The initiative is a partnership of the Thomas Shortman Fund of the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, which represents more than 85,000 doormen, porters, security guards, superintendents and other in the tri-state area and in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., and the Urban Green Council, the New York City chapter of the nonprofit educational/advocacy group the U.S. Green Building Council.

The joint labor-management Thomas Shortman Fund, which provides training to 32BJ members, has been offering environmental-service training in New York City buildings since 2005. The current project aims to create 1,000 green superintendents in one year, and as of late August has pilot programs in over three dozen buildings in Manhattan. (See list.)

Cooper Square Realty's Jason Panarella ( at left), resident manager of the massive Washington Square Village rental complex owned by New York University, testified in June at City Council's "Greener, Greater Building Legislation" hearing, that "expensive equipment upgrades and automated systems might make a building more efficient, but what really makes a building efficient are the people running it. It doesn’t matter how much money a building invests in an automated system if the staff is not trained to operate it. ... If buildings want to become more energy efficient, workers need to learn new concepts, maintain complex equipment and understand green technologies."

"In New York City, buildings consume 66% of [the city's] total energy and generate 77% of city greenhouse-gas emissions," said union local president Michael P. Fishman (at top, right, with President Barrack Obama and NYU senior vice president Lynne Brown) at the same hearing. "So if our City is going to make a dent in reducing energy waste, greening our buildings is the lowest hanging fruit." To harvest it properly, he recommended, the legislation needed incorporate job certification, to help insure that persons auditing, retro-commissioning and retrofitting buildings be appropriately skilled; apprenticeship and labor-management training; a livable wage; and oversight and enforcement by the Department of Buildings, as an additional safety measure.

In addition, the Urban Green Council itself has a series of lectures and workshops at a variety of price points. (See UGC Calendar.)

To sign up your super for free union training, contact the 1,000 Supers program either online at that link, or at 101 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-1991, (212) 388-3220. You can also download the booklet "1 Year: 1,000 Green Supers: A Free Training Program for Eligible Members."