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You've been sent a story from New Voices (http://www.j-newvoices.org/): Green Jobs Philly Paul Glover, Editor, GreenPlanners http://www.j-newvoices.org/578/ A Philadelphia Web entrepreneur will spearhead a new Web site and quarterly publication to cover "green" jobs, grants, and economic initiatives by local businesses, universities and nonprofits. CONTACT INFO Paul Glover GreenPlanners 140 W. Sedgwick St. Philadelphia, PA 19119 (215) 805-8330 E-mail Web site Philadelphia’s eco-economy is featured in this bimonthly newsletter sent to thousands of local officials, organizations, businesses and job seekers.  The focus of GreenJobsPhilly is on grassroots initiatives because most new jobs in a tight economy will be created by small local businesses. This site also makes it free and easy for Philadelphians to offer and request green jobs, services, grants and loans.  Plans are to translate content to Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese.  Check back for future news and updates. • June 2009 • February 2009 • November 2008       Green Jobs Philly Gears UpJune 2009 Green Jobs Philadelphia News continues to gain subscribers, with more than 5,200 people now signed up to receive the monthly e-mail publication - a nearly 25 percent increase since February. The Green Jobs Philly Web site had 3,720 unique visitors in May, up from 889 uniques when GJP launched in August 2008. The newsletter serves to market GreenJobsPhilly.org, a digest of everything green-related in the Philadelphia area. Project manager and site founder Paul Glover updates the site, which functions primarily as an aggregator, as often as news and information come in. Glover, the one-man showman behind Green Jobs Philly, is also working to create local microbusinesses that will help green Philadelphia and build on his New Voices-sponsored Web site and newsletter. Green Jobs Philly is also providing original content - Glover has written 18 articles and linked to hundreds of stories and new initiatives. He and the site also work as a switchboard, linking job seekers with companies and individuals offering employment. About 550 people have registered to be able to offer and/or request jobs. Of those, 348 people sought jobs, 221 uploaded resumes, 48 offered green jobs, 30 offered green services and 28 sought grants. To help evaluate the impact of his site, Glover has contracted with Constant Contact, an e-mail marketing company that also provides Web services to small firms and groups. Constant Contact reports that Green Jobs Philly’s “click through” rate - the percentage of site visitors who click on a link to open it - is 33 percent, about six times higher than average for Web sites monitored by Constant Contact. “The site is ‘sticky,‘“ Glover says. “Many of my subscribers are on it for over an hour.“ Glover reports that all his GJP stories have been copied or linked to by a number of blogs. Several magazines also have reprinted his articles. Glover has made his New Voices’ Year Two match, consisting of $1,000 from in-kind donations, $1,000 from speeches, $2,400 from teaching at Temple University, $400 for a January 2009 City Paper cover story he wrote and $200 in advertising. Among Glover’s in-kind donations was an original illustration of a “greened” Divine Lorraine Hotel by an artist who usually charges several hundred dollars for his work. Glover paid $50 for the painting of the former luxury apartment building, which stands at the corner of Broad and Fairmount streets, awaiting its transformation. The artwork illustrates the 12th Green Jobs Philly newsletter, published May 15, 2009. Glover’s launch of the Green Jobs Philly site prompted Temple University to ask him to teach two Metropolitan Ecology classes. Glover reports that he will cut back to one class in the fall to better devote himself to his Web site, newsletter and related projects. His expertise also means Glover is in demand as a speaker; he has given about a dozen speeches in the last year. In addition, Glover estimates that he’s been interviewed on the radio at least 30 times since GJP launched, discussing his plans for a local currency and a health co-op. (Glover was quoted in an April 2009 CNN.com story about local currencies). Glover is working on several spin-off ideas, including the creation of a Philadelphia factory that would manufacture insulation using recycled materials and employ citizens with the least formal education. This enterprise and others would “raise the profile and credibility of GJP as a leader creating new institutions” and accelerate the greening of Philadelphia’s economy, Glover says. Glover would like to increase the frequency of his e-mailed newsletter. “With reliable funding, Green Jobs Philly could publish weekly, filling in where conventional media lag,“ he says. The semester over, Glover is now pedaling his bicycle around town seeking potential advertisers. He has also made a list of about 20 Philadelphia-based grantors and begun submitting grant proposals. Esoteric as his ideas may seem, Glover told the CNN interviewer that he’s never been busier: “As the economy has fallen apart, my phone has been ringing off the hook.“ - Hope Keller, 6/4/09 Green and GrowingFebruary 2009 In six months, Paul Glover’s GreenJobsPhilly.org Web site and newsletter have developed a devoted readership in Philadelphia, the nation’s sixth-largest city, with a population of nearly 1.5 million.  “Readership” might be putting it too mildly; “fan base” better captures the enthusiasm of Glover’s audience, which apparently includes a bunch of Big-J journalism types. “A treasure trove” is how Philly.com (the Web site of The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News) recently described the Green Jobs Philly newsletter. Philly.com, in its Earth to Philly blog, also hailed the Green Jobs Philly newsletter as “the value-packed local resource that everyone who’s down with the ‘Green’ thing is reading. Some people, in fact, have been known to start hyperventilating when the new issue comes out.“ Launched in September 2008, the Web site functions as a bulletin board for those seeking and offering green jobs in the Philadelphia metro area, as well as for people looking for or providing venture capital and grants. As of mid-February, 115 resumes had been uploaded to the site and more than 300 people had registered as users. The Web site - which is updated as job, loan and grant information comes in - receives about 3,000 unique visitors per month. Philadelphia officials, businesses, organizers, environmentalists and jobseekers read Glover’s newsletter, which is e-mailed to more than 4,300 subscribers once or twice a month. (Click here for the most recent newsletter, Glover’s ninth, which includes the first article in Spanish - a translation of a story Glover wrote for the Philadelphia City Paper.) The newsletter highlights green economy initiatives by local businesses, universities, nonprofits, government agencies and individuals; it also features a calendar of relevant local conferences, meetings and cultural events. Glover hopes eventually to feature online videos showing Philadelphians performing environmentally beneficial work, as well as Flash animation that explains how the work is done. Glover reports that J-Lab/New Voices’ support for the site has “conferred broader authority” on his overall project to “green” the Philadelphia economy. In addition to being asked to write for local publications, he was recently interviewed by Pacifica Radio and is frequently sought as a speaker by Philadelphia neighborhood and church groups. Also, Temple University has invited him to develop and teach a green jobs course. Glover says he plans to train students to research and post content to the GreenJobsPhilly.org site. Glover eventually would like to publish a quarterly print edition of Green Jobs Philly, which he hopes would raise his venture’s profile and provide advertising income. He also plans to update the Web site - “make it look a little spiffier” and make the archives more easily accessible. In addition to articles in Spanish, he is seeking a translator to prepare Chinese-language articles for publication, and down the road he would like translations into Vietnamese, Korean and other languages.  Glover’s larger plan is to create a network of organizations that will work to green Philadelphia’s economy and change the dismal arithmetic of the city, which has double-digit dropout and illiteracy rates and tens of thousands of uninsured. He has a kind of citywide Works Progress Administration in mind, which he calls the Green Labor Administration, or GLAD. Glover’s biggest challenge is finding the time to expand his venture. “If I were five people we’d meet much more of the city’s green networking needs,“ he says. “I’m excited to find and report the accelerating volume and variety of initiatives here, but am too busy with daily work to quickly build the broader organization.“ Calling himself “old school,“ Glover says he is gradually learning the technology that will allow him to post multimedia news items to the Web site. He is also working with two grant writers to help him sustain the GreenJobsPhilly Web site and newsletter and to enable a second-year matching grant from J-Lab.  - Hope Keller, 2/24/09 All Things Green and LocalNovember 2008 On Sept. 15, 2008, 3,706 residents, public officials, neighborhood organizers and environmentalists in Philadelphia received an e-mail announcing the launch of GreenJobsPhilly, a new Web site publishing news and promoting opportunity in the evolving local green economy. The site is a clearinghouse of everything green when it comes to jobs, services and grants sought and available on the local level. Project director Paul Glover said he’s contacting businesses, nonprofits and government agencies, inviting them to post jobs on his site. Job seekers are also posting jobs wanted.  The response has been very positive; the listings are free.  Ten jobs have been posted; 31 job seekers have deposited their descriptions into the job bank. Glover said the presidential campaign and the economic downturn on Wall Street have given new attention to the green-collar jobs as a solution for both climate change and rising unemployment. As of Oct. 16, GreenJobsPhilly had distributed four editions of its twice-monthly e-newsletter. Each edition includes comprehensive coverage of related legislation, book reviews, links to resources and research, job opportunities and more. Glover said people in the community are sending him event listings and other content, which he is editing and compiling in the newsletter. The newsletter spotlights some of the green job seekers and quotes from their posts on the Web site. For example:  “I love to help people make their flat roofs last longer and use less energy, while avoiding costly repairs. I specialize in small repairs, cool roof coatings, and vegetated roofs. I’m certified by two different companies in green roof installation, and have over two years of experience on flat roofs and nine years of construction experience.“  Anyone need a roofer? Glover is proud of one promotional gimmick he’s using to attract e-subscribers. Every e-mail in his database is assigned a number and on a monthly basis, he randomly picks a person to receive a $10 gift certificate donated by the Infusion Coffee Shop in the Mt. Airy neighborhood. Glover, a longtime community organizer, isn’t relying on viral marketing to get the word out.  He’s been pounding the pavement, speaking at schools, church groups, doing outreach at every environmental-themed community event. In early September, he joined over 200 businesses and groups at the GreenFestPhilly, an outdoor fair.  Word about the site is getting out. The Philadelphia Daily News’ enviro-blog, “Earth to Philly,“ recently applauded the new site.  Glover published an article in Grid magazine and wrote a textbook also named Green Jobs Philly, which he uses in his green jobs course at Temple University.  The Philadelphia Student Sustainability Coalition has asked him to serve as an advisor. Glover said he’s still in the learning curve, as he manages new web publishing tools, databases and college interns.  He’s reserved the right hand column of the home page for advertising, but hasn’t decided yet what to charge for it.