Correctional facilities have stable populations, structured social organization, and measurable inputs and outputs of materials and energy, which facilitates the cost-effective use of "greening" technology and practices. The greening of corrections has motivated facilities to use more green products and services so as to reduce their operational and maintenance costs in a time of tight budgets and growing inmate populations. The NIC's Green Corrections Project will allow administrators to establish a baseline on energy and water usage, provide green alternatives to reduce costs, and raise environmental awareness. The project will focus on three areas: investigating offender "green-collar" job-readiness programs; developing strategies to make penal industry products and services more environmentally friendly; and creating strategies to build or transform agencies into self-sustaining facilities. Once identified, correctional facilities can use these benchmarks to implement self-sustaining and environmentally friendly processes in daily operation or as backup plans during emergencies. NIC will partner with and receive information from the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Interior, and the Department of Labor in advancing the project. NIC anticipates that a number of innovative and unique solutions will be discovered. Information collected in the course of the project will be disseminated through podcasts, Web-casts, a satellite Internet broadcast, and NIC's training and technical assistance programs. 10 notes