31 March 2009
College Excels at Green Work Force Training, Sustainability
Oregon’s Lane Community College integrates sustainability across curriculum
Washington — Many American colleges and universities are welcoming the growing interest in clean energy and green jobs with programs that prepare students for work in the renewable-energy and energy-efficiency industry. One of the standouts is Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon, cited as a model of commitment to environmental stewardship and a leader in green work force training.
The nonprofit American Solar Energy Society says there are currently more than 9 million jobs tied to renewable energy and energy efficiency, and it forecasts 37 million such jobs in the United States by 2030.
One boost may come from President Obama’s economic stimulus package, which includes billions of dollars for renewable energy projects, home weatherization and energy efficiency grants, and tax breaks for wind and solar companies.
Who will train such large numbers of people for the new green jobs? Community colleges, according to a report from the National Council for Workforce Education and the Academy for Education Development, “Going Green: The Vital Role of Community Colleges in Building a Sustainable Future and Green Workforce.” (See “U.S. Community Colleges Are Ready to Train Green Work Force.”)
“Millions of community college students … will develop the necessary skills and knowledge to lead the country’s transition to a low-carbon future,” the report says. It devotes a full page to Lane Community College’s goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050 and the associate-degree programs the college offers in green technologies.
Lane, which has about 38,000 credit and non-credit students, almost 30 years ago created an energy management program — until recently the only one of its kind — that initially focused on energy efficiency and then expanded to include renewable energy and water conservation. In the fall of 2009, Lane will start a resource conservation management program.
“We are seeing a huge increase in interest among students,” says Roger Ebbage, director of energy programs at the Northwest Energy Education Institute, which Lane hosts.
Lane’s associate-degree program has tripled in enrollment over the last three years, and virtually all graduates are placed in related jobs. “The last person from last year’s classes was recently hired,” Ebbage said.
“Before it was hip to be sustainable and green, we were focused on that,” said Lane Community College President Mary Spilde. “We really think about our sustainability effort, and our sustainability value speaks to economic, social and environmental justice. ... Taking care of all three of these has always been part of our ethic.”
Lane’s sustainability efforts range from on-campus recycling and energy conservation to buying wind energy. “We have an energy analyst, so we’re really educating people about turning off computers and being sustainable in their work life,” Spilde said.
“One of the things we’re very, very proud of is our learning garden,” she said. The garden was initiated by students, who want to grow enough eventually to provide for both the campus cafeteria and the culinary arts program.
Sustainability is something that students are pushing, Spilde said. The impulse “comes from them. More and more students are demanding that colleges lessen their carbon footprint and pay attention to these ideas.”
Lane was one of the earliest colleges to sign the President’s Climate Commitment, pledging to be carbon neutral in the future. (See “Green Groundswell Sweeps U.S. Campuses.”)
Spilde described how the college’s custodians and housekeepers worked with a company to test green cleaning products.
“The person who was developing those products would come down every so often and say, ‘How’s this working?’ and they would give feedback about the products; and then the developer would make them better and come back with the next version of the product. Those custodians have so much pride in using those products because they were part of the development,” she said.
Now Lane is trying to take its sustainability efforts to another level.
“Not every student is going to be in our energy management program, so how do you turn out graduates with a sensibility about the environment and sustainability? We’re trying to integrate sustainability across the curriculum ... in political science classes, in literature courses and science courses,” said Spilde.
Lane is helping other community colleges in the United States and abroad develop similar programs.
Most of the green work force will not need four-year degrees or even two-year degrees — and that’s where the Northwest Energy Education Institute comes in. It offers short-term training programs and certification, and also creates customized training programs to meet unique industry or government needs. Its intensive two-week energy management certification course, for example, is a condensed version of the two-year associate-degree program in energy management, Ebbage said. Students learn to evaluate energy use in residential and commercial buildings and to reduce energy consumption through increased efficiency and alternative, renewable sources.
Lane not only receives requests for training but also inquiries about its curriculum.
“Money is scarce for everybody right now in community colleges, so we really need to collaborate and partner on these kinds of things so that we’re sharing the wealth and allowing other communities to build on our expertise — so they can serve their own community,” Spilde said. “It doesn’t make sense for everybody to be developing their own program, given the scarce resources we all have.”
See Going Green: The Vital Role of Community Colleges in Building a Sustainable Future and Green Workforce (PDF, 2 MB) on the National Council for Workforce Education’s Web site.
