Most “green job” training programs aim to teach low-income workers the job skills necessary to join the nascent clean-tech economy: energy-efficiency retrofitting, wind turbine maintenance, brownfield remediation and so forth.

But do these programs train low-income people to become environmentalists, too?

At present, there seems to be no academic research addressing that question, though anecdotal evidence gathered while reporting my story in today’s New York Times suggests that, at least in some cases, they do.

Consider, for example, Wayne Gatlin, who graduated in the spring of 2008 from Solar Richmond, a San Francisco-area group that prepares low-income adults for jobs in California’s burgeoning solar industry.

“I’m getting greener,” said Mr. Gatlin, who earns far more as a photovoltaics installer for the Berkeley-based Sun Light & Power than he did working security or selling shoes at an Adidas retail store.

“I recycle now,” Mr. Gatlin said. “I ride my bike. This was stuff I wouldn’t do before.”

That doesn’t surprise Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, the chief executive of Green for All, a national organization working to give low-income people access to the opportunities represented by the green economy.

“These programs provide participants with a different understanding of what’s happening in their own back yard,” Ms. Ellis-Lamkins said in an e-mail message. Green-job training programs allow “people to feel connected with something larger than themselves, and to directly change the face and future of their neighborhoods,” she said.

In that sense, green-job training programs might well serve as a bridge between environmentalists and a constituency they’ve sometimes struggled to reach.

While surveys reveal little difference between, say, working-class Americans and their middle-class counterparts when it comes to concern for the environment, low-income people are less well-educated about environmental issues than higher-income groups, according to Anthony Leiserowitz, a researcher at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

People who earn less than $25,000 a year, for example, tend to be much less informed about issues like climate change, Mr. Leiserowitz said.

“I’m trying to get everybody involved in solar,” Mr. Gatlin said, noting the technology’s environmental benefits. “I’m saying solar is where things should go.”

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What are green job recruiters and do they make it easier to land the green collar jobs that are available? Ecological concerns have brought these jobs to the high end of the list. The term refers to a very wide range of jobs that require all kinds of different prerequisites. Learning what types of jobs are available for you can be helpful through a recruiter, but only if you have some sort of education or experience in the field.

It is not unusual for a green job recruiter to stroke a few egos. After all, they want you to talk to them and you want them to talk to you. There is a quiet stand off going on between the two of you as you both extract information. The more you learn about the positions that are available and whether you might be a good fit the more empowered you are to continue your search on your own. Remember that right now that scientific positions are the most heavily sought after.

The more information you obtain through a green job recruiter the better prepared you will be if a job becomes readily available. Often you have to know that the position exists before you can aim for it.

Until there is steady construction of solar panels and wind turbines there will not be many laborer positions available. Green building jobs are the ones to focus on for labor positions.

As you develop your experience and your education a green job recruiter can help you get your bearings, answer your questions, and help you start the job search. This is great for your general information if you need it, but don’t forget to submit your resume to all the appropriate job openings. Learn how to subtly insert keywords in your resume that will attract the attention of the search engine used on the site. This will help pull your resume up earlier rather than later.

All job recruiters are hired to find good employees and make good deals with them. This can include the salary expectations. Don’t let a green job recruiter fill you in on the basic salary expectations. Know your basic facts so that you are aware when you are being pitched versus receiving an offer.

You can learn a great deal from your interactions from a green job recruiter. Part and full time positions may be available, just as intern positions may very well be part of the overall option.

While this is common practice for some positions, you need the time to investigate other options in the alternative energy job market. Always be sure that you have researched the companies that are sending recruiters around to various schools and job fairs. Knowing the company can give you more invaluable information for your search for employment.

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1) Federal Stimulus injection of over $1bn.
This, coupled with private efforts like Khosla’s $1bn+ fund are stimulation innovation across the board.

2) Return to Corporate Values
Industry leaders agree that green is good: for brands, for economies of efficiency, and for shareholders. Jobs in the CSR and environmental fields are blossoming at every level and location across corporate America — and the rest of the world.

3) Labor Markets got Engaged
Best-in-breed corporate citizens realize that going “green” is more than just a marketing proposition. Employees are driving change from the inside of organizations, pushing out new products and services that maximize the value in building lasting brands that invested in environmental sustainability.

The Bottom Line: Green Jobs are back, and poised to explode in a big way.

We see this in San Francisco, where for the first time in nearly 9 months, we see multiple jobs posted, firms calling inbound, and the pace of placement picking up.

We hope you’ll join as we build this movement, and help 2010 be the year of the environmental leader.

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If you are a serious networker and job-seeker, you are not waiting for opportunities to come to you. You are going after them. Here are 4 conferences that you should attend to make those serious contacts in the Climate Change, Environmental and Infrastructure markets.

US Carbon Finance Forum: Carbon trading is one of the newest and fastest growing markets even without the Cap and Trade bill. This is a serious conference for corporations, consultants, investors and traders. Big networking opportunities and possibly job connections  are here.

Financial Times US Energy Business Conference: This is going to be an in-depth conference about alternative energy generation, infrastructure and financing.  If you are looking to network in Green energy, you need to be here.

Carbon Markets Insights Americas 2009: This conference is about the global carbon market. This is a can’t miss if you are looking for a conference with international networking and business opportunities.

WEFTEC: The premier event for those interested in Water Quality and Water Quality Research. Don’t let the technical sessions fool you. This event will be a Who’s who of the Water Business.

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President Barack Obama’s adviser Van Jones has resigned amid controversy over past inflammatory statements, the White House said early Sunday.

Jones, an administration official specializing in environmentally friendly “green jobs” with the White House Council on Environmental Quality was linked to efforts suggesting a government role in the 2001 terror attacks and to derogatory comments about Republicans.

The resignation comes as Obama is working to regain his footing in the contentious health care debate.

Jones issued an apology on Thursday for his past statements. When asked the next day whether Obama still had confidence in him, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said only that Jones “continues to work in the administration.”

The matter surfaced after news reports of a derogatory comment Jones made in the past about Republicans, and separately, of Jones’ name appearing on a petition connected to the events surrounding the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. That 2004 petition had asked for congressional hearings and other investigations into whether high-level government officials had allowed the attacks to occur.

“On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me,” Jones said in his resignation statement. “They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.”

Jones said he has been “inundated with calls from across the political spectrum urging me to stay and fight.”

But he said he cannot in good conscience ask his colleagues to spend time and energy defending or explaining his past.

Jones flatly said in an earlier statement that he did not agree with the petition’s stand on the 9/11 attacks and that “it certainly does not reflect my views, now or ever.”

As for his other comments he made before joining Obama’s team, Jones said, “If I have offended anyone with statements I made in the past, I apologize.”

Despite his apologies, Republicans demanded Jones quit.

Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana said in a statement, “His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate.” Missouri Sen. Christopher Bonds said Congress should investigate Jones’s fitness the job.

Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck repeatedly denounced Jones after a group the adviser co-founded, ColorofChange.org, led an advertising boycott against Beck’s show to protest his claim that Obama is a racist.

James Rucker, the organization’s executive director, has said Jones had nothing to do with ColorofChange.org now and didn’t even know about the campaign before it started.

Jones, well-known in the environmental movement, was a civil-rights activist in California before shifting his attention to environmental and energy issues. He is known for laying out a broad vision of a green economy.

Nancy Sutley chair of the council, said in a statement released early Sunday that she accepts Jones resignation and thanked him for his service.

“Over the last six months, he had been a strong voice for creating jobs that improve energy efficiency and utilize renewable resources,” she said. “We appreciate his hard work and wish him the best moving forward.”

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Even as traditional jobs are being cut, “green” jobs are opening up, creating hot new career opportunities for executive women.

Green Jobs in the Fortune 500 & Finance

Ford Motor Company clearly recognizes the role women can play in leading sustainability efforts. The top sustainable business and engineering jobs at Ford Motor Company are filled by women. Sue Cischke, Group Vice President, Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering, is responsible for establishing the company’s long range sustainability strategy and environmental policy. And Nancy Gioia, who describes her job as “delivering products that make a difference every day,” is Ford’s Director, Sustainable Mobility Technologies and Hybrid Vehicle Programs. Gioia says green jobs offer “tremendous opportunities” for women. To succeed she says, “You have to perform. You have to have a personal passion to make a difference. Each and every day we can make an impact.”

Women are also showing up in senior positions at “green” funds. At Winslow Green Mutual Funds, a global growth equity fund which invests primarily in equity securities of companies that are providing solutions to environmental challenges, two women— Karina Funk and Elizabeth Levy—work in equity research. And Wendy Wendlandt is President, Green Century Capital Management and a Trustee of Green Century Funds, a family of environmentally responsible mutual funds.

Green Jobs = Meaningful Work

Women leading sustainability efforts makes sense. Many women who drop out of Corporate America to start their own companies cite the inability to align a company’s business objectives with their personal values as one of the reason’s they leave. Sustainability can be an opportunity to align personal values with meaningful work. Plus, many of the traits typically associated with women at work, are necessary in this emerging field. “We look at the world differently and we look at lifecycle differently,” says Gioia. She also points out the fact that women often manage risk differently than men, something Wall Street is starting to understand. There have been recent discussions in the financial community about balancing aggressive risk strategies, often considered a male trait, with a longer term approach to risk, typically considered a female trait. Sustainability, says Gioia, is a system and building systems requires a collaborative approach. “No one entity can get it done.”

Ellen Weinreb agrees. “Anything that has a sustainability project or strategy, it’s often a long term approach. The triple bottom line is often long term.” Weinreb, the founder of Sustainability Recruiting, helps fill sustainability positions and has consulted with companies including Levi Strauss, Hewlett Packard, and Clorox.

Becoming a “Green Leader”

In the paper “Centre for Corporate Responsibility: Who Should Head Up Your
Corporate Responsibility Approach?” published by Odgers Berndtson & The Doughty
Centre for Corporate Responsibility, co-authors Stuart Morton and David Grayson discuss the key attributes of a corporate responsibility director. They write, “Nevertheless, the background or at least aptitude for complex communications skills to enable strategic definition, team leadership and board level influence continues to be required.”

Alexia Vernon, a leadership coach and expert on socially conscious leadership, says, “Our nation is demanding green leaders who can ensure that the short and long term impacts of individual, business, and government actions on local, national, and international communities are for the greater good. This means leaders will need to possess such traditional female traits as balancing vision and mission, effective communication, consensus building, and ethical decision making to carry out these roles successfully.” Vernon cites Environmental Social Responsibility Officer and Environmental Attorney as two of the best green jobs for women.

“Green jobs include any job that is good for society, generates a profit, and honors the environment. While many green labor jobs may go to men, women will be as qualified, if not more so, for the many positions necessary to facilitate and sustain our nation’s transition to a green economy,” says Vernon.

Vernon suggests women interested in green careers conduct informational interviews with officers in the companies where they seek employment to learn more about the opportunities. As Kate Winkler, Senior Director and Chief Sustainability Officer at EMC Corporation, says in a blog post about a typical day on the job, “…if, like me, you thrive on adventure, surprise, and occasional lulls scattered between periods of frantic activity, then this may be just the ticket. So what do you think – does it sound like the life for you?”

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Half a year after countries worldwide launched 500 billion dollar stimulus plans to create jobs and promote low-carbon energy supply, China seems to be the country creating the most “green jobs”.

That is the conclusion of an analysis by the news agency Reuters.

China’s massive investments in wind turbines – adding about 4.5 GW in the first half of 2009 – is the key factor leading the country into its champion position. The US busily built wind turbines – installing four GW in the first half of 2009 – but China passed the United States, and that creates many jobs because of a Chinese rule saying that all installed turbines must include 70 percent local content. China is also increasing its share in the main solar panel market, Europe.

In solar power demand, Germany is leading the race this year, overtaking this position from Spain. Both Spain and Germany dwarfed the US on solar power, but US surpassed any European country in wind energy demand. However, a drop in US and European wind demand this year is forecasted, and that is expected not to happen in China.

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In the midst of a recession, almost everyone has been thinking of new ways to create jobs, stimulate the economy and ultimately get America back on its feet. When President Obama took office, he began to shift the focus onto the environmental sector to get these efforts rolling.

The President pledged to double the production of renewable energy over the next three years, create jobs in the development of new energy technologies and increase the energy efficiency of millions of American homes.

However, these tasks cannot be performed without skilled individuals, which is why experts are predicting the market for green jobs to skyrocket.

For example, the total number of recycling jobs in the U.S. is currently estimated to be more than one million. In addition to this, new laws and regulations related to waste and disposal have created a need for companies to close the loop through recycling, especially when it comes to electronic waste, augmenting the demand for these services.

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The Walmart Foundation, in partnership with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, awarded the funds from its Green Job Training Initiative to the Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board and the Student Conservation Corp.

The board will use the funding to support youth job training and employment in green collar jobs, including conservation projects.

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