The paradigm that there was a choice between protecting the environment or protecting jobs has shifted to one that argues protecting the planet can create good jobs.

Around the nation, businesses, economic development groups, environmental groups and unions are working to make sure that green, as in American greenbacks, stays on U.S. soil creating work for employees here.

The cadre includes the local economic development incubator Innovation Works, which is trying to keep jobs fueled by the green economy in Western Pennsylvania. Jobs that fit that label aren't always the obvious ones, either.

When Tim Fogarty, the incubator's director of energy programs, goes to parties and talks about what he does, people ask about the small vertical windmills and the solid state lighting he is helping get developed. But just as important -- both in terms of jobs and the environment -- is a new type of refractory brick being developed locally to line aluminum smelters and save energy, or the highly efficient boilers at Cannon Boiler Works in New Kensington.

Green companies being developed here include: Epiphany Solar Water Systems, in New Castle, which is using solar power to run water distillation columns for water purification; ATRP Solutions, in Oakland, which is creating environmentally clean plastics; and Appalachian Lighting, in Ellwood City, which is a solid state lighting company.

The point of it all is to build products -- and jobs -- here.

Take the example of BPL Global, a "smart-grid" company that has created a system to regulate power flow as it is needed. The Cranberry-based company recently received a grant from the federal government to make electrical power grids more efficient.

When the company first started, it was heavy with Ph.D.s, the people who were designing the technology, said Rich Lunak, executive director of Innovation Works. But now, with 100 employees, the company needs what lots of businesses need, jobs that aren't as specialized.

There are still computer programmers and engineers. There are also people working in sales, marketing and accounts receivable, plus they need a cleaning crew.

Mr. Lunak said companies doing innovative projects still look like regular companies because they have the same support needs.

The Blue Green Alliance is another example of harnessing emerging environmentally friendly technologies to create well-paying blue collar jobs: the same sorts of jobs that built the middle class in the 1950s and 1960s.

David Foster, the executive director of the Minneapolis organization started by the Pittsburgh-based United Steelworkers of America with the Sierra Club, said it has grown to include seven unions and two environmental groups representing 8.3 million people.

Mr. Foster said the alliance is taking a three-prong approach to creating jobs: It is trying to change public policies to create a climate in which green sources of energy are in demand; it is working to match manufacturers with companies that need parts for solar and wind systems; and it is coordinating with community colleges to train the needed workforce.

"We need the right policies, we need the right companies and we need the right workforce," Mr. Foster said. "It's a holistic way of looking at how we can build this clean energy economy."

In terms of public policy, the alliance has an office in Washington, D.C., to lobby the government regarding clean energy, but also has people across the country speaking at community meetings, union meetings, schools and churches about the needs and opportunities presented by building a green economy.

Meanwhile, Mr. Foster said there is a ready supply of small businesses that can make manufacturing parts that go into green energy systems. For those, the Blue Green Alliance has started the Clean Energy Manufacturing Center, which provides technical assistance for manufacturers and help them identify markets for potential products.

"Maybe a business that made parts for the auto industry has unused capacity," he explained. "A company like that could contact the Clean Energy Manufacturing Center and ask, 'What kind of parts could I make?'"

And, while Mr. Lunak talked about the Ph.D.s who develop the new technologies, for many workers, Mr. Foster said, the jobs creating green energy aren't that different from the jobs in the old economy. In some cases, they even need comparable skills, but need to know how to use those skills in a different way.

For instance, hooking up a wind turbine to generate electricity uses the same principles as hooking up a gas- or steam-powered turbine. It's just that the wind turbine has to be attached 300 feet in the air. Those sorts of skills need to be added to traditional skills and can be taught locally.

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