Green for All Blog Praises Sound & Spokane Alliance

"The idea is simple, but not obvious. Get a plumber, a priest, and an English teacher together and ask them what they care about.

No, this isn’t the beginning of a joke, but it is the beginning of how Sound Alliance makes social change. Sound Alliance, a broad-base organization of diverse congregations, labor unions, education associations, and other non-profits, works for the Common Good in the Puget Sound Area of Washington State. Founded just one year ago on June 1, 2008, the Alliance has become a powerful vehicle to address a wide range of challenges facing area families and communities; health care, education, and environmentally-sustainable jobs are just a few examples.

Thousands of meetings like the one described above tell a story about non-college bound high school students without hope for future careers, an aging workforce struggling to recruit and retain qualified workers, and inefficient homes and small commercial properties with massive energy bills. Sound Alliance and its sister organization in Eastern Washington – Spokane Alliance – are uniquely positioned to integrate these concerns into a cohesive solution they’ve been calling SustainableWorks. Spokane Alliance has spent years developing a scalable model that trains and employs trade apprentices to perform energy efficiency retrofits on residential and small-commercial properties with great regional success.

Now, the Obama administration’s economic stimulus package provides the materials for this shovel-ready project just as it is ready to go statewide. Read more about Spokane and Sound Alliances' legislative work here.

“Such a shift can create and expand entrepreneurial, wealth-building opportunities for workers of all skill levels" says Sen. Phil Rockefeller, D-Kitsap County, prime sponsor of the bill.

The legislation turns an "uncertain promise of 'Green Jobs' into a concrete reality" adds Bob Markholt, Director of Seattle Vocational Institute's pre-apprenticeship program. "Spokane and Sound Alliance were critical to creating this."

The Green Jobs bill directs the Washington State University (WSU) Energy Program to provide grants and technical assistance to neighborhood energy-efficiency pilot projects throughout the state.  An additional $5 million in federal funding will be used to stimulate private investment in weatherization through local banks and credit unions.

States across the nation are facing an unparalleled and complex set of challenges; rising energy costs, increasing threats to the environment, and growing underemployment and joblessness herald even tougher times ahead. But leaders in Washington State are sending a message loud and clear: In this crisis, there is rich opportunity. We can build a new economy on the foundation of equality and justice instead of the backs of the poor." -- Barbara Grady

"This is exactly the kind of comprehensive legislation that our leaders in Washington, D.C. must pass - legislation that creates quality jobs, provides opportunity for ordinary Americans, and puts U.S. industries at the global forefront of the burgeoning clean energy sector." -- Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, Executive Director

Sound Alliance Launches Retrofit Training

The economic crisis has precipitated job loss and underemployment across the region. SustainableWorks counts as a primary goal the creation of quality jobs that cannot be outsourced, as well as jobs that can be accessed by targeted constituents (ex-offenders, people in recovery, etc.). The need for these work opportunities is more pressing than ever and thus, makes the argument for SustainableWorks very compelling.

Over the past year, Spokane Alliance has used a cutting edge “systems training” approach to expand work these opportunities. Through this approach, crafts people from various trades that could be involved in the energy efficiency retrofits learn the fundamentals of each others' trades. The organization ran three 40-hour courses over the year; 32 apprentices graduated from two of these, while 15 tradespeople graduated from the third course, ready to train journeymen in the retrofit work (using a “train the trainer” framework). Courses were comprised of members of Sheet Metal Workers Local 66, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 73 (IBEW), and Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 44.

To do all this, the Alliance has had to develop curriculum and training equipment - both of which are being explored as models in other parts of the country.

Sound Alliance leaders are working on similar training for workers in Western Washington. If you would like to learn more about this training, please contact rebecca at soundorganizing.org.

Why System-Training Matters

Pre-SustainableWorks Training: An electrician is asked to pipe, pull, and wire a temperature sensor on a chiller’s condenser water return line. She does not know the difference between chilled water and condenser water or supply and return so she asks her foreman; he does not have the answer. Both of them go looking for the fitter foreman to get clarification; 3 workers eventually solve the problem.

Post-SustainableWorks Training: A systems-trained mechanic goes to the task. He is able to apply knowledge from another trade to the situation at hand and complete the task quickly.

Pilot Projects Currently Underway

Center Pointe, Spokane

Center Pointe is a non-profit organization that provides social and leisure opportunities for people with developmental disabilities. At the start of the project, their facility's total annual utilities were $18,978; increasing insulation along with replacement of two rooftop units and modifications of two recently installed rooftop units should reduce those bills by 31% according to Avista Utilities engineers. That would reduce carbon emissions in Spokane by 46,000 lbs. annually.

Avista provided $10,000 in energy incentives to make the payback on investment after incentive less than 4.5 years.

Banner Furnace & Fuel employee installs roof top unit at Center Pointe

811 W. 2nd Ave, Spokane

Renovation of this 20,000 square foot light commercial building began in late summer. The third floor will get a new roof and rooftop unit for the heating and cooling needs of a planned Yoga studio; additional third floor space will be converted to accommodate a residence for one of the owners.  The second floor will be used for leased office space. The first floor will house Gina’s Design Center, a successful small business that has outgrown its current facility. An elevator will also be added to the structure.

The street side of the building is being renovated to resemble its historic exterior look. Spokane Teachers Credit Union is helping with loans for the energy retrofit work and Avista Utilities is providing energy incentives for the project.

TESTIMONIALS

• Eric Anthony, Iron Workers Local 14 Apprentice in Spokane on his living-wage green job 

Apprentices Terry Douglas & Trish Matthews watch a proportioning valve modulate.