Nine GreenPlumbers workshops are on tap for the month of January in California, and organizers of the soon-to-be national program say nearly 200 contractors have attended Greenplumbers seminars so far.
    GreenPlumbers is an initiative developed by the Master Plumbers and Mechanical Services Association of Australia, a series of workshops designed to enhance plumbers skills and knowledge about the environmental considerations of their work.   
    Steve Lehtonen, executive director of the California PHCC in Sacramento is bringing the program to the U.S.  He hopes to have a GreenPlumbers USA Web site up by the middle of January. Plans are for the program to be rolled out nationally: "We can't avoid it," Lehtonen said. "So far we've done nine workshops in California and we've had about 170 people attend those workshops."   
    Lehtonen said he's already been asked to bring the program to Texas, Oregon, Washington, Colarado, Arizona, Nevada, Connecticut, Wisconsin and North Carolina.
     "We recently met with the East Bay Municipal Water District up here and they want to do soemthing region-wide and combined with Padific Gas & Electric to deliver a series of workshops," he said.  
    Lehtonen said there are currently two workshops--"Caring for our Water" with instructor John Koeller, and "Climate Care," with instructor Gary Klein. Three more are in development and plans call for them to roll out sometime in February. On tap are, "Water Efficient Technology," "Solar" and "Domestic Water Audits."       
    One or the other GreenPlumbers seminar is tentatively scheduled for every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in January in California locales ranging between Marin and San Diego and major locations in between.    
    For more information, contact the California PHCC at (916) 925-7390 or visit http://greenplumbers.com/california.