North Carolina Community College System’s Code Green Initiative

To better understand how schools can build programs that provide reliable growth trajectories for students in the green economy, MDRC wanted to learn more about the North Carolina Community College System’s (NCCCS’s) 10-year-old “Code Green” initiative. In 2010, NCCCS launched “Code Green” at its 58 community colleges, which college leaders called the largest curriculum redesign initiative in the system’s history. The system overhauled programs in five sectors that offered a total of 82 degrees in energy efficiency and sustainability, building, transportation, engineering technologies, and environment and energy.

MDRC’s Center for Effective Career and Technical Education (CTE) spoke with Scott Ralls, current president of Wake Tech Community College, (and former system president), and Bryan Ryan, Wake Tech vice president of effectiveness and innovation (and the college’s former chief academic officer), to learn from their experiences.

Scott Ralls: "Most green jobs have a foundation in fundamental skills that we were already training in. Did we need green car [training] or did we need to make sure that our technicians had knowledge about electric and other forms of alternative fuels? We’re not just teaching a solar program. It's individuals becoming electricians and heating and air conditioning technicians who are learning and being certified in [solar] as part of their broader portfolio. So that's what we attempted to do: step back, think about all of these programs, look closely at the core foundation of general education credits and how they cut across [the Code Green objectives]. The sustainability energy piece of it was the tip of the pyramid. It wasn't the middle or a foundation, but it was a particular skill set added on top."