Profiles in clean energy: Once incarcerated, expert moves students into climate-solution careers
In a converted warehouse in the poorest zip code in Philadelphia, students are learning to work on older homes, improve the heating and cooling, and at the same time make them more climate-friendly
PHILADELPHIA — Inside a converted warehouse in one of Philadelphia’s poorest neighborhoods, students circle around Jackie Robinson as he quizzes them about a 1980s furnace. Although they'll encounter older equipment like this, the program is cutting edge, aimed at training people to work on homes in ways that address climate change and make clean energy affordable.
More than 3.3 million people work in the clean energy industry and the number is growing fast. But Robinson, a building trades instructor, is concerned that's not widely understood.
“A lot of low income people don’t even know these jobs exist … it’s all about getting the word out,” he said.
In addition to expanding an important workforce, solid career opportunities also reduce recidivism. Robinson's own transition into the clean energy workforce and ultimately to this nonprofit, the Energy Coordinating Agency, came during his time in prison.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of an occasional series of personal stories from the energy transition — the change away from a fossil-fuel based world that largely causes climate change.
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He was locked up for 27 years on a drug trafficking conviction.
«I was a top student in school, no question. But then sometimes you think you're slick and you fall in with the wrong people… and you’re thinking, ‘hey, it’s great money, easy money, but… there’s no good ending in it,’» he said.
His three young children were the motivation to use all that time inside to learn new skills so he could take care of them when he got out.
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