Sustainability Workforce Training Center (SWTC)

The Sustainability Workforce Training Center, or SWTC, located at 169 Arkansas Street on Buffalo’s West Side, is the region’s first green job training center. The SWTC will train residents for careers in clean energy and sustainability, with a focus on sustainable building practices that create strong neighborhoods with quality, affordable housing.

By expanding career options for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) residents in the emerging sustainability field, the facility will also help address the racial wealth gap and provide opportunity in historically underserved communities.

Connecting Climate Justice to Workforce Development

• The training center will further PUSH’s mission to help meet climate and energy standards of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), New York’s nation-leading climate law. It stands to increase access to clean energy-related job training and opportunities for members of BIPOC and disadvantaged communities.
• PUSH Buffalo, as a member of the statewide NY Renews climate justice coalition, helped lead a grassroots campaign to pass the CLCPA in 2019. It stands proudly as a model for cities across the state and nation for what the future of holistic sustainability implementation can look like in frontline communities.
• The SWTC was conceived, designed, and built as a direct expression of the CLCPA’s mandate for climate resiliency, economic equity, and a just transition away from fossil fuels.

PUSH’s Community Hiring Hall

• The SWTC is the new home of PUSH’s Community Hiring Hall! Established in 2013, Hiring Hall is a first-of-its-kind social enterprise business model for entry-level construction and sustainability workers in our region.
• Hiring Hall trains and places workers in the construction, renewable energy, and energy efficiency sectors, as well as serves as the employer-of-record and assumes responsibility for workforce recruitment, screening, hiring, management, and administration.
• Participants receive hands-on training for the installation of clean heat technologies, solar and other renewable energy technologies, and energy efficiency upgrades that would address and improve energy conservation in much of Buffalo’s housing stock.
• Trainees are matched with contractors to help build relationships that will support long-term workforce development.
• Hiring Hall plays a critical role in training Buffalo’s low-income residents that are under- and unemployed, with an emphasis on marginalized communities of color.
• To date, more than 224 of the Hiring Hall’s former trainees have been employed by companies across Western New York. It’s expected that SWTC will at least double the number of its program graduates.
• To apply for placement in our Hiring Hall program, fill out the form below.

About the Building

• SWTC is built on two vacant lots at 169 Arkansas Street and 298 Hampshire Street, and is on the site of a former gas station.
• The $2.5 million project provides a mix of flexible classroom, office, and meeting spaces.
• The building is designed to generate as much energy as it uses through an on-site PV solar system and a geothermal heating/cooling system, which will also serve as a learning laboratory for renewable energy training sessions.