WARWICK — The economy and the environment go hand in hand, but it’s up to residents to make the connection, local experts told an audience gathered yesterday for a conversation about making the state’s economy more green.

“If we as a public don’t demand it, we won’t get it,” said Connie L. McGreavy, chairwoman of the Rhode Island Green Building Council.

The forum was part of the National Day of Action sponsored by Green Jobs Now, a nonpartisan initiative of sustainable energy organizations Green For All, 1Sky and the We Campaign, according to the Green Jobs Now Web site. In addition to the conversation, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse gave a keynote address via satellite and Providence Mayor David Cicilline offered remarks to the group.

Across the country, organizations held more than 650 events calling attention to the need for environmentally sustainable jobs that would not only bolster the economy, but employ low-income people. In Cambridge, the Massachusetts Green Jobs Coalition, along with other organizations, held a Green Jobs Now rally at the Cambridge City Hall, where Mayor E. Denise Simmons urged the audience to create green jobs in Massachusetts.

In Rhode Island, roughly 100 people packed an auditorium at New England Institute of Technology to talk about solar energy, educating young workers on green technology and policy initiatives.

“We want to educate people and get people thinking and talking to each other and start working together toward the greening of Rhode Island’s economy,” said Greg Gerritt, founder of the Rhode Island Prosperity Project, one of the sponsors of yesterday’s event. “People need workers. They need educated workers. We have to think about the big picture.”

A green job, Gerritt said, is typically a job in the building construction industry that uses practices to reduce energy consumption and the use of fossil fuels. That means laborers who install solar panels, construction workers who use techniques that reduce their carbon footprint, and builders who use technology aimed at reducing a building’s energy consumption are all in green jobs.

Already, Rhode Island is taking initial steps toward encouraging green jobs. Governor Carcieri last week selected the company that will build and operate wind turbines off the Rhode Island coast, to supply 15 percent of the state’s electricity. At New England Tech, students are learning how to repair cars that have been converted to compressed natural gas, and are studying other areas including engineering and construction that use green technology, said Steven Kitchin, vice president of corporate education and training at the college.

“We don’t lack the resources to do what we need to do to create green jobs today,” he said. “The training resources exist, the money exists … the bottom line is we’ve got the resources. We’ve got to find the will to make everything work together.”

The workers have the desire, said Anthony Hubbard, program director at YouthBuild, an organization that teaches work skills to low-income young people. He put the laborer’s view of the initative this way: “Green jobs equal green money.”

“They could care less if the job is blue collar or green collar,” Hubbard said, using the moniker for environmentally friendly jobs. “As long as they can get a living wage job that takes care of their families and they feel like they can make a difference, it can be their pathway out of poverty.”

tbuford@projo.com