News

(Bridgeport, CT) April 23, 2008 –

White-collar, blue-collar, and now, green-collar jobs.

Friday, April 25 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, come to The Barnum Museum, 820 Main Street, to find out what green collar jobs mean for Bridgeport and the region.

“Understanding Green Collar Jobs for Bridgeport and the Region” is a free event sponsored by the City of Bridgeport, Greater Bridgeport Community Enterprises, Inc. (The Green Team), The WorkPlace, Inc., and The United Illuminating Company, hosted in cooperation with the Office of Congressman Christopher Shays.

“The bottom line is we will not have a world to live in if we continue our neglectful ways,” stated Shays, who authored H.R. 1945, the Energy for Our Future Act. Shays' bill is a comprehensive bipartisan energy reform bill that seeks to decrease U.S. dependence on foreign oil, protect the environment, build a market for renewable energy and promote energy conservation. “As businesses embrace the green economy, we need to ensure residents in our towns and cities are prepared to access the jobs this shift will create.”

The Green economy is a rapidly-growing billion-dollar sector that includes renewable energy sources, organic produce and products, green buildings, alternative fuel vehicles and more. Green-collar jobs are paid positions providing environmentally-friendly products or services, with fair wages, equal opportunity and healthy working conditions in the private, government, non-profit or cooperative sector.

"The Green Jobs Forum will explore the opportunities for Bridgeport to position itself as a regional 'green collar oasis,’” Mayor Bill Finch said. “If we're serious about changing the way we do business, green jobs are the way to do it. This is a way we can achieve the equally-important goals of reducing our impact on the environment and creating well-paying jobs. This green jobs forum is a crucial step forward."

The three-hour event will include a presentation of focused regional workforce and economic data by Michael McCarthy of The WorkPlace, Inc., Southwestern Connecticut’s Regional Workforce Development Board. The data will reveal what Green occupations are available and growing in our region, which sectors are the growth engines, and how many Bridgeport-area businesses are already “Green.”

“We want to talk about developing pipelines of workers for industries, tying into business recruitment activities and connecting the education and training sectors into this Green Wave,” McCarthy said.

Members of a reaction panel, described below, will then present their specialized views of the phenomenon, followed by a question and answer session and insights on “next steps.” Tools to “Go Green” and valuable resources will also be covered.

“If the Green Revolution is to involve everyone, it must address the issues of the inner-city on a practical basis,” said Adrienne Farrar Houel of Greater Bridgeport Community Enterprises. “We will be successful in bringing low-income, minority families into the green movement as we provide jobs opportunities in the growing, green sectors of employment. They will not only improve their own financial well-being, but enhance the quality of life in their communities. This is a dual objective that our families embrace with enthusiasm.”

Check out Mayor Bill Finch’s YouTube video invite here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMZJdibgLB8

For more information or to register for this free event, contact The WorkPlace at (203) 610-8580 or lkelman@workplace.org

Background on each of the featured speakers follows:

Lise Dondy is president of the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF), created by the state legislature to promote, develop and invest in clean energy sources for the benefit of Connecticut ratepayers. She has helped launch many of CCEF’s key initiatives. Among them are a solar incentive program for residents; an incentive program designed to encourage the installation of clean energy generating technology at commercial, industrial and institutional facilities in Connecticut; and an incentive program to help early-stage companies develop new clean energy technologies

Dr. Marian Evans is director of Health and Social Services for the City of Bridgeport. She was appointed in August 2004 and in January 2006, became adjunct faculty at Southern Connecticut State University teaching a cross course in Public Health and Women’s Studies. In 2006-2007, she was one of the Connecticut Health Foundation Health Leadership Fellows. She will discuss Green jobs in the public health field.

Adam Ney is managing director of AuctorVerno, LLC, which has launched buildingctgreen.com the state's leading on-line resource for green business and green building activities. He is also a long-time employee of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA) helping coordinate its legislative grass-roots work and developing much of its internal and external green initiatives, including CBIA's Green Business Resource Center www.cbia.com/green/ and the first state-wide corporate responsibility conference in June 2007 which featured Joel Makower, founder and managing editor of nationally acclaimed greenbiz.com.

Michael McCarthy is assistant vice president for New Business Development at The WorkPlace, Inc. He is also head of the Center for Research and Capacity Development, which has begun working with a number of communities to examine Green workforce issues. Most recently, he developed a plan for a multi-county collaboration in the Hudson Valley (New York) around Green-Collar workforce talent development. This project resulted in an initial investment of $500,000 from the New York State Department of Labor to examine the role of Green jobs in the economy. This collaboration brought together workforce investment boards, community colleges, economic development entities and Green businesses to the collaborative table to develop a transformative strategy in workforce development.

Shay Atluru and Graham Curtis, Diversified Technology Consultants, Inc.
Shay Atluru has more than 15 years of consulting, engineering, construction and environmental experience, with expertise in construction and environmental program management, compliance program development, facility planning, system optimization and community relations. Mr. Atluru has directed programs to mitigate federal brownfield sites across the U.S. and has served as a partner in the conversion of some of these sites into commercial, industrial and mixed use developments. A. Graham Curtis, PE, LEED® is Chief Operating Officer of DCT. During his thirteen years at DTC, he became an LEED Accredited Professional. He will discuss the LEED rating system for new buildings.

Adrienne Farrar Houel is director of Greater Bridgeport Community Enterprises, Inc., a community development corporation, better known as The Green Team. She has had a long career in business and real estate development in Europe and, in 2001, returned to the US and Bridgeport to pursue these interests by consulting with "for profit" and "non-profit" corporations. Through ABCD and The Green Team, Adrienne has created and developed training and employment programs for low-income individuals more recently focusing on Green Collar Jobs. She has actively sought to better define new, growing areas of employment so that future workforce development efforts will offer the best opportunities for Bridgeport residents. The creation of this conference is an example of her most recent efforts in this area. Adrienne is a native of Bridgeport and lives and works in this city.
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The WorkPlace, Inc. helps people prepare for careers and strengthens the workforce for employers in Southwestern Connecticut.