Are "green collar" jobs initiatives hitting their targets? This is the $64,000 question. Creating jobs in environmental industries is widely promoted as an anti-recessionary lever for stimulating sorely needed employment, as well as a long-term lever for rebuilding the competitive edge of America in general, and the Hudson Valley in particular. But do accomplishments on the ground demonstrate that ambitious plans and substantial public and private investments are worth the effort?

A very strong and concrete 'yes' to this question was given to a packed auditorium at the Hudson Valley Regional Council's fifth annual meeting, which was held on Saturday, December 4, at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook. Participants heard talks about who's doing what, how they're doing it, and what more can be done in the Valley's expanding green industries. The fact that the Cary Institute's auditorium stayed packed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on a pleasant Saturday provided solid evidence that Green 2010's messages and networking opportunities have traction for the business people, elected officials, and civil servants who gathered in Millbrook. The nuts-and-bolts of this issue were underscored by the conference's sub-title: Education and Workforce Development for the 21st Century.

This annual conclave on the Hudson Valley's emergent green industries is the brainchild of Simon Gruber, a water resource planner based in Orange County. Gruber, who moved to the Valley in 1978, caught on early to the upcoming ecological challenges — especially with regard to water resources — created by the Valley's rapid population growth.

The pragmatic orientation of Green 2010 reflects Gruber's preferences when it comes to tackling environmental challenges.

"As I became aware of what was at stake during the 1970s, I was less inclined to join environmental protest demonstrations, and more inclined to search out concrete alternatives — and, then, bring citizens, governments and private enterprises around the same table in order to build a consensus and get solutions enacted," he said.

In 2005, Gruber approached the leadership of the Hudson Valley Regional Council with his idea to organize an informational and networking meeting on how developing green industries could play a key role in rebuilding the Valley's economy and coping with its environmental challenges. The HVRC leadership liked Gruber's idea so much, it has since turned the event into an annual meeting.

The Hudson Valley Regional Council, a cooperative network of Mid-Hudson counties, is a distinctly hands-on organization. Founded in 1982, it includes Dutchess, Orange, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester Counties.

Current HVRC programs help member counties prepare infrastructure plans that are necessary for obtaining federal public works grants; storm-water control; waste reduction and recycling; and implementing the 2010 Census. HVRC also supports efforts like the Hudson River Watershed Alliance, a water-issues network of representatives from local governments, grassroots citizens' organizations, and senior state agencies and nonprofit organizations.

One highlight of the day, among many, demonstrated how creative towns like Long Island's Bablyon can leverage modest resources into a significant reduction of energy use. It also demonstrated how picking low-hanging fruit, in the form of modest incremental steps with existing technologies, often yields both the biggest bang for the buck in terms of energy use, as well as household savings and employment for local contractors.

In these hard times, how many households can, first, pay for an energy audit that specifies the main sources of energy losses and, second, make or risk investments that will save money after the usual five to ten year period for recovering investment costs?

Babylon's innovation was realizing that the town's $2 million solid waste disposal fund could be tapped if they could get New York State approval to recognize a basic environmental fact: climate-warming carbon emissions from energy-use are molecules, and therefore solid waste.

Babylon proposed using this $2 million as an investment fund that advanced the money for up to $12,000 worth of energy conservation improvements per household. Citizens wouldn't need a bank loan, and would have up to eight years to use the money saved on energy costs to pay back Babylon's solid waste disposal fund. After that, savings would go into their own pockets. These investments kicked off in January 2009.

Win-win is just the adjective to describe this investment program. It doesn't require rocket science, is available now, and helps the environment, pocketbooks, and local businesses. Hopefully the governments of the towns served by this newspaper will take a close look at what their cousins in Babylon, NY, are accomplishing.

Turning to the subtitle of the conference, Education and Workforce Development, it was enlightening to learn about the nationally visible leadership provided by the Hudson Valley's community colleges. The web site of New York State's Solar Energy Consortium rightly points to the university and corporate research laboratories that dot the corridor from NYC to Albany.

But, in terms of training workers who can apply this hi-tech, it is the humble community colleges that provide the principal bridge between science and shop floors. After listening to an enthusiastic panel lay out what our community colleges put in place, I toured each college's web site, and invite you to do the same. We have a solid, growing foundation of courses and workshops that can provide the region's green industries with skilled labor.

To round out this very instructive day, many were justifiably excited by the leading example of Prism Solar Technologies' new and expanding manufacturing facilities in Highland. This time it was the announcement from Representative Maurice Hinchey that Prism had secured a $3.6 million contract from the Defense Department to develop its unique bifacial ribbon solar cell technology. The fact that this is being done in an abandoned factory building in a typical Hudson Valley small town deserves close attention.