Mayor Rybak boosts local, green businesses
Hails Minneapolis as the center of the new green economy
April 21, 2009 (MINNEAPOLIS) -- Mayor R.T. Rybak got a head start on Earth Day tonight to promote green businesses and declared that the City of Minneapolis is working with the business community to create new clean energy jobs in Minneapolis and the region.
"Let’s face it: the economy of the past – whether we like it or not – is over," Mayor Rybak said. "The old ways of doing business have literally run out of gas. As Earth Day approaches in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the urgency of our efforts to halt climate change are even more intertwined with the urgency of our efforts to turn our nation’s economy around."
Mayor Rybak spoke to business leaders gathered tonight at the Greening Your Business Expo.
"For Minneapolis and this entire region to grow out of this recession, we can’t just seek to recover, can’t just rebuild, we must reinvent. We must reinvent how we work together to create opportunity, to put people to work, and to grow," Rybak added. "Minneapolis is at the forefront of the new green economy because we have the educated workforce, the innovative business culture and the political will needed to seize the opportunity of this moment."
"After meeting with a group green manufacturers and business owners last year, it was suggested that more could be done to get this new green industry in front of the business community," recalled Jim Bender, Chairman of the City of Lakes Chamber of Commerce. "The Chamber responded to this suggestion, in part, by creating an expo that allowed exhibitors to promote sustainable products for the workplace."
Published Apr. 21, 2009