A group in Cincinnati has converted an old, vacant building to create a green tech lab for green construction and design projects.

The Ford training center in the Twin Cities has plans to close its doors by 2011 and will lay off hundreds of employees in the process. A few area groups have decided to use this manufacturing site as a green jobs training program for wind turbine manufacturing and installation, and light rail car production.

Here are a couple of examples of how greening our defunct manufacturing and industry plants in this country can help create jobs well within reach of those laid off factory workers, as well as help the U.S. to once again make products, all while helping the environment and hard-hit communities.

Not only will new jobs be created in this process, necessary training will also take place.

Green collar jobs allow people from impoverished neighborhoods and communities that have been hit hard by lay-offs and plant closings a chance to go back to work and do something for the environment, the growth of our economy, and help bring our defunct manufacturing and industry back to life for better products and a cleaner planet.

More importantly, workers who used to work in environmentally unsafe conditions can now breather easier when they go to work and live a happier, healthier life at home within a community that no longer lives alongside factories that emit toxic waste.

Out of work auto plant workers can go back to work in their old factories, only now they’re working on cars that help this country move away from oil dependence, and aid in the race against climate change.

America can start anew to make innovative products and employ green collar workers to return this country to the global marketplace where it once stood and where we can make a positive impact.