This article reports on the message of an environmental activist during a speech last week at a conference of the National Council for Workforce Education. According to the environmental activist Van Jones, community colleges play a pivotal role in pushing the fossil-fuel-dependent economy toward a reliance on renewable energy. A community organizer in Oakland, California, Mr. Jones advocates for millions of new environmental jobs to both combat global warming and lift underemployed people out of poverty. He is also a scheduled keynote speaker at a conference of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education in November. Community colleges are key to Mr. Jones's sustainability priorities because the new jobs in solar- and wind-power installation and green construction will require more than a high-school education but less than a four-year degree, he said. But until industry demonstrates more demand for green workers, many community colleges will be hard pressed to add new programs.