While I was in New Orleans for the Green Matters Conference, I met the most extraordinary woman.

Simone Bruni, better known in the Crescent City as the “Demo Diva,” took her personal tragedy from Hurricane Katrina and turned it into a woman-owned and -run demolition business, complete with hot pink front loader and giant Dumpster.

I have written and spoken extensively on the lack of women in green [some of Shapiro's previous posts on the subject are available here and here at GreenerBuildings.com.]. There are many reasons for it, I suppose. Green, particularly green building, is really a version of construction, and women represent only 3-6 percent of the building trades as a whole.

The lesson from the Demo Diva is that there is nothing really stopping women from becoming involved, even in the male-dominated fields like demolition and construction. On the softer side, there is certainly no reason that women cannot be green building lawyers, sustainable investment advisors or involved in the marketing and selling of green products.

Given that the economy is in a fragile recovery, green and sustainable businesses are leading the areas of growth. There are many programs specifically designed to help women acquire skills for the green arena. (A listing is available here.) Green Business Women is a nice site with resources for women looking to turn their business green.

But the hard truth is that this is a time with little demand and few jobs. What should women who have a passion or interest in sustainability do?

The first thing is to upgrade their skills -- while the pressure is off, pursue training and education. If you were always tinkering or have a head for math, now is a great time to become an engineer. Villanova even has an online master's in Sustainable Engineering and Control Engineering.

The second is to have chutzpah. No job? Start a new company, like the Demo Diva did. There are programs designed to help women entrepreneurs, though I would argue that there are far too few of them. The Small Business Association has a Women-Owned Business section.

As a country, we should look at what we can do to support women in green. One Horatio Alger story, even one as inspiring at the Demo Diva, is not enough. Small business loans for women starting green businesses would be a good start. Funds could come from the government, of course. Or they could come from more established green businesses and companies interested in becoming more green with a clear idea of the types of goods and services they need.

Next Page: Funding green job training programs for women.