Area Builders Bring Nation's First Green Job Curriculum to District

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and
Councilmember At-Large Kwame Brown today joined the Green Builders Council of
DC (http://www.builditgreendc.org), a coalition of more than 30 local builders
and developers, to unveil the nation's first green collar job training
curriculum for the Washington, DC area construction industry.

The curriculum will train current construction workers, plus Career and
Technical Education students entering the District's construction trades
programs, in environmentally-sensitive construction methods and green building
rating systems as certified under the U.S. Green Building Council's
(http://www.usgbc.org) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
standard. Thanks in part to the leadership of the members of the Green
Builders Council of DC more than 100 buildings in the District, totaling over
120 million square feet, are already LEED certified. Including planned
projects, members of the Green Builders Council will be responsible for more
than 200 million square feet of LEED certified construction in the District.
Upon successful completion of this curriculum, students will earn
industry-recognized credentials that can help them gain employment at these
and other green building projects across the District.

"The demand for District residents who can fill green collar jobs is only
expected to grow. Now DC workers and Career and Technical Education students
will be able to gain a valuable skill set that will benefit their careers and
our city's green future," said Mayor Fenty.

"Now, when people ask me what a green collar job is, I can point to specifics.
This training will lead to important results: A greener, more sustainable city
and the jobs that go with it," said Councilmember Brown. "The District is
looking ahead to the future, and we're fortunate to have partners who want to
bring hope to our young people."

"Mayor Fenty and the City Council have been longtime advocates of initiatives
that create jobs and promote a more sustainable city. Today, the private
sector is proud to do its part," said Ted Trabue, director of the Green
Builders Council of DC. "With this first-of-its-kind curriculum we're not just
empowering District workers to take advantage of the green jobs of tomorrow,
we're helping to grow this city's green economy and paving the way for other
green collar workers across the country."

Specifically, the curriculum will train workers and students to be proficient
in:

-- Recognizing the challenges that construction presents to the environment;

-- Understanding the life cycle phases of a building and their impacts on the
environment;

-- Identifying eco-friendly alternatives to conventional building practices
and understanding the costs and benefits of those alternatives, and;

-- Understanding the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating process and
being able to apply construction practices that contribute to a building's
LEED rating.

The new curriculum is the product of a partnership between the Green Builders
Council of DC and the Florida-based National Center for Construction Education
and Research (NCCER) (http://www.nccer.org/). The Green Builders Council of DC
and NCCER commissioned the Sustainable Facilities and Infrastructure Research
Team of the Myers-Lawson School of Construction at Virginia Tech University
(http://www.mlsoc.vt.edu/) to develop the curriculum. An updated version will
be prepared in the coming months to train workers in the U.S. Green Building
Council's revised LEED standards for 2009.

The curriculum has been endorsed by the U.S. Green Building Council as well as
Green Advantage (http://www.greenadvantage.org/), an organization providing
environmental certification for construction trades workers who demonstrate
knowledge of current green building principles, materials, and techniques.

The training curriculum will be taught by NCCER-accredited training sponsors,
including the Academy of Construction & Design at Cardozo Senior High School
in Northwest.

The local builders and developers who are members of the Green Builders
Council of DC have been leaders in green building and green jobs in the DC
area for years. Their member firms have constructed over 100 projects totaling
more than 120 million square feet that are certified LEED buildings and
currently employ over 450 workers who are accredited by LEED as experts in
environmentally friendly construction. George Hawkins, director of the DC
Department of Environment, recently praised the Green Builders' Council of DC
for "leading the charge on the business side of greening this great District."

SOURCE Green Builders Council of DC

CONTACTS: Ted Trabue, +1-202-449-9761, ted.trabue@builditgreendc.org, or Sam
Brooks, +1-202-330-9296, sam.brooks@builditgreendc.org, both of the Green
Builders Council of DC