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Come to Our Future, Our HOME Event on February 11, 2010
IA Expands to Six More Schools
Student Driven Project Identifies Opportunities to Save Water and Money in Schools
IA Continues to Look for Extraordinary Science Teachers
Nancy Sutley Receives First Environmental Leader Award
News and Happenings
LA Water Efficiency Workforce Collaborative Wins $2.5 Million Grant for Green Jobs
Generation Power leads coalition effort to hire and train 250 people to improve water efficiency in Los Angeles
JUNE 30, 2010 – The Los Angeles Water Efficiency Workforce Development Program, a collaborative led by Generation Power and a strong coalition of environmental, community and labor organizations, education and training organizations, as well as public sector partners, has won Governor Schwarzenegger's Green Innovation Challenge and will receive $2.5 million in funding over the next two years.
The Green Innovation Challenge is a highly competitive grant process that drew 34 applications from around the state of California. Six projects were awarded funding including two in Southern California. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said, "California is already seeing green job growth but we must continue working to accelerate this trend. These Challenge grants will encourage innovative green companies to train and hire Californians to further our state's leadership in the green economy." Victoria Bradshaw, Secretary of the state Labor and Workforce Development Agency, who presented the awards, said "This is an important opportunity to help put people back to work while giving industries in the green economy the ability to develop training programs that will address their specific workforce needs."
The Los Angeles Water Efficiency Workforce Development program is a broad workforce collaborative led by Generation Power, the social enterprise of the Infrastructure Academy, a non-profit organization focused on building a pipeline of diverse, well-qualified young people for the career opportunities of the green economy. Other members of the collaborative include the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, Service Employee International Union Local 721, Los Angeles Valley College, the Worker Education & Resource Center, Northeast Trees, the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council, Environment Now, and the City of Los Angeles. Working together, these organizations will work closely with public agencies and water efficiency equipment manufacturers to identify, develop, and implement projects that enable Los Angeles to reduce its overall water use. Many of these projects will be in the public sector including the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), City of Los Angeles, and other public sector agencies, which have enormous irrigated acreage under management.
The two-year project will survey hundreds of sites across school campuses, city parks facilities, and other public and private facilities to develop a rich database of projects suitable for funding with projected returns on investment. Dallana Acosta, a recent Fremont High School graduate, CSUN student, and Generation Power team lead, said, "The Green Innovation Challenge funding will help Generation Power expand our work in water conservation and energy efficiency and allow us to hire more bright young students." Young people, ages 16-24, working for Generation Power are already using GPS and GIS technology to inventory and catalog existing irrigation controllers, valves, sprinklerheads, irrigation zones, and vegetation for LAUSD school campuses. Generation Power has surveyed 120 Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) school campuses and inventoried over 4,700 toilets and 3,900 urinals and found that over 60% of these appliances are obsolete and huge water wasters. Generation Power CEO Marcus Castain said, "The public sector has old infrastructure and much of it is inefficient. Our young people found that over 62% of the toilets at LAUSD consume 3.5 gallons (or more) per flush (gpf) compared to LAUSD's current specification for new toilets of 1.28 gpf. We estimated that the savings in water bills from toilet and urinal retrofits will re-coup the initial materials and labor investment in only four years. There is a lot of opportunity for both water conservation and job creation."
In addition to project surveys and identification of fundable projects, crews from the Los Angeles Conservation Corps and incumbent workers of the City of Los Angeles will replace water-hungry invasive species with drought-tolerant landscaping. Other technologies and practices including smart irrigation, rainwater harvesting, greywater systems, and stormwater management will also be implemented. Crews will receive training in low impact development from Los Angeles Valley College, the Worker Education & Resource Center, the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council, the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, and other groups. Bo Savage of the Conservation Corps said, "Corpsmembers take pride in environmental stewardship. They are thrilled that they will be able to learn job skills that will make them more marketable for employment in the growing field of water conservation."
Diane Factor, Executive Director of the Worker Education & Resource Center said, "We are very excited to have this opportunity to develop a comprehensive water efficiency curriculum that can be widely used in the public sector. With this training, we're creating multiple benefits -- workers can embark on a green landscaping career path that also will result in huge water and cost savings for the City of LA."
In order to achieve long-term success, this Challenge grant must grow the water efficiency market by demonstrating that water efficiency investments are cost-effective. The price of water in Los Angeles has increased 65% over the last four years and is expected to continue increasing given dire forecasts for future water supply. Moreover, transporting water to Southern California is an enormous use of energy. Water conveyance and treatment consumes 18% of all energy in the state so reductions in water use in Southern California result in direct reductions in energy usage. Caryn Mandelbaum of Environment Now said, "Southern California has been the unsung hero of water efficiency for years. This Green Innovation Challenge grant gives Los Angeles a chance to finally implement its water efficiency vision on a wide scale. And, it's not a moment too soon given imminent water shortages statewide."
ContactsMarcus Castain, Generation Power, 310-500-0789
Viki Goto, Los Angeles Conservation Corps, 213.362.9000 ext. 260
INFRASTRUCTURE ACADEMY EXPANDS TO SIX MORE SCHOOLS
During the first week of January, the Infrastructure Academy conducted a professional development session for new and returning teaching fellows. The week long session, hosted at East Los Angeles College and the University of Southern California, included hands-on training in Environmental Technology curriculum as well as exposure to current research projects in Science Technology Engineering and Math fields at top institutions.A highlight of the week included a panel of researchers from ELAC, CalTech, and USC, who spoke about their respective research projects related to environmental technology. The week closed with a trip to the San Pedro Science Center, where teachers engaged in hands-on learning while making their own biofuel.
The Infrastructure Academy is pleased to welcome six new schools with this session: Bell Gardens High School, Hamilton High, Lincoln High, Maywood Academy, Roosevelt High, and West Adams Prep!
GREEN JOBS OPPORTUNITIES IDENTIFIED IN WATER CONSERVATION
Student Driven Project Identifies Opportunities to Save Water and Money in Schools
Los Angeles, CA, December 9, 2009 – Students in Los Angeles have been making President Barack Obama’s dream of a new green economy real and have been making money while doing it.
Organized by Generation Power, the social enterprise of the Infrastructure Academy, 43 young people were employed this spring and summer and fall to analyze water usage at the nation’s second largest school district, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The students and recent graduates, ages 14-22, were divided into three field teams and a data analysis team.
Generation Power field crew team leader Maricela Zurita said, “I never imagined that my first official job would be flushing toilets and timing how long the water ran for or running across football fields getting wet while trying to flag sprinklers. The first couple of days were hard but then I started realizing how much water was being wasted on every day of school. Working for Generation Power this summer was a great experience – not only did I realize the importance of water but it helped me grow as a person.” Zurita, who graduated from Orthopedic Medical Magnet in June and participated in the Infrastructure Academy program last school year, is now a freshman at San Francisco State University.
Collectively, the Generation Power teams inventoried almost 20,000 toilets, urinals, and sinks as they visited 120 middle schools and high schools in Los Angeles. They identified over 7,000 high-consumption, obsolete toilets (consuming 3.5 gallons per flush (gpf) or more) and 2,056 urinals (consuming over 1.5 gpf). The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) will pay to replace these fixtures through water conservation incentives to the LAUSD. The LADWP, which paid for the $150,000 project, is interested in identifying water conservation opportunities.
The report, titled “Opportunities to Conserve Water in Los Angeles Schools,” also found tremendous opportunities to conserve water in outdoor irrigation through improved irrigation control, replacement of sprinkler heads, and the replacement of turf with drought-tolerant vegetation. The report is available at http://www.infrastructureacademy.org/
The students found that LAUSD consumed over 2.6 billion gallons of water in 2008 and spent over $1 million each month in combined water and sewer costs. Across the 120 schools that were audited, over 5,333 (62%) were over 3.5 gallons per flush (gpf) and 2,056 (60%) consumed over 1.5 gpf. These devices are eligible for water conservation retrofit incentives of $300 per toilet and $500 per urinal. Replacing these devices would take one year and would cost the district $1.7 million. After a five year payback period, the water savings would be over $34,000 per month while saving over 300 acre-feet of water per year. These cost savings could employ seven teachers every year. Marcus Castain, CEO of the Infrastructure Academy and Generation Power, said “We were thrilled to identify projects that have returns on investment. We believe that our work is a win-win for all involved: our student employees who gain valuable work experience, the school district which saves money, the LA DWP which conserves water, labor unions which enjoy new work, and the environment which needs to retain more water for nature. We believe that these findings are likely to be applicable to other school districts, public sector agencies, and companies. We are interested in helping organizations that need a field workforce to gather and analyze data while providing invaluable work experience to our young people. ”
LAUSD Water Conservation Report
For additional information, contact Marcus Castain at 213-687-0781 x1.
For individual school water conservation profiles, click below:
Infrastructure Academy Expands Fellowship Program
November 2009 --The Infrastructure Academy is expanding its Fellowship program and continues to look for extraordinary high school science teachers to teach environmental education. Fellows will receive professional development and a curriculum focused on Environmental Technology to prepare high school students for the Green Economy.
Ready to change the world? Go to the Fellowship page to learn more.
Nancy Sutley Receives First Infrastructure Academy Environmental Leader Award
February 5, 2009 -- Former Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley received the Infrastructure Academy's first award recognizing environmental leaders. Infrastructure Academy students joined Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Council President Eric Garcetti and other Council members, leaders from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Board of Public Works, Sempra Utilities, Southern California Edison, Metropolitan Water District, and environmental organizations at a luncheon at Los Angeles City Hall on February 5 to bestow the honor. Nancy is now driving environmental policy, including green jobs policies, for the nation as the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. See the Environmental Leader Award here.
Infrastructure Academy Students Host Earth Day at Grant High School
Check out the article in Board Member Tamar Galatzan's Galatzan Gazette.
Infrastructure Academy on NPR!
Listen to the Marketplace story here.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Launches Infrastructure Academy
September 20, 2007-- In its first two years, the Infrastructure Academy will enroll over 1,700 high school students in tutoring and hands-on technical training, before actively placing students into well-paying careers. View Mayor's Press Release
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