Building Gateways to the Green Economy: Green Community Colleges Summit Coming Soon

The Green Market is a proud partner of the Green Community College Summit. All readers of The Green Market can get a 20% reduction on the summit’s registration fee by mentioning the discount code GRMARKET.
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California’s community colleges have launched some of the nation’s largest green building and renewable energy projects and are central to efforts to train workers for the state’s growing green economy. The strategies, best practices and policies behind these innovations will be the focus of the Green California Community Colleges Summit & Exposition, October 17-18, 2011, at the Pasadena Convention Center, Pasadena, California.

The Summit will offer a rare opportunity to learn about not just job development, but all aspects of greening campuses – from funding opportunities for green building, energy efficiency retrofits and renewable energy projects to understanding the emerging green workforce and how to prepare students for good jobs in the clean tech sector.

Green Technology, which organizes the event, has announced that Carl Pope, Sierra Club executive chairman and co-chair of the newly-formed BlueGreen Alliance, will be the keynote speaker. Through his position at the Sierra Club and his involvement with the BlueGreen Alliance, Pope has long worked at the heart of the push for sustainability. In May, the BlueGreen Alliance merged with the Apollo Alliance, merged “to build a stronger movement to create good jobs and produce clean energy in the 21st century economy.” Earlier in the year, the Alliance launched the Jobs21! campaign, a nine-state initiative, including California, to bring together union members and environmentalists to promote the creation of good jobs through investments in the clean energy economy.

Attendees will learn from and engage with leaders in all areas of high performance community colleges during an education program of panels and seminars. Educational offerings will include a double-session on funding and implementing renewable energy projects, sessions organized by the U.S. Green Building Council and a special session on the Los Angeles Community College District’s multi-billion dollar building project. Other topics covered will include green job training programs and engaging students in green campus projects.

For the first time, the Green California Community Colleges Summit will take place concurrently with the Green California Schools Summit. This unique convergence will offer a rare opportunity for networking and exploration among the K-12 and higher education sectors.

At a reception on October 17, Leadership Awards will be presented in recognition of achievements in green building, energy, curriculum and other categories. The two Summits will share an Expo featuring more than 100 companies offering green products and services.

For information and to register for the summits go to http://www.green-technology.org/ or call Cindy Dangberg at 626-577-5700.