Conservation creates green collar jobs
As local governments pass policies and create programs to encourage “green” building and sustainable development, they also are fostering the development of jobs in construction, horticulture, hazardous waste remediation and energy conservation. To ensure that workers have the skills to perform jobs in the growing “green collar” sector, many cities have implemented job training programs.
Richmond, Calif., officials have been working with Solar Richmond, a two-year-old non-profit company, to train residents in solar panel installation as part of the city’s pre-apprenticeship training program, says Michele McGeoy, Solar Richmond’s director and founder. Program trainees install solar panel systems on roofs of low-income homeowners free of charge. The Richmond Community Redevelopment Agency offers residents low-interest loans to purchase the equipment, with payment deferred for senior citizens until they sell their homes. Solar Richmond also helps program graduates find employment in the solar construction industry. “Richmond is called the City of Pride and Purpose, but unfortunately, we are more known for pollution and violence,” says McGeoy, a member of the city’s Economic Development Commission. “Solar is one great antidote to pollution, and jobs are one antidote to violence.”
The District of Columbia Green Building Act of 2006 requires all fiscal year 2008 or later city-constructed buildings to meet high environmental standards, which has led to a rise of green construction activity in the Washington area. “Green collar jobs are vital to the district as the city redefines itself as a leader in sustainable development,” says Harriet Tregoning, director of the city’s Office of Planning.
New jobs are being created, such as performing energy-efficiency retrofits for buildings, planting roof gardens to mitigate stormwater runoff, and managing stormwater. “Green building in the district is happening at a faster pace than in any other city in the U.S., and we want to make sure that our local workforce and our local business community is in a position to benefit from that emerging green economy,” Tregoning says. The city is forming a Green Collar Jobs Advisory Council to help local businesses hire residents for green job development.
Since 1994, Chicago’s job training and community gardening program, GreenCorps, has designed, installed and maintained more than 800 community greening projects across the city, says Commissioner of Environment Suzanne Malec-McKenna. In the past year, the city has expanded the program to include household chemicals handling and disposal training, a paint exchange program, a home-weatherization program, and instruction in diagnostics and repairs of salvageable computers for resale to non-profits. Targeting low-income, underemployed and ex-offender residents, and funded by grants and community contributions, the 25 to 40 trainees hired each year into the nine-month program are paid minimum wage to start, and the city helps them find permanent jobs. Last year, 33 trainees graduated from the program, and most were placed in permanent jobs, Malec-McKenna says.
Portland is drafting policies to tighten green technology performance standards, which would be backed by financial penalties, for all new construction, accelerating the demand for a trained utilities and building work force, says Tom Osdoba, sustainable economic development coordinator. “We expect we will be running into labor shortages very quickly [in the green collar industry],” Osdoba says. In response, the city plans to expand university and trade apprenticeship programs.
Annie Gentile is a Vernon, Conn.-based freelance writer.