green technology jobs. Read from the organization's President & CEO on all that's been achieved – and all that needs to be done – in supporting our Nation's veterans.

As seen in Rochester, there is demand for clean energy and energy efficiency products, services, and jobs. As an Administration, we're making sure we do everything we can to grow those markets and jobs right here in America. Congress should act immediately when they receive this legislation next week.

Public and private partnerships are critical to achieving results in rural communities. The rural economic development success in John Day demonstrates the interdependence of a healthy environment and a strong economy and the good things that happen when local communities and the Federal Government work collaboratively to solve complex problems. This approach is a cornerstone of the President's America's Great Outdoors Initiative (AGO), and reinforces the work of the White House Rural Council.

For the past month, we have brought together our local members to work in tandem with the private sector, city government, community organizations and local residents to bring the vision of a new park—called a Planters Grove—to life. Borne out of the ideas and goals laid out in the President's America’s Great Outdoors initiative, it is so much more than simply a new park. It is a nexus of neighborhood revitalization, community service and outdoor activity, and proof that public-private partnerships can seed community transformation and growth.

I am Teirra Scott, an incoming freshman at Howard University and an employee at the Green Youth Farm in Chicago. Recently, our organization had the pleasure of hosting Chairwoman Nancy Sutley at our farm and showing her our organic gardens. With approximately 20 high school students working at each of our four sites every year, Green Youth Farm (GYF) harvests and sells sustainably-grown produce throughout the City of Chicago and neighboring areas.

In too many American communities, low-income and minority families shoulder a disproportionate burden of pollution in the places where they live, work and learn. This past week the Obama Administration took an important step to address those disparities when Federal leaders signed their agencies into Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Environmental Justice. At the highest levels of the Obama Administration, we are intent on ensuring Americans have equal opportunity to enjoy the health and economic benefits of a clean environment.

The U.S. solar market is expected to more than double yet again in 2011, installing enough solar for more than 400,000 homes. As part of President Obama's Executive Order to expand innovation in the federal government and create jobs, the Department of Veterans Affairs today announced $56.7 million in contracts to build solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in the Southwest U.S.

Yesterday in Austin, Texas, the Obama Administration released its “National Strategy for Electronics Stewardship” – a strategy for the responsible electronic design, purchasing, management and recycling that will promote the burgeoning electronics recycling market and jobs of the future here at home.

As countries around the world race to seize the economic opportunities of clean energy, we have the chance to harness the incredible ingenuity and entrepreneurship of Americans. UTC Power is just one example of how the global appetite for clean energy is presenting opportunities for our businesses, for good jobs that pay good wages, and for greater economic security for American families.