Back to school to learn green jobs

Mindful Metropolis

The green economy is taking off, there’s no question about it. Buoyed by rising energy costs, an economic recession, and the recognition that the way we lived, and the way we consumed energy, during the throw-caution-to-the-wind days of yesteryear were simply not sustainable. In response, visionaries, entrepreneurs, conservationists and gardeners are racing to come up with new ways to build and power our homes and grow our food. But they also need workers with green-collar skills — executives and blue-collar “grunts,” alike, who know how to grow and harvest organic produce, weatherize homes or install windmills. “Green-collar” job-training programs are blossoming all over the Chicago area. The following is a sampling of them:

Chicago Botanic Gardens

The Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest provides instruction in sustainable horticulture and urban agriculture to residents of North Lawndale and Chicago’s west side. Students receive six months of hands-on instruction in greenhouse and outdoor growing practices, in the process acquiring hands-on experience with sustainable vegetable production and learning essential business skills, including planning, pricing, sales and marketing. Or they can opt for a five-month certificate in cool-weather growing techniques for hoophouses and greenhouses. Windy City Harvest participants study at the City Colleges of Chicago’s Arturo Velasquez West Side Technical Institute at 28th and Western Avenue in Chicago and at the Garfield Park Conservatory. The two locations provide state-of-the-art greenhouses, fully equipped classrooms and high quality outside plant production spaces. The course prepares students for permanent employment in the new green collar jobs sector. Visit www.chicago-botanic.org/windycityharvest or call (847) 835-6970

Chicago Center for Green Technology

The Chicago Department of the Environment’s “Greencorps Chicago” accepts 40 Chicago residents into its paid, nine-month Green Industry Job training program every spring. Greencorps Chicago is a pioneer in the green industry and works out of the Center for Green Technology. The program is open to ex-offenders and provides field and classroom experience in these areas: landscaping & horticulture, environmental health & safety, electronics recycling and weatherization. According to Greencorps’ website, “skills learned in the field (include) basic carpentry, horticulture principles, plant identification, electronic recycling and computer building, environmental health and safety and home weatherization.” Visit www.greenforall.org/resources/greencorps-chicago or call (312) 744-8691.

Chicagoland Green Collar Jobs Initiative

The Chicagoland Green Collar Jobs Initiative, which now boasts 100 partners, is a collaborative that, according to its website, “facilitates the development of a skilled workforce that is ready to meet the demands of the emerging green economy and capture new employment opportunities for Chicagoland workers.” The Initiative’s goal is to achieve a green collar workforce that “integrates green business growth, innovative workforce development and emerging environmental practices … into a vibrant regional economy.” Housed in the LEED council office, the initiative’s Workforce Development Task Force teams up with Victoria Cooper of Wilbur Wright College’s Environmental Technology Program to offer a weatherization curriculum, which will benefit the construction industry, contractors and labor unions once it is complete. Visit www.greencollarchicago.org or call (773) 929-5552.

Centre for Sustainability and Excellence

The Centre for Sustainability and Excellence, an international advisory on sustainable development with offices in Chicago, Athens, Brussels and Cyprus, will hold a two-day practitioner workshop (approved by the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment) on Sept. 1-2 at the Hotel Monaco in downtown Chicago. The workshop is geared toward executives, public relations, marketing managers and human resource managers and sustainability and environmental professionals. This is the first workshop CSE is offering in the United States. Managing director Nick Andrews says that the United States lags four-five years behind Europe in the field of sustainable business ethics, and this workshop presents an opportunity to catch up. Visit www.cse-northamerica.org or call (773) 714 5065.

Eco Achievers

Eco Achievers offers an online-based curriculum for motivated professionals or engaged homeowners who want to learn more about sustainability or make their homes more sustainable, advance their careers or become more effective advocates for renewable energy. The program’s courses are now available through over 250 community colleges and universities around the country. Jason LaFleur, president of Eco Achievers, says that Eco Achievers was begun in 2007 to fulfill “the need for quality online education in the renewable energy, green building and sustainability professions.” On its website the program offers a free, one-hour class on “Green Careers,” which was born from a presentation LaFleur gave at a renewable energy fair in June to over 100 people. Visit www.ecoachievers.com or call (312) 952-5451.

Growing Home

Growing Home helps those with barriers to employment — especially those who have been incarcerated or homeless or have battled substance abuse — through a seven-month gardening and farming job-training program from April to October. Interns spend four days per week working on Growing Home’s various farm sites — including the Englewood farm on the south side, Chicago’s first inner-city farm that produces local and organic produce, which opens this month. The curriculum focuses on planting, cultivating and harvesting organically, food and nutrition education, and basic life skills, including personal money management. Participants also learn marketing and sales skills, which they practice while working at Growing Home’s booths at various farmers markets. Visit www.growinghomeinc.org or call (773) 549-1336.

IIT School of Business, Sustainable Business

The Illinois Institute of Technology’s Stuart School of Business, which ranks in the top 100 worldwide, offers an interdisciplinary M.S. in Environmental Management and Sustainability that includes a mix of law, environmental and business courses. IIT’s Center for Sustainable Enterprise seeks to advance sustainability in the classroom and implement practical and equitable business strategies while fostering current and future economic viability. Director George Nassos says the curriculum is a blend of traditional environmental management courses and new environmental management. “Many people in the industry know about pollution compliance,” he explains. “But many don’t know too much about sustainability.” One of Nassos’ recent alums has already started a company that builds wind turbines. Visit www.stuart.iit.edu/cse or call (312) 906-6543.

North Lawndale Employment Network

The North Lawndale Employment Network helps economically isolated individuals, especially former offenders, secure jobs, helps employers recruit and retain workers, and advocates on behalf of low-income job seekers. The network’s most unique program is called “Sweet Beginnings,” an Urban Honey Transitional Jobs social enterprise that teaches ex-offenders how to care for bees and make products from honey. Sweet Beginnings has approximately 40 hives in North Lawndale and sells honey at local farmers markets. Its line of Beeline products will soon include honey facial scrub, lip balm and hand lotion, and Sweet Beginnings hopes to sell its product at local restaurants. Visit www.nlen.org or call (773) 638-4800.

The ReBuilding Exchange

In an effort to divert building materials from the waste stream and make them accessible for reuse, thus saving resources and creating jobs, the Delta Institute’s ReBuilding Exchange promotes sustainable deconstruction practices, makes used building materials available at low costs and provides educational resources such as workshops on “how to rewire a light fixture” and “tiling.” The ReBuilding Exchange retail warehouse is located at 3335 W. 47th Street. LEED Deputy Executive Director Elise Zelechowski says that building material reuse center favors deconstruction over a traditional wreck and ball demolition process. “That allows more building materials to be diverted for reuse. That process takes longer, it’s less mechanized, and so it creates more jobs.” Visit www.delta-institute.org/rebuildingexchange or call (773) 844-5945.

Wilbur Wright College

Wilbur Wright, one of the City Colleges of Chicago, began offering its six-course, 21-credit hour Occupational Certificate in Building Energy Technologies (BET) in 2006 to satisfy a demand in the green industry for workers who could translate green designs into reality. Prior to the course offering, according to Director of Sustainable Initiatives David Inman, Wilbur Wright had sought feedback from a focus group of architects, contractors, builders and rehabilitators, organized energy and energy consultants from the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance. What Wilbur Wright learned was that, while the technology and the willpower was in place, the growing green sector still lacked workers with the knowhow to make buildings energy-efficient or to erect windmills or solar panels. Visit: http://wright.ccc.edu/department/etp/build.asp or call (773) 481-8610.