Lamont Williams, 19, wasn’t especially environmentally conscious when he graduated from high school, but he entered a green-collar job training program in the hope of finding work.

The training paid off on Monday, when Williams landed a green-collar job that will start March 16.

“You can take a lot of urban kids who don’t know anything about [environmental issues], and they can benefit from this and learn about what’s going on,” Williams said.

Besides, he can do good for himself while doing good for the environment.

"I mean it's putting green in your pockets, why not?" Williams said.

Williams got his training through the Green Pathways to Success program, hosted by the North Lawndale Employment Network.

“Our goal at this point is to train a work force,” said Green Pathways program director Cleophus Lee. “Because we know that those jobs are going to open up. … The work is coming -- it’s just a matter of us working with the young people to prepare them.”

The eight-week program provides hands-on training in vocational skills linked to green-collar jobs, such as solar panel installation and home weatherization. Trainees receive various certifications that qualify them to work right after they finish.

Lee, Williams and others are basing their optimism on President Obama’s stimulus package, which includes nearly $5 billion for weatherizing low-income family homes and $4.5 billion to improve energy efficiency of the federal government. Another $500 million is earmarked for green jobs, which is projected to train 70,000 workers.

How much of that money Illinois will get for green initiatives is unknown, but because the law stipulates that funds must be used within 90 to 180 days after being received, green-collar workers could be in high demand in a hurry.

Some Chicago companies also are trying to position themselves to take advantage of the possible flood of new environmental business. Gelene Brown, a partner at Stinnette and Brown, which specializes in green construction and retrofitting, said her company is getting ready.

“We are actively trying to position ourselves for when the monies do come down,” said Brown, whose company also owns and operates more than 120 residential properties in Englewood, Auburn-Gresham and West Englewood. That preparation includes getting certified as a minority business and a woman-owned business to better-qualify for government work.

Brown said when the work comes, Green Pathways is one of the programs they will turn to when looking for employees.

But Brown said this opportunity is more than just a few extra jobs and a few extra dollars in the pocket in low-income neighborhoods.

“The green collar economy is basically an industrial revolution,” Brown said. “This opportunity is not just one opportunity. It’s not just construction, it’s not just organic food; it’s a lifestyle. Every single thing that we rely on has to be made in a way to be sustainable.”

From the African-American standpoint, environmentalism has been seen as about global issues, not neighborhood issues, said Green Pathways’ Lee. An environmental literacy component is included in his program to help young urban adults understand how environmental preservation can affect their own community.

“Environmentalism is larger than the polar bears, it’s larger than the koala bears, it’s larger than the dolphins and the sharks,” Lee said. “When we start talking about the ability to put a green roof on a home, which will then assist in keeping your energy cost down, that impacts us.”

Van Jones, founder of the group Green for All, told a crowd at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry last month that the green-collar economy can be a pathway out of poverty. He said that by not participating in this movement, minorities would be participating in their own segregation.

“I’ve been to green events and they didn’t have a ‘White’s Only’ sign,’ ” Jones said. “We have to take the responsibility.”

Lee said by teaching environmental literacy along with job skills, Green Pathways’ trainees leave with a changed world view and readiness to take that responsibility.

“I see it being something real big,” said Luis Najera, a new Green Pathways trainee, of the urban green movement. “All of Chicago and Illinois will be well known. It’s going to fix a lot of stuff.”