1. Enough of the Green Job
Promises:
Hard Lessons from the Field
Los Angeles Conservation Corps
• Dan Knapp – Deputy Director
• Bo Savage – Div. Director Conservation Programs
Sustainability for All & Corps Innovations
• Dorsey Moore – Principal & CEO
February 13, 2012

2. Enough of the Green Job Promises:
Hard Lessons from the Field
In a world where everyone talks about the promise of green jobs, three years
ago the Los Angeles Conservation Corps tried to live “green dream.” Curious to
see how they did? Come join us.
This multifaceted workshop will focus on the challenges (and benefits) of
developing and operating advanced career technical education programs in the
solar, energy efficiency and water conservation industries. Battle-tested
panelists will share their trials and tribulations. They promise to give you the
straight scoop without the special effects.
Presentation to include information on adaptive collaboration frameworks,
flexible funding models, regional corps collaboration, partnership challenges,
new market creation, enterprise development, leveraging resources, and how to
cry on the inside. Lively discussion and shouting to follow.
This workshop is not for the faint of heart or for those that want to talk about the
promise of green jobs.
Rated: MA [for mature audiences only]

3. Los Angeles Conservation Corps
The primary mission of the LA Conservation Corps is to provide
at-risk young adults and school-aged youth with opportunities
for success through job skills training, education and work
experience with emphasis on conservation and service
projects that benefit the community.

4. LA Conservation Corps
• Where does the LA Conservation Corps
serve?
– 26 Service delivery sites in LA County
– 11 Program/Operations sites throughout the LA Basin

5. LA Conservation Corps - Education
• Charter Schools (Los
Angeles Education
Corps)
• After School Programs
• SEA Lab
• Environmental
Awareness Program

6. LA Conservation Corps - Conservation
• Young Adult Corps
(18-25 year olds)
– Construction
– Brownfields
– Wildland Fire Fighting
– Solar / Weatherization
– Park Development
– Habitat Restoration
– Urban Forestry
– Environmental Safety
• SEA Lab (18-25 year olds)
• Clean & Green (14-17 year olds)

7. LA Conservation Corps - Support
• Support & Transition
Services Department
(14-24 year olds)
• Transitional Living
Program (18-21 year
olds)

8. LA Conservation Corps - Licenses
• General Contractor
• Specialty Licenses:
– Electrical
– Heating, Ventilation & Air
Conditioning
– Landscaping
– Painting

9. • Strategy & Development
• Innovative research to improve conservation
corps efficiency & effectiveness
• Design sustainable training programs that fit the
corps model
• Create new revenue models
• Collaborative approach

10. Solar Photovoltaic Installation
Rainwater Harvesting

11. Green Career Strategy - Goal
Develop advanced career technical education (CTE)
programs that build on the existing LA Corps CTE
programs
Land Construction Brownfields
Conservation

12. Green Career Strategy - Criteria
New programs must:
• Be in alignment with mission
• Build on “corps” model:
– Academic education
– Career technical education
– Paid on-the-job-training
community service projects
• Be sustainable
– Industry driven demand
– Funding

13. Green Career Strategy - Focus Areas
• Initial focus on:
Solar Weatherization/ Water
Photovoltaic Energy Efficiency Conservation

14. Green Career Strategy – Approach
1. Plug into existing state-
funded programs
2. Collaborate with local
professional providers
3. Develop new local programs

15. SWOT Analysis

16. SWOT Analysis

17. SWOT Analysis

18. SWOT Analysis

19. SWOT Analysis

20. SWOT Analysis

21. Corps - Unique Positioning
Key Offering:
Only shop that does paid “on-the-job” training
Also:
• Project development
• General Contractors
License
• Ready labor
• Relationships with agencies
• Exempt from prevailing
wage
• Brand value

22. Unique Positioning

23. Historical Corps – Project Framework
Conservation
Conservation Public Agency
Public Agency
Corps
Corps Project Sponsor
Project Sponsor

24. Historical Corps – Project Framework
Grant
Grant
Conservation
Conservation Public Agency
Public Agency
Corps
Corps Project Sponsor
Project Sponsor

25. Conservation
Conservation Project
Project Funding
Funding
Corps
Corps Partners
Partners Partners
Partners
Company
Company Training
Training X-Factor
X-Factor
Partners
Partners Partners
Partners Partners
Partners

26. Pr
Pro
id e
o
e
d
vi
ive
ov i
d
v
e
vid
Prro
ce
Re
P
Re
ve
Re
e
cce
i
ei i
ce
vvee
Re
Pr
Pr
e oov
vi i
vid dde
ro Re Re e
i de
P e
ivve
i ce
ce
i
ov
cee
eec
ve
ive
Pr
RR

27. Provide: Provide: Provide:
• Labor • Project Site • Funding
• Supervision • Funding • Brand Value
Receive: Receive: Receive:
• Payment • Project Benefits • Mission Fulfillment
• Experience
• CM Placement
Provide:
• Experience
• Jobs for CM’s Provide: Provide:
• Training • Funding
Receive: • Funding • Brand Value
• New Business
• Revenue Receive: Receive:
• Trained CM’s • Revenue/#’s • Mission Fulfillment

28. Solar Photovoltaic

29. Solar
Solar

30. Solar PV:
Program Development Progression
Enterprise Full Service $$$$$
Advanced High-skilled Assistance $$$
Intermediate Moderate-skilled $$
Assistance
Basic Low-skilled Assistance $
Phase Name Detailed Description $

31. Solar PV – Training Process Overview

32. Solar Training

33. Solar Training

34. GRID
Alternatives
(low-income)

35. Obregon Park

37. CBS Television

38. CBS Television

39. Hojas de Plata

40. Solar PV – Metrics
Category Goals Actual
Corpsmembers Trained 100 63
Job Placements 75 6
Projects Completed 12 9
Private Sector Collaborators 8 4
Funding $1.5M $500K
Clean Energy (kW installed) NA 543
Pollution Reduction (CO2) NA 714,833
Financial Savings (year one) NA $74,735

41. Solar PV – Lessons Learned
• Takes time to develop a quality program given the technical nature of the industry;
quality assurance
• Training
– Need to develop corpsmember appropriate accelerated classroom training;
– Low-income residential training projects;
– Helpful to have OJT technical trainer on roof to help support supervisor and CMs
• Projects
– Establish well-defined roles
• Private Sector Collaborator
– Need to bring something to the table: money or projects
– Stay in regular communication and ask for their input every step of the way
– Not all PV integrators are good partners
• Funding
– “Slack” funding is important to develop new projects and programs
– If possible, beneficial to be General Contractor on project

42. Weatherization/Energy Efficiency (WX/EE)

43. Earned Income $
Weatherization/
Weatherization/
Energy Efficiency
Energy Efficiency

44. WX/EE – Programs
1. Eastern Los
Angeles Energy
Assistance Team
(ELEAT)
2. AmeriCorps
California Energy
Service Corps
3. Energy Smart Jobs

45. WX/EE – ELEAT Program
Provide WX/EE installation services to low-income
residents in Eastern Los Angeles County.
Funding:
• DOE Weatherization
Assistance Program
• DHHS Low-Income
Home Energy
Assistance Program

46. Eastern LA Energy Assistance Team
Eastern LA Energy Assistance Team
Los Angeles Conservation Corps
Los Angeles Conservation Corps
Network
Network

47. ELEAT Process & Roles
1. Outreach
1. Outreach 2. Eligibility
2. Eligibility 3. Assessment
3. Assessment
LBCAP LBCAP LBCAP
4. Installation
4. Installation 5. Inspection
5. Inspection
LACCN LBCAP

48. ELEAT – Installation Measures
Deep Weatherization:
• Furnaces
• Water heaters
• Door/Windows
• Appliance
• Attic Insulation
• Weatherstripping
• CO Alarms
• Faucet aerators
• + 80 other measures

50. Why ELEAT Is Pretty Cool
• Mission overlap – low-income focus
• Gets us in the door with CAA’s/ESP’s
• Access to their networks & resources
• New sources of automatically renewable
funding: DOE, DHHS & others
• Replication of model
• Corps regional collaboration

51. Why ELEAT Is Pretty Scary
• New ground for corps programs
• Lots of responsibility w/ partial control
• High expectations
• Very complicated program
• Lots of unknowns – e.g., budget
• High financial risk!
• Lots of organizations in collaboration
• Test Corps mettle

52. WX/EE – It’s Complicated

53. Has anyone seen our keys to
success?
• Learn quickly
• Develop progressive systems
• Contract compliance
• Hire great staff & train them well
• Attention to detail

54. WX/EE – Metrics
Category Goals Actual
Corpsmembers Trained 126 126
Job Placements 94 88*
Homes Weatherized 2,064 800+
Private Sector Collaborators ? 4
Funding $5.25M $3.25M
Energy Saved (kWh or Therms) NA ?
Pollution Reduction (CO2) NA ?
Savings to Residents (Annual) $701K $272K

55. WX/EE – Lessons Learned
• Be careful what you wish for
• WX/EE is very technical
• Very administratively complicated
• Cool proposal ≠ successful program
• Be ready to learn quickly & adapt program
• Patience
• Cash flow

56. Water Conservation

57. Water Conservation – Diverse Industry
• Rainwater Harvesting
• Greywater recycling
• Native landscape/xeriscape
• Native plant nursery
• Storm water capture (groundwater recharge)
• Smart irrigation
• Water appliance efficiency/replacement
• Evaporation control
• Desalination
• Watershed restoration

58. Shipley Nature Center
Huntington Beach
Water
Water
Conservation
Conservation

59. Water Conservation – RWH Project
Long Beach Community Action Partnership

60. Water Conservation – RWH Project
Shipley Nature Center

61. Water Conservation – RWH Project
Compton Washington Park

62. Water Conservation – RWH Project
Compton Washington Park

63. Water Conservation – RWH Project
Compton Washington Park

64. Water Conservation – RWH Project
Compton Washington Park

65. Water Conservation – Metrics
Category Goals Actual
Corpsmembers Trained 100 100
Job Placements 75 75*
Projects Completed NA 8
Private Sector Collaborators NA 0*
Funding NA $1.5M
Water Savings (Gallons/year) ? 105,000
Pollution Reduction (CO2) ? ?
Savings to Project Sites (Annual) $? $?

66. Water Conservation – Lessons Learned
• Water Conservation is a very diverse industry
• Need Corpsmember appropriate curriculum
• Onsite Technical Trainer
• Projects
• Private Sector Collaborator – Not many existing
firms since new industry
• A lot to learn!

67. Learning Curve
WX/EE
WX/EE
Solar PV
Solar PV
Water
Water
Conservation
Conservation

68. Questions & Discussion
Thank You!

69. Extra slides
• These slides were removed and will not be
used.

70. Solar PV – Next Steps
• Continue to develop in-house technical expertise
• Continue relationship development with PV integrators
• Position corps to be ongoing source of “community labor”
for projects
• New solar project development
• Develop a regional conservation corps collaboration to
achieve “scale”

71. WX/EE – Next Steps
• Learn - Continue to develop in-house technical expertise
and experience
• Diversify - Position corps to be a contractor for other
WX/EE programs

72. Water Conservation – Next Steps
• Continue to develop in-house technical expertise

74. LA Corps – Solar Strategy Overview
2010 2011 2012
Developed solar Developed business plan Continue regional solar
installation training for regional solar training training program (&
program program expand to other local
corps state-wide)
Individual Solar Projects Individual Solar Projects Develop additional fee-
-Low-income residential -Low-income residential for-service solar
(single-family) (single-family) installation projects
-Municipal (Obregon -Low-income multi-family (partnering w/ firms)
Park) (Hojas) -Create niche market in
-Commercial (CBS) low-income market

75. LA Corps – WX/EE Strategy Overview
2010 2011 2012
Individual WE/EE Become proficient at Continue DOE/LIHEAP
Projects DOE/LIHEAP WX WX Program
Program
Develop DOE/LIHEAP Research becoming Become utility low-
Weatherization Program utility low-income income contractor
contractor to maximize:
-Services to residents
-Funding diversity &
revenue
Researched & evaluated
Energy Upgrade CA
Program
-Subcontractor
-Contractor

76. LA Corps – Water Conservation
Strategy Overview
2010 2011 2012
Research water Develop rainwater Expand RWH training
conservation training harvesting (RWH) program to other local
programs training program corps
Secured funding for Complete demonstration Develop fee-for-service
training program RWH grant projects RWH program
development -LBCAP (residential & non-
-Shippley Nature Center residential)
Completed individual Research & develop
water conservation other water conservation
projects (RWH, grey projects
water, xeriscaping)