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The Seat Pleasant Community Development Corp. wants city residents to start thinking green and get paid for it.

The corporation has launched its "Greening the Community" project, which pays for classes geared toward helping the city's unemployed and underemployed residents make their homes more energy efficient. It also provides on-the-job experience to those who want careers in home weatherization.

The nonprofit will use $150,000 in Prince George's County Community Development block grant money it expects to receive in December to fund tuition for nine to 12 city residents to take classes such as "Fundamentals of Solar Hot Water Heating" and "Weatherization" at Prince George's Community College, said Koko Barnes, the corporation's executive director.

The classes, which Barnes hopes will begin in December, will be offered at the Largo college through the Prince George's County Economic Development Corp.'s Workforce Services Division, she said.

Barnes said the Seat Pleasant corporation began the initiative to create jobs so city residents and surrounding communities would not be left out of the global conversation about reducing their carbon footprints.

"We really want people to understand that how you change things globally is to change things locally," Barnes said.

The corporation also is partnering with Bowie-based Renewable Energy Alliance LLC, an energy technology business, to offer free audits that determine if more energy-efficient items are needed in houses.

In addition, five of the residents who request energy audits will be selected in a lottery to receive free energy-saving appliances and home upgrades funded by the same grant. Residents who sign up for the classes at the community college will receive on-the-job training from Renewable Energy Alliance LLC officials who will supervise them in completing audits for residents.

Residents who are not picked in the lottery will still receive assistance on how to get discounts on home improvements, Barnes said.

"We're really trying to cover anyone who needs the work and can't afford it," Barnes said.

Barnes said she is still waiting on residents to express interest and that signing up is on a first-come, first- served basis. Residents who want to take the classes must have at least a high school diploma or an equivalent.

A long-term goal of the corporation and Renewable Energy Alliance LLC is to acquire additional state and federal funding to make sure all of the 20743 ZIP code— which also includes the Capitol Heights and Fairmount Heights areas—receives an energy audit and is on the fast track to replacing appliances, said Gabriel Christian, the CEO of Renewable Energy Alliance LLC.

"We want to see those funds make a positive impact on those communities," Christian said.

Malcolm Johnson, 53, said he wants to take advantage of the free energy audits he found out about from his neighbor. Johnson said the classes are a good idea and that his utility bills total between $2,000 and $3,000 from November through February.

"Basically I can't afford new windows and stuff because I'm not working right now, I'm disabled," Johnson said. "[The bills are] really high."

E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.