FAIRHOPE, Ala. - A two-day workshop to help local residents find green building jobs concluded today at Faulkner State Community College.

“The goal of the program is get unemployed and underemployed Alabamians back into the classroom to learn the fundamentals of sustainability and green building,” said Justinn Overton, green workforce project director of the Birmingham-based Alabama chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.

The workshop is funded primarily by federal stimulus funds administered by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, she said.

The USGBC is a nonprofit trade organization that promotes sustainability in how buildings are designed, built and operated. It is best known for development of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system.

The workshop met Jan. 25 -26 in the John Borom Science Building, which was completed last year and received silver LEED certification in December, said Rebecca Bryant, who works for a green building consulting business called Watershed that is affiliated with the Fairhope architectural firm that designed the Borom building.

The Fairhope green employment workshop is the first conducted outside the Birmingham area since the program began last year, Overton said.

“There’s been such a welcome from the community here,” she said. “About two dozen people registered for the class from a variety of backgrounds with the majority having some construction, design or operations experience, from skilled labor to architecture to landscape design. They all have the general interest in learning about green building and being part of the green economy.”