|
HBI Infuses Green Building Into Job Training Programs
Home Builders Institute (HBI), the workforce development arm of NAHB, is working with the association’s National Green Building Program to pursue a variety of green efforts in its Job Corps training programs.
Training more than 2,000 students annually and the largest of HBI’s programs, Job Corps for several years has been using such green building products as energy-efficient lighting, water heaters and furnaces. In addition, many HBI Job Corps programs currently teach students environmentally friendly and energy-efficient practices.
Among Job Corps centers recently making strides in green building:
- The painting program at HBI’s Cassadaga Job Corps Center in upstate New York has switched to low-VOC (volatile organic compound) paints that contain about half of the VOCs of normal latex paints. The paint also contains no crystal silica and is compliant with the National Green Building Standard.
- The annual industry council meeting and trades show of the Red Rock Job Corps Center in Drums, Pa. featured a “Building Green” theme. Leaders of the Building Industry Association of Northeast Pennsylvania traveled more than an hour to attend the event, at which students competed to see who could design and build the best green display. Among the HBI trades, plumbing, painting and carpentry placed first, second and third, respectively.
- In Tucson, Ariz., HBI instructor John Gallagher and his students at the Fred G. Acosta Job Corps Center participated in building “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s” first home certified to the National Green Building Standard. Removing the home's original plumbing and watching the installation of solar panels and insulation, the students received a hands-on perspective on green building and retrofitting.
“It’s encouraging to see our Job Corps programs eager to incorporate green building practices into their curriculums,” said Ohio builder Bill Owens, vice chairman of HBI, a member of the NAHB Green Building Committee and a developer of the University of Housing’s Certified Green Professional (CGP) designation.
“Not only are these environmentally safe practices, but our students are learning a great deal about green building, which is becoming an increasingly important part of the residential construction industry,” Owens said.
HBI is working closely with NAHBGreen in a number of areas that will promote the new National Green Building Standard.
HBI’s Workforce Training and Employment (WTE) pre-apprenticeship training, for instance, is adding green supplements to its Pre Apprenticeship Certificate Training (PACT) curriculums. Instructional resources such as the first residential green building textbook and green site superintendent designation courses are also being developed.
For more information on HBI’s green building initiatives or Job Corps programs, visit www.hbi.org or e-mail Maria McIntyre at HBI, or call her at 800-795-7955 x8912.
|
