Rising energy costs and carbon emissions are driving the demand for more energy efficiency and alternatives to fossil fuel. For example, New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan seeks a 20% reduction in energy use by 2020, and over 3% of the state’s energy will come from solar cells.
In urban areas, where many lower income families live, older homes and buildings often lack even the first generation of energy efficiency improvements, creating extremely high energy costs for those who can least afford it. Utilities are now the second greatest cause of homelessness. In addition, the toxins in New Jersey’s environment threaten the health of these communities through lead, asthma triggers, and mold in home, along with other environmental hazards.
The challenges of energy efficiency and environmental cleanup create a real opportunity in urban communities. The combination of high underemployment in cities and the growing need to create new green jobs provides a chance to train urban residents for those jobs, which pay well and allow residents to improve their own communities.
Training for green jobs is currently scattered and relatively underdeveloped. Further extending its efforts to foster self-reliance, Isles, in collaboration with the NJ State Department of Labor and Workforce Development, created the Center for Energy and Environmental Training to better meet the current and future demand for training in clean energy and environmental cleanup fields.