At Schools, On Sites

Unions, Contractors Help Trades Workers Go Green

by Elaine Schmidt

Working on a green project requires forethought and planning, and throughout the Midwest, trades unions and construction firms are providing training opportunities to green up both construction workers and the structures they create.

The Sheet Metal Workers Local 36 in St. Louis, for instance, has one of only three geothermal water furnaces available for training in the nation.

“Las Vegas and Cleveland have one too, but ours is the only operational unit with wells,” says Dan Andrews, the union’s coordinator of training. “Our people are trained in the design, installation and selection of materials and in identification of substrates, the grave and dirt in which to bury the wells or tubing.

Local 36 began developing green training about three years ago, Andrews says.

“The construction practices remain the same, but you have a different method of looking at construction,” he adds.

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It’s an attitude adjustment for construction workers, Andrews says. They have to recycle materials, pay close attention to how things are sealed and other tasks.

Green training appears in both apprentice training and in journeyman upgrade training.

“Most of journeyman classes have been plucked out of the apprentice program and refined to give them more information,” he says. “The apprentice classes are more fundamentals to cover the things they are going to run into first.”

Contractor Training

In Milwaukee, Hunzinger Construction Co. provides training to employees, subcontractors and customers. The company began doing employee training in sustainable methods about three years ago.

“I didn’t anticipate then that it would take off the way it has,” adds Joel Becker, vice president of field operations for Hunzinger.

The company’s Sustainable Building Solutions consulting service provides LEED-accredited personnel to create project-specific strategies in sustainability issues.

Hunzinger invites customers to sit in on some of these classes at no charge so they understand sustainability issues.

The company also offers employee classes that are mandatory depending on the employee’s position. They cover issues from time management to recycling, including a recent class on recycling carpeting waste.

Some of Hunzinger’s green training occurs on specific jobssites and is required of everyone, whether a Hunzinger employee or subcontractor.

“We train the employees of our subs so that they know how we want things done on the job,” he adds.

Younger employees are a bit more receptive to green training than older, more seasoned tradespeople, Becker says.

“I think they’ve been brought up in an environment of recycling and being careful about what gets thrown out,” he says.

Also, union apprentice training is handled in Milwaukee through Joint Apprenticeship Training Centers via the Milwaukee Building and Construction Trades Council. A lot of journeyman upgrades are handled by education coordinators.

Sunlight to Electricity

In Chicago, Local 134 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has been focusing on renewable energy, particularly photovoltaic technology—the conversion of sunlight to electrical energy—for about 10 years.

“Ten years ago we put a PV array on one of our schools,” says Kevin Lynch, program coordinator for the local’s training school. “We felt strongly that PV was ready to become a force in energy generation.

“There was a $25 million pool of money between [utility] ComEd and the city of Chicago and we had a vibrant PV market.”

He says the IBEW became part of the Chicago Solar Partnership, which included ComEd, the city’s board of education and other interested parties and community groups. The partnership was working toward the U.S. Department of Energy’s Million Solar Roofs Initiative goal when the money suddenly dried up.

The IBEW continues its belief in solar systems, and projects continue in the Chicago area, but not at the rate predicted 10 years ago.

“We are staying the course with this training,” Lynch says. He explains that PV systems are hot tickets on both coasts, where electricity costs are, at peak, up to 30 cents per kilowatt-hour.

In addition to training in PV systems, Lynch says the IBEW Local 134 offers training in sustainable energy as part of regularly offered classes. Among the “green” topics covered are variable-speed drives, which bring a motor up or down in amperage based on the load placed upon the motor.

“That’s something everyone wants,” Lynch adds.