On September 21, the Apollo Alliance, a project of the BlueGreen Alliance, held the third annual The Right Stuff Awards Dinner at the W Hotel in San Francisco to honor outstanding individuals whose work exemplifies our shared mission of catalyzing the clean energy economy.

This year, we honored Applied Materials and Denise Fairchild, President of the Emerald Cities Collaborative. In addition, we were honored to host Richard L. Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, as our keynote speaker.

Having joined forces with the BlueGreen Alliance earlier this year, this was also an opportunity for our newly merged organization to celebrate our new capacity and strength and to renew the call for good jobs and clean energy in the 21st century. In addition to The Right Stuff Awards, we also awarded the Green Legacy Awards to Phil Angelides, Chairman of the Apollo Alliance Advisory Board; Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers; and Carl Pope, Chairman of the Sierra Club. This special honor recognized three visionary leaders for their role in building a clean energy economy, for their work to form Apollo Alliance and the BlueGreen Alliance, and for renewing and unifying the movement to spur U.S. job growth through a 21st century clean energy economy.

The evening was full of discussion about the importance of putting people back to work in good jobs by building industries of the 21st century and keeping America globally competitive. The successes of Denise Fairchild from The Emerald Cities Collaborative highlight the importance of bringing together diverse stakeholders to solve these issues, showing that environmental issues and job creation can be addressed simultaneously. Applied Materials exemplifies the role business can play in decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and catalyzing the green energy economy. Richard Trumka’s keynote address further focused on the necessity of bringing together diverse stakeholders to solve our nation’s economic and environmental issues, reiterating the importance of continuing to build the strong, broad coalition that is at the Apollo Alliance Project’s foundation.

For more on The 2011 Right Stuff Awards, please view pictures from the event.