Been ahead of the green curve

While much of the country has started to focus on green jobs as other industries fall apart amid the recession, Liz Robinson has been training workers in Philadelphia for green jobs since 1984 when the Energy Coordinating Agency started to help low-income homeowners who were burdened with higher heating costs due to federal deregulation.

The local nonprofit yesterday started training the first workers since the federal stimulus package dedicated money for expanding weatherization assistance programs. Mayor Nutter and other city officials helped kick off the program.

Metro spoke with Robinson, the executive director of ECA.

How many participants are there?

There are 20 people in this month-long training program, and frankly because the [American Reinvestment and Recovery Act] funding, there’s a big change in how the entire state will train to support that funding, and we are in discussion with folks statewide about that...We really will have to ramp up training and bring in people more quickly. [Most likely it will be] a one-week training.

What skills do trainees receive?

It starts with really understanding the basics of heat transfer and building science, so people understand all the basics of weatherization: air sealing and then insulation, heating system diagnosis and repair and energy-related carpentry. They’ll learn the basics of window replacement and repair and door replacement and repair. They’ll also learn how to set up a blower-door. We use that to diagnose how leaky a house is.

What's the current demand like for the training?
 
It’s just amazing. It’s really quite incredible, the demand for this type of training is vast. So many people want to get into this field and all kinds of people...I’ve been in this business for a very long time and it’s very heartening to see the interest…There are people who are coming from the construction industry, also people coming from IT.

What certification(s) do trainees receive?

We mostly offer training to the national standards: Building Performance Institute (BPI), and the Home Energy Rating System (HERS). Our goal in the training center is to train for both energy efficiency and solar industry.

City kicks off green job training

 KENSINGTON. Twenty workers got their first training for green jobs yesterday at a center funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The Energy Coordinating Agency will run the one-month training, which is designed to prepare unemployed workers for placement with weatherization assistance programs. The nonprofit organization received a $900,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to renovate an old factory near Front Street and Allegheny Avenue to expand their training given the increased demand for green training.

Mayor Michael Nutter and other city officials attended yesterday's session.

"Green jobs are to today’s economy in Philadelphia what shipbuilding and manufacturing jobs were in the early 20th Century – a pathway to the middle class," Nutter said in prepared remarks.