Everyone is talking about green initiatives.  In every industry from appliances to cars to cleaning products, people are going green.  In response to the growing demand for workers trained for green jobs, NEW is rolling out the ReNEW program in January 2010.  ReNEW will expose students to a variety of green collar careers, technologies, and concepts through shop classes, site visits, and off-site work days.  Among other topics students will learn how the construction trades are becoming greener, weatherization techniques, deconstruction processes, and energy efficiency technologies. 
 
"Building sustainably is becoming a big part of the conversation in the industry.  We're always interested in finding new ways to offer our students and graduates opportunities to learn about cutting edge technology and up and coming ideas in the building and construction trades.  The addition of a green training program seemed like a good fit for NEW," says Marjorie Schulman, NEW's Director of Partnerships and Special Initiatives. 
 
This summer, NEW launched its first green deconstruction project at Columbia University.  Twenty-one NEW graduates participated in a pilot training program designed in conjunction with Columbia University, The Institution Recycling Network (IRN), and Build It Green!NYC.  NEW students learned how to dismantle and remove materials that can be recycled and reused by organizations interested in salvaged building materials.  Students learned

hands-on techniques in interior deconstruction and the removal and recycling of paper and cardboard materials, electronic equipment, and other miscellaneous furnishings and materials.  Some of the materials removed were shipped to disaster relief areas around the world.
 
NEW again partnered with Build It Green!NYC a nonprofit retail outlet for salvaged and surplus building materials, on the NYC Cool Roofs Project to transform the roof of the MoMA storage facility in Long Island City.  Most of the roofs in New York City are dark or black roofs that retain the sun's rays increasing roof temperatures in the summer. 

Participants in the NYC Cool Roofs Program applied a special paint to the roof that reflects 70 to 90 percent of the sun's energy reducing heat absorption which in turn decreases air conditioning costs, energy demand, and local temperatures countering a phenomenon called the "urban heat island effect."  Justin Green, Program Director at Build it Green!NYC estimates that transforming half of the City's roofs into cool roofs will decrease the summer temperature by one degree.  "The Cool Roofs program covers a lot of important positive impacts.  Not only does it effect energy costs but it also decreases the amount of energy consumed to cool a building."  Additionally this type of technique can reduce the City's carbon footprint by 1 ton of CO2 for each 100 square feet of roof that is coated white.