Advice provided by: Claire Moloney, LEED Green Associate, Cornell University

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On February 16, 2012, the Department of Energy and the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced $1.3 million for green job training programs for the clean energy workforce.

The funding will support training centers that will teach workers how to improve energy efficiency in commercial and industrial buildings. Specifically, the training will be geared toward building operators, building managers and energy service providers.

Colleges, universities and trade associations can compete for the funding. Awardees will partner with NIST’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership Centers to create the green building training programs.

This funding is meant to help meet the Better Building Initiative’s goal of improving energy efficiency by 20% in commercial and industrial buildings by 2020.

Better Building Initiative: Energy Efficiency Retrofits and Green Jobs

On December 2nd, 2011, President Barack Obama announced the Better Building Initiative. Obama designed this initiative with consultancy from former President Bill Clinton, who is now the leader of the Clinton Global Initiative, a project for economic and environmental improvement.

The Better Building Initiative will invest nearly $4 billion in energy efficiency upgrades to existing buildings over the next two years.

Through a Presidential Memorandum, $2 billion were committed to improving federal buildings. This investment come at no cost to taxpayers.

Private investments from 60 leaders, including CEOs, university presidents and mayors, made up the remainder of the investments, which will fund improvements in commercial, industrial, university, and other buildings.

These private investments will increase the energy efficiency of more than 1.6 billion square feet of commercial space, with the goal of 20% improvement in energy performance by 2020. These retrofits will create more than 100,000 new of new green building jobs by the target year, said the president.

Professional Certification for Green Building Jobs

Obama’s announcement occurred on-site at a building in Washington, D.C. owned by Transwestern real estate. That building is in the midst of a retrofitting effort that has already saved its owners $200,000 per year on energy bills and created 250 green building jobs, said Obama.

The president described similar projects spearheaded by major businesses and institutions nationwide, including Best Buy, Walgreens and the manufacturer Alcoa. Ultimately, the individuals who will find work on these projects will benefit from sustainable education, training and certification.

Soon, workers will have the opportunity to receive green building job training from the aforementioned programs funded by the Department of Energy and NIST.

Additionally, professionals may seek green building accreditation from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. The organization offers two credentials for green building professionals: the LEED Green Associate and the LEED AP.

The LEED Green Associate denotes basic knowledge of green design and construction, while the LEED AP with Specialty credential demonstrates advanced, industry-specific knowledge of green building practices.

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