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Robin Scott

Glass Technician | West Leechburg, Pa.

The first call came on Sunday afternoon, just as Robin Scott was settling in to watch the Steelers game.

"I was blindsided," he recalls. "I was told not to show up to work tomorrow. I no longer had a job. No more benefits. After 20 years, it was a kick in the pants."

Scott was still scrambling for work when the second call came, about three months later. The window factory where he had spent two decades as a glass technician was opening its doors again, under a new owner. Did Scott want to come back to work?

"I jumped around the house like a giddy little schoolgirl," Scott says. "I was so excited. My wife was in tears. I said, 'Tell me when and I'll be there.'"

Scott and other former Kensington workers were hired by Serious Materials, a company that develops and manufactures sustainable, energy-efficient materials, including super-insulated windows. "They impressed me no end," says Scott of his new employers. "They're raising the bar in the industry."

Scott says he's "not a treehugger by any means," but he likes the direction his company is going. "I have two children, and I don't want to leave them a devastated planet," he says.

"And we can't depend on foreign oil anymore. They have us by the throats. If we really are the best country in the world, we should be able to come up with the technology to free ourselves. The energy we save by replacing old windows is going to help us become independent again."

last revised 6/11/2009