'Green jobs' rally draws 100

A crowd of about 100 environmental activists, volunteers and business owners gathered Saturday in Lafayette Square for a rally designed to draw attention to the nascent green-building and alternative-energy industries in the New Orleans area.

The event, titled "Green Jobs Now" and sponsored by the national nonprofit group Green For All, allowed representatives from the nonprofit, governmental and private sectors to compare notes on the state of New Orleans' green economy.

"This is really important to New Orleans because we've so long been a tourism industry, a hospitality industry, and now we're trying to get into biosciences with all the hospitals planned," said City Councilwoman Shelley Midura, whose office has led efforts to create a citywide energy-efficiency program. "But I don't think anything will have as much of an impact as the green revolution will, if we can get it here."Jobs that involve lessening the impact of people and structures on the environment include solar panel installers and manufacturers, energy-efficiency building consultants and home-deconstruction contractors.

Tucker Crawford, who founded South Coast Solar in January, is one of several solar installers to set up shop locally since Hurricane Katrina. As the public's awareness of the value of energy efficiency and sustainable building practices grows, he said, the need for trained solar installers and other green building specialists will grow.

"Business is booming," Crawford said at the rally. "One of the main challenges is finding qualified installers for us to be able to grow our business. It's an important part of our economy, and I think it will definitely grow."

Helping to expand the local green work force is the goal of the Louisiana Green Corps, which trains young unskilled workers in energy-efficient building practices.

Supported by a U.S. Department of Labor grant, the program will train more than 800 people during four-month courses, administered locally by a number of environmental and community groups, said Reed Dickson with the Conservation Corps of Greater New Orleans.

Among the Green Corps trainees in green hard hats who dotted Saturday's rally was Devin Chaney, 18, who said he joined the program after several attempts to enter the electrical contracting trade.

"I realized that this is going to be the future," Chaney said. "Houses are going to be built energy-efficient, and lots of regular contractors don't know how to build the new way. So I said, why not just get a head start?"