Green Options

Have you ever wondered what an inverter looks like or how a solar heating system connects to a furnace?

Across the country in the month of October, solar system owners will open their doors to the solar curious as part of a national self-guided solar tour. Ranging from single family homes to restaurants to laundromats, participants can get an up close and personal look at solar systems.

Green collar jobs are rapidly becoming fashionable. The new trend represents a shift to the mainstream of the good old environmentalist approach to life. But what exactly makes a job green? The experts are far from agreed.

Green collar jobs have a magic lure to them. Not only because the people involved in the sector are supposedly making a conscious effort to salvage what’s left of the earth’s natural resources, but also because they’re hoping to drag the ailing economy out of its current quagmire.

The environmentalist visionary Van Jones, who heads up the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, is drawing massive crowds across the country to his speeches about the green sector. He has helped initiate a green jobs program in Oakland and it is in part due to his work that the Presidential candidates have included green collar jobs in their programs.