WASHINGTON –A federal job training center for the Southeast Thursday won the Labor Department’s first National Green Center Recognition Award for teaching students innovative energy conservation practices for the workplace.
Making the announcement on Earth Day, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said the 16- to 24-year old students at the Muhlenberg Job Corps Center of Greenville, Ky., are not only helping the environment but building practical job skills through their green endeavors.
“Somebody that’s doing recycling… somebody that changes out light bulbs and puts in ones that save energy, anything that conserves energy and lessens our carbon footprint—all of these activities lead to green jobs,” she said.
Among the center’s green initiatives were the installation of tankless water heaters, the use of computer simulators to replace machinery in heavy equipment training, and the recycling of 48,000 pounds of material.
Speaking at the Labor Department ceremony, Muhlenberg center director Kenny Brown pointed out that while graduates may move onto wind and solar energy jobs in Kentucky, their green training also will help them excel in fields such as construction and welding.
Muhlenberg students, who are drawn from states in the Southeast, agreed with Brown.
Micka Blair, 20, said his instruction in the use of biofuels in a construction program gave him the know how to conserve energy in the workplace and at home. “I’m learning to save myself money and make the economy better,” he said.
Some also are preaching the principles of conservation in their communities.
Orlando Brown, a 19-year-old student from Mobile, Ala., said his hometown doesn’t have many environmental programs, but “I’m going to take it [the green movement] home with me and try to get them on the right path.”
The National Green Center Recognition Award was created with stimulus funds.
Brown said the award to Muhlenberg signals that the green movement is flourishing in Kentucky.
“Back in the ‘70s we had the energy crisis and there was a little bit about energy conservation but nothing like what’s happened in the last couple of years,” he said.