March 3, 2010—Australia’s one million construction workers are turning “green” as the building industry drives a predicted boom in green collar jobs over the next 20 years, according to the Green Building Council Australia (GBCA).
Plumbers are considering ways to save water, bricklayers are recycling whatever they can, and electricians are laying cable in buildings without ceilings in a revolution that the GBCA says is changing building sites across Australia.
Tania Crosbie, Executive Director of Education and Marketing of the GBCA, said many building industry jobs, now considered to be green jobs, did not exist five or ten years ago. “The green economy in Australia is believed to be worth about $17 billion and forecasts indicate that another 850,000 green collar jobs will be created over the next 20 years,” she said.
The plumbing trade is at the forefront of changing work practices, training apprentice plumbers in sustainability, energy savings, waste reduction and water conservation at the Plumbing Industry Climate Action Centre (PICAC) that opened in Brunswick, Melbourne in 2009.
Vin Ebejer, General Manager of the PICAC, said the center is the first of its kind in Australia and possibly in the world, and is focused on delivering quality training in sustainability and green plumbing practices to plumbers of all ages.
For more information, see the Web site of the Green Building Council of Australia.
