Saturday, November 7
12:10-1:00pm
Omar Freilla, Green Worker Cooperatives
Raised in the South Bronx, where he continues to live, Omar Freilla is passionate about creating a green and democratic economy, one grounded in environmental justice. He is the founder and director of Green Worker Cooperatives, an organization dedicated to incubating green and worker-owned businesses in the South Bronx. Its first cooperative, ReBuilders Source, is a retail warehouse for salvaged and surplus building materials. It is an alternative to the wasteful practices that have flooded the South Bronx with waste facilities, and is the first of many more to come, all green; all worker-owned; and all in the South Bronx. Omar has many years of experience challenging environmental abuses in low-income communities of color in New York City having previously worked for both Sustainable South Bronx and the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance. His writings have been published in the 2004 book "Highway Robbery: Transportation Racism and New Routes to Equity" edited by Robert Bullard and the 2007 book "Building the Green Economy: success stories from the grassroots" by Kevin Danaher, and the journal "Race, Poverty, and the Environment". His writings have also appeared in blogs such as AlterNet; the Huffington Post; City Limits; the Drum Major Institute; Movement Vision Lab; and Black & Green.
Omar has received numerous awards for his work including the Open Society Institute's New York City Community Fellowship, the Union Square Award for grassroots activists, the Environmental Leadership Program fellowship, and the Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism. He has also been featured in the 2007 environmental documentary "The 11th Hour" produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. He holds a Masters degree in Environmental Science from Miami University of Ohio and a B.S. from Morehouse College.
