In recent years, "going green" has become a bit of a cliche. But beyond the buzzwords, a coalition made up of labor groups, businesses, environmental and community leaders has developed a pragmatic approach to the green revolution: Creating a clean energy economy is not only good for the planet, but good for business, too.
The Apollo Alliance, a national organization with a strong presence in New York state, has been promoting opportunities in the green-job sector. With chapters springing up statewide, including the North Country, the alliance aims to spur green-job growth across the region.
The group's mission is to work closely with policy makers, business and environmental leaders and the labor movement to ensure that jobs are being created in areas ranging from alternative energy to home retrofitting. And not just any jobs, but "good green jobs," the type that people can make a career from, said Jeff Jones, who is the Apollo Alliance director for New York state.
"We know there's a lot of money being invested in a clean-energy economy," he said. Jones sees New York as having the potential to be on the forefront of the movement.
"New York has an opportunity to regain leadership," he said. "The state still has a lot of manufacturing and the manufacturing infrastructure."
Blowing in the wind
In the North Country, the intersection of business and the environment is seen in the many wind farms scattered across the region. The Apollo Alliance held a forum last month at Clinton Community College that highlighted some of the benefits that wind power provides.
Clinton has positioned itself to be a training ground for people to work on the new wind projects, said Janice Padula, science professor at Clinton.
"The answer is blowing in the wind," she said at the forum, citing the Bob Dylan song. She gave a presentation on the college's 66-credit associates degree in Wind Energy and Turbine Technology that started this fall.
With 37 technology courses being offered, the program will provide students with the skills that alternative-energy companies are looking for, Padula said.
Also planned at Clinton: Training for small-wind project installation; a 40-hour photovoltaic training program; and courses on methane recapture, energy efficiency and clean room technology.
In addition to training workers, Jones hopes to make strides in manufacturing, adding to a handful of existing businesses in the North Country.
"Why can't we manufacture more components (for wind turbines)," he asked. "This is the perfect example of what we want to do."
Other opportunities
Another way the North Country is poised to benefit from Apollo Alliance initiatives is related to the Green Jobs/Green New York bill that Gov. Paterson signed last month. Under the bill, $7 million was put into a new Green Jobs Corps program. The Web site associated with it, www.greencareersny.com, is designed to make it easier for job seekers to find jobs in that sector.
The other part of the bill places an emphasis on weatherization and retrofitting. The bill directs the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to establish training programs to enable people to make homes more energy efficient. The bill creates a loan program for homeowners seeking a way to pay for major projects.
Speaking at the recent Apollo forum, Vicki Colello, efficiency expert with NYSERDA, estimated that her organization will be training 6,200 people next year in energy efficiency.
Four main goals
Ed Murphy is the executive director of Workforce Development Inc., a nonprofit that works to facilitate projects statewide.
The organization's work made it an ideal partner with the Apollo Alliance and since there are WDI regional directors strategically located across the state, each director has spearheaded a new Apollo chapter.
According to Murphy, the coalition is working on identifying projects that meet four distinct goals: Boosting and growing Smart Grid technology
Reindustrialization: Promoting the manufacturing of green technologies
Transportation: Creating options that lessen everyone's carbon footprint
Retrofitting: Getting people trained on conducting energy audits, getting communities grants to help homeowners.
Overall, these objectives work together to target climate change and boost the economy, Murphy said.
"I think that's the best thing for New York," he said.
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