During the summer of 2019, three sustainability professionals earned the GPRO Fundamentals of Building Green Certification: Shelby Buso, Director, Market Transformation and Development at USGBC-Georgia; Annette Gorelick, LEED AP O+M, President of G4 Green Connections, and; Jeffrey Denno, LEED AP, WELL AP, Sustainability Project Manager, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
2M facilitates building its capacity to train large numbers of local residents in GPRO’s protocol by screening professionals and tradespeople interested in becoming instructors, having them secure the Fundamentals of Building Green certificate, then getting “building green instructor certification” by sitting for the Urban Green Council’s On-line GPRO “Train-the-Trainer” seminar with a GPRO Master
Trainer. This past August 8, Annette and Jeffrey subsequently earned the GPRO Fundamentals of Building Green Instructor Certification.
2M’s implementation and management of GPRO in Georgia provides a solution that can bring economic inclusion to young adults and other residents who are serious about improving their lives and working with “green construction trades”. 2M’s goal is to even the employment playing field for low wealth residents who will get screened by local Offices of Workforce Development (OWD) so they can be trained, receive a green certification and be hired to work on high-performance government construction projects that are in progress.
Achieving GPRO certification can be fast-tracked if all prime construction contractors will participate in programs like “First Source Jobs Programs” that train, certify and place residents on all government construction projects using GPRO. Construction analysts say that over 50% of our nation’s reproducible wealth is tied to the built environment and there is a window of 5-10 years in which large numbers of workers will be needed on high-performance construction projects and green infrastructure projects. 2M and our partners are excited to bring GPRO Training to low wealth residents, beginning in Atlanta. “Urban Green Council has certified over 10,000 GPRO trade practitioners nationwide.