Green Jobs: A Guide to Eco-Friendly Employment

› Identify “green-collar” jobs in every industry › Learn about the education and training needed to succeed › Break into the fastest-growing eco-friendly fields

(SFFO+PCT ’ A Guide to Eco-Friendly Employment

A. Bronwyn Llewellyn, M.A., James P. Hendrix, Ph.D., and K. C. Golden, M.A.

GreenJobs A Guide to Eco-Friendly Employment



A. Bronwyn Llewellyn, M.A., James P. Hendrix, Ph.D., and K. C. Golden, M.A.

avon, massachusetts



For Paiz

Copyright © 2008 by A. Bronwyn Llewellyn and K.C. Golden. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews. Published by Adams Media, an F+W Publications Company 57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322. U.S.A. www.adamsmedia.com ISBN-10: 1-59869-872-9 ISBN-13: 978-1-59869-872-5 (paperback) ISBN-13: 978-1-44050-120-3 (EPUB) Printed in Canada. J I H G F E D C B A Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the publisher. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. —From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their product are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Adams Media was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters. The pages of this book are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper. This book is available at quantity discounts for bulk purchases. For information, please call 1-800-289-0963.

Contents iv Acknowledgments 1

Part One

3

Chapter 1: It’s a Greening World: How We Got Where We Are and Where We’re Headed

17

Chapter 2: Green Goes Mainstream

27

Chapter 3: Who Wants a Green Job and Why

39

Chapter 4: What Green Means for Education and Training

45

P a r t T w o

47

Chapter 5: Green Energy

95

Chapter 6: Green Transportation

113

Chapter 7: Green Building

141

Chapter 8: Green Organizations and NGOs

149

Chapter 9: Natural Resources Management

181

Chapter 10: Green Goods and Services

204

Bibliography

212 Appendix 230 Index 234 About the Authors

iii

Acknowledgments

I

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n writing this volume, the authors have been continually astounded by the environmental revolution that is emerging worldwide. It is exciting, and sobering, to visualize the relationship between the battle against global warming and other environmental crises and the simultaneous creation of millions of jobs to relieve unemployment, underemployment, and other socioeconomic challenges. The massive volume of information, and the fact that it changes by the hour, has been daunting. You can’t glance at any form of media without seeing some reference to “green,” or global warming, or the environment. This movement constitutes a sea change, one that is nearly impossible to capture in a single comprehensive treatment. The best we can do is to dip our bucket into this fast-moving stream and examine that moment’s contents. Tomorrow—and next week—the view will be different. We hope, however, that our work provides a useful introduction to this potentially world-changing topic. It is exciting to witness its early stages and growth. As a job seeker, you have nearly limitless opportunities to participate. While it seems clear that the green job sector will indeed be what former President Bill Clinton has called the biggest economic boom since this country mobilized for World War II, we are just at the start of this metamorphosis. As this book goes to press, both the United States and the world are on the cusp of an explosion of green jobs. The dramatic forecasts of huge numbers of jobs you’ll find in these pages come from the leading thinkers and participants—environmental and green job evangelists, if you will—working today. Far from hyperbole, we feel these predictions will come true. We have benefited from the invaluable assistance of many people and organizations in the writing of this book. John Huie,

ACKNOWLED G ME N TS

former director of the Environmental Leadership Center at Warren Wilson College and of the North Carolina Outward Bound School, inspired us with the visionary thinking that has characterized his career. Kevin Wilhelm, CEO of Sustainable Business Consulting, was ever patient and always timely in his response to our queries. A graduate of Bainbridge Island Graduate Institute, one of the leading graduate programs focusing on sustainable business, Kevin is a model of the kind of careers the green jobs revolution is creating. Samantha Saarion and Co-op America were major sources of valuable information. Co-op America is at the leading edge of the green revolution, and Samantha was always quick, willing, and informative in response to our queries. Carolee Sharp of the Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development shared with us her department’s impressive “Directory of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Companies” and also referred us to a similar directory for the state of California. Kristin Rothballer, managing director of Green for All in Oakland, California, generously answered our questions and offered encouragement. The work of Mark Guterman of MeaningfulCareers.com, and Terry Karp and Robin Holt of the Bay Area Career Center was helpful in crafting the values section. Our greatest debt is to our advisor for this effort, K. C. Golden, policy director for Climate Solutions in Seattle, Washington. K. C. is at the forefront of the environmental movement, both with his work for Climate Solutions as well as the exciting 1 Sky initiative. He introduced us to innumerable helpful people, organizations, Web sites, and printed resources, patiently answered our endless questions, markedly improved our manuscript with his suggestions, and inspired us with his passion in addressing the globalwarming crisis. Any merit that this volume may have is largely attributable to the advice of all who so kindly assisted us and we are grateful to them all. The inevitable errors and other deficiencies of this work, in turn, are exclusively the responsibility of the authors.



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P ART O NE 1: It’s a Greening World: How We Got Where We Are and Where We’re Headed.............................................................. 3 2: Green Goes Mainstream....................................................... 17

4: What Green Means for Education and Training.................... 39



3: Who Wants a Green Job and Why........................................ 27



Chapter 1: It’s a Greening World: How We Got Where We Are and Where We’re Headed > “There is no business to be done on a dead planet.” —David Brower

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emember the quip, “Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it”? Until recently, you might have said the same thing about the plight of our planet. Yes, there have long been many passionate advocates working tirelessly on behalf of the environment, but their efforts haven’t been actively embraced by most of the populace, and too often they’ve been hindered or thwarted by government and business interests. Opinion polls now show that most Americans agree with the goals and views of the environmental movement, but our actions suggest otherwise. There are now hundreds of books, periodicals, and Web sites with constructive tips on living in an Earth-friendly way— from simple things, like taking your own reusable bags to the store, to the more involved and expensive, such as installing solar panels on your house. Yet only about one-third of municipal waste gets recycled (in fact, according to www.container-recycling.org, beverage container recycling has decreased 30 percent since 1994), twothirds of rural Americans have no access to public transportation (www.apta.com), and only about 180,000 American homeowners live “off the grid” entirely. Then suddenly in 2007, concern for environmental issues seemed to grow widespread and insistent. A 2007 poll by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy found that the percentage of Americans who say global warming is a serious problem has grown from 70 to 84 percent since 2004. Three-quarters of respondents to a Washington Post poll on environment trends rated the



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condition of the world’s natural environment today as fair, poor, or very poor. One reason is the growing body of unmistakable scientific data about the negative impact of human activity on Earth’s ecosystems. A second comes from the prominence of one of its spokespersons, former Vice President Al Gore, who sparked a new flurry of debate and controversy in 2006 with his Academy Award–winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, and best-selling book of the same title. (In October 2007, Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.) A third is the growing sense that green is about much more than “the environment” in the narrow sense. Our dependence on fossil fuels, for example, not only fouls our air but gravely threatens our national security and our economic prosperity. Our current economy produces not just too much climate pollution but too little opportunity for those living on the economic margins, both in the United States and around the world. The transition to clean energy isn’t just a matter of cleaner air; it’s a moral, cultural, and economic imperative. This green wave holds significant implications for the future of jobs and careers. In the 1990s, many employers opposed changing their ways, and perhaps lowering their profits, in response to the admonitions of what they viewed as a few environmental alarmists. Thomas Berry describes those traditional ways of doing business in his 1999 book, The Great Work: “. . . the greatest possible amount of natural resources is processed as quickly as possible, put through the consumer economy, and then passed on to the junk heap, where the remains are useless at best and at worst toxic to every living thing.” His words echo those written more than 150 years earlier by Susan Fenimore Cooper, daughter of novelist James Fenimore Cooper, in her book, Rural Hours: “. . . it is not surprising, perhaps, that a man whose chief object in life is to make money should turn his timber into bank-notes with all possible speed.” Clearly, our ways of doing business, and the relationship of business to the environment, have a deep-rooted history that has proven difficult to alter. The mood has shifted. As David Orr, professor of environmental studies and politics at Oberlin College remarked, “Public opinion is at or near, or just past, a tipping point.” Now, living green isn’t just for tree-hugging do-gooders. Earth-friendly

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living is no longer an option or a virtuous sacrifice; it’s an obligation. Today, two-thirds of Americans consider themselves either active participants or supporters of the environmental movement. Twothirds of Americans also feel that all citizens need to take more responsibility for their personal contribution to global warming. As more and more consumers have demanded less wasteful and more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly products, companies have started to respond. This groundswell of public opinion, added to the growing numbers of proposals from stockholders demanding more environmental consciousness, has grown into a force that companies can no longer ignore. And this transition has been helped by the realization that the potential profits are huge: hundreds of billions of > “Al Gore can’t dollars by most estimates. convince me, but the As a result, businesses have data can convince me.” begun to shift from complying with government regulations, —Ray Lane, Kleiner Perkins often reluctantly, to being Caufield & Byers proactive in their approach to green issues. From hybrid cars to organic foods to “eco-chic” weddings to furniture made from sustainable resources, everyone seems to be going green. Where once you were lucky to find paper towels made of recycled materials, now old sneakers and clothing reappear as new garments, while components produced by sustainable processes go into face creams, household cleansers, carpeting, and more. Now, major corporations from Starbucks to Sun Microsystems make their carbon footprint data available to the public—a concept that didn’t even exist a decade ago. In April 2007, Yahoo announced its goal to become 100 percent carbon neutral by the end of the year. Hundreds of corporations have joined coalitions and initiatives designed to monitor their practices and adjust them to more eco-conscious ways. It seems that any business that wants to succeed must consider not only greenbacks but also green practices. Increasingly, corporations are seeking ways to increase profits without destroying the very environment that makes that prosperity possible. Is the green wave in business for real, or is it just a public relations ploy? Early in 2007, the director of the World Wildlife



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Fund agreed the eco-friendly change is indeed real but noted that much of this change in attitude, and the proliferation of advertisements attempting to portray companies as green, is more akin to a “greenwash”—as one New York Times reporter put it, “like putting green paint on bad architecture.” But while some changes in business practice may begin as superficial gestures, the economics of being green are clearly becoming more attractive. One corporate truism hasn’t changed: Money talks. And the green economy is just clearing its throat. Beyond the pure profit motive, “green employment” has the ability to relieve unemployment and subwage employment, especially in urban areas. As Van Jones, executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, California, advocates, green jobs can be a tide that lifts all boats, providing pathways out of poverty for many who have been left behind in the old economy. The Apollo Alliance has proposed there be $300 billion in federal funding over the next decade for eco-related projects, which would create some three million green-collar jobs. UPI Energy Watch notes that there’s a growing of environmentally skilled > “Jobs are too small shortage workers. According to one poll, for people’s spirits.” most Americans think they should be spending several thousand dol—Studs Terkel lars to make their homes as energy efficient as possible. The products and services necessary for putting these changes into effect will have to come from the expanding green-collar workforce. This transition from an industrial blue to an environmentally green economy also has the capacity to replace many jobs lost in recent decades to overseas outsourcing. Columnist Thomas Friedman, in a July 2007 New York Times Magazine cover story, posits that green-collar jobs would essentially be “outsource immune.” More environmentally friendly jobs can also replace those now lost to resource depletion, such as in the timber towns of the Pacific Northwest, the former steel mills of Pennsylvania, and the textile mills of the South. The federal government has been crafting its own response to green concerns. In August 2007, a more environmentally friendly House of Representatives passed legislation dealing with many

all

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of these green issues, including jobs, energy, and education. Poll results show that more than three-quarters of Americans favor setting higher emissions and pollution standards for business and industry, spending more government money on developing solar and wind power, and spending federal funds to develop alternative sources of automobile fuel. The U.S. Department of Energy announced that it would spend $30 million in Tennessee, Wisconsin, and California to develop more energy-efficient ways to turn non-food crops (cellulose and microbes) into auto fuel—that’s in addition to the $375 million the department is investing in ethanol plants in six > “One responsibility we states. In 2007, Democratic have is action.” presidential candidate John —California Governor Edwards proposed a “green Arnold Schwarzenegger jobs” plan to create 150,000 green-collar jobs each year, with a goal of one million over a ten-year period. That same year, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton put forth a strategic energy fund to be financed with $50 billion from taxes on oil companies, one aspect of which would create green jobs. Others have followed suit with similar ideas. States and cities are also crafting green job platforms and programs. In California, Oakland’s Apollo Challenge (2006) pressed the city to create “green enterprise zones” and a “green jobs corps,” as well as to show leadership in solar and wind power development, among other initiatives. Washington, D.C., has implemented a green-collar job-training program. In 2007, Minnesota passed the nation’s most stringent “e-cycling” law to date, requiring manufacturers of electronics to recycle 60 percent of the volume of their products sold in the state. Yahoo Corporation held a “Be a Better Planet” contest to find America’s greenest city. They announced the winner in the summer of 2007: Hastings, Nebraska. Today, scientific experts agree that humans are changing Earth’s natural environment at an unprecedented rate. From species extinction to declining water resources to air pollution to climate change, the challenges facing this country and the world affect every aspect of an eco-conscious life, including one’s choice of career. The number and variety of those choices are increasing exponentially—by many estimates faster than their conventional



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counterparts—and that’s good news if you’re the one looking for a job or career. Microsoft founder Bill Gates calls the green economy the biggest economic opportunity in the country. Such opportunity is by no means limited to the United States. In Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming (2007), entrepreneur and environmentalist Paul Hawken calculates that, worldwide, there are as many as two million organizations working toward ecological sustainability and social justice. In London, Nicholas Moore Eisenberger, writing in The Times in 2006, estimates that the global market for low-carbon technologies could reach $645 billion over the next few decades. Eisenberger adds, “that doesn’t include any environmentally beneficial innovations in manufacturing, consumer goods and services, or many other industries.” Such innovations lead to new products and markets—precisely what happened with the high-tech explosion that hit the computer industry in the 1970s. New green career fields are springing up that didn’t exist a decade or even five years ago. What computer competency was to the late twentieth century, environmental competency will be to the early twenty-first century, and that translates into new jobs and the need for thousands of workers prepared to fill them. Environmental awareness need not be limited to jobs or careers considered strictly green. Changes within existing businesses like architecture, packaging, automobile manufacturing, building trades, or agriculture are transforming them into more sustainable and environmentally friendly entities. You say you aren’t trained to be a sustainability consultant or environmental toxicologist? Ecofriendly companies need environmentally competent accountants, technicians, security, researchers, scientists, managers, and all of the knowledge and creativity that any other company does. Ultimately, being green is a choice that you can apply to any work you do. Even if your current employer isn’t particularly green, you can work to change the corporate culture from the inside. There are plenty of printed and online resources available to help you write a resume or interview for a job, and these basics apply to looking for a green job as well (see the appendix). Green Jobs helps you identify the diverse fields at the forefront of ecofriendly policies and practices and provides helpful information so that you can investigate, train for, and land one of these jobs or start a green business of your own.

If you’re reading this book, chances are good that a job is more than just a paycheck for you. You are probably looking for a career that aligns not only with your skills and knowledge but also with your values. Do something good for yourself and the planet at the same time and go green. Remember the bit of advice given to Pinocchio: “Let your conscience be your guide.” (Come to think of it, Jiminy Cricket—Pinocchio’s conscience—was green. Coincidence? Perhaps not.)

A Brief History of Being Green “Those of us who are children of the environmental movement must never forget that we are standing on the shoulders of all who came before us.” —Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, The Death of Environmentalism

The environmental movement is a phenomenon so amorphous and substantial that it defies conventional vocabulary, let alone a brief summation. Environmentalist Paul Hawken categorizes it as part of what he calls “the movement,” a multifaceted phenomenon he believes encompasses as many as two million worldwide nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) focusing on the environment, indigenous rights, and social justice. For Hawken, this constitutes “the largest social movement in all of human history.” So how and when did the environmental movement evolve and begin to create green jobs in the United States? When the first settlers arrived in this country, what they encountered was a wilderness that extended in every direction as far as the eye could see. They viewed this “garden of the New World” as abundance ripe for the taking and a resource ready for exploitation. As more people arrived, the wild places yielded to civilization—all in the name of progress. There was little concern for the natural environment until the mid-nineteenth century. One can read an early sensitivity to the land in the Leatherstocking novels of James Fenimore Cooper, possibly reflecting his upbringing in upstate New York—frontier when he was a child but rapidly succuming to settlement as he grew up. His writing from the 1820s reflects nostalgia for the disappearing wilderness. His hero, Natty Bumppo, laments the slaughter of the American pigeon in The Frontier, and one can read the implied ambivalence in the title of

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A Country Forged from Wilderness



his most famous work, The Last of the Mohicans. Cooper’s daughter, Susan, no doubt affected by the same changes in the local environment, was more direct. In her 1850 memoir, Rural Hours, she called for the immediate need to preserve America’s forests from the devastation by industries that viewed them simply as fuel. Susan Cooper was writing just as the essential foundations of the American environmental movement were about to develop. In 1854, Henry David Thoreau published Walden, later accepted as the bible of the movement. Seven years later, early Western photographer Carleton Watkins lugged a specially designed, large-format camera into the wilderness to photograph the wonder of nature that was the Yosemite Valley in California. A public display of his works dazzled New York City and, among other consequences, prompted President Lincoln to sign the Yosemite Land Grant in 1864, which deeded for preservation to the State of California 39,000 acres of the valley and surrounding area. That same year, diplomat and philologist George Perkins Marsh published Man and Nature, which Paul Hawken suggests is “arguably the most important book ever published on the environment” because of the landmark suggestion that the environment and society are inextricably linked. Many consider Marsh to be the first environmentalist.

Conservation and Preservation

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The post–Civil War years include one of the most dynamic— and exploitative—periods of American industrial growth. Perhaps feelings of unease and guilt about this runaway expansion—in which Native Americans were subdued, the buffalo almost exterminated, and the frontier essentially erased—prompted several efforts to salvage something of the original landscape. While the wilderness had long seemed abundant, even infinite, Americans began to realize that without protection and proper stewardship it would disappear. In 1872, Yellowstone was designated the first national park, followed by Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant Parks in 1890. Gifford Pinchot, appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt as chief forester of the U.S. Forest Service, coined the term conservation. He believed that the best way to preserve the country’s natural resources was to use them, but use them wisely and effectively. His conviction brought him head to head with legendary

nature writer and environmentalist John Muir, who believed that preserving the environment meant leaving it in its natural, pristine state, without interference by humans. People rallied behind both sides, and national groups aimed at protecting America’s wilderness began to form at this time, including the Audubon Society in 1886 and the Sierra Club, founded by Muir, in 1892. One of Muir’s prime motives was the threat to Hetch Hetchy Valley, a glacier-sculpted sister to Yosemite and arguably even more beautiful. Muir lost the twenty-two-year battle in 1914, when the Tuolumne River was dammed and Hetch Hetchy Valley flooded to create a reservoir for San Francisco’s water needs. While it marked a tragic event in the year of Muir’s death, his effort had so affected the public that Congress tried to appease it by establishing the National Parks Service Act in 1916. The Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and American involvement in two world wars turned attention away from the environment for the most part, although the Wilderness Society was founded in 1935. It wasn’t until the second half of the century that the modern environmental movement emerged. Ecologist Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac (1949) is an essential volume in the pantheon of American environmental literature. Now considered the father of wildlife management in this country, he stressed the connection among all living things and introduced the science of ecology to the movement. Marine biologist Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) struck like a thunderbolt. By linking certain industrial chemicals, such as DDT, with animal and human health, she had the most profound impact of any individual on the emerging environmental effort, in essence launching the movement around the globe. Also in 1962, the Sierra Club published a coffee-table book, its title a quote from Thoreau, In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World, whose sale of one million copies confirmed the growing popular breadth and appeal of the movement.

Green Activism Takes Root

Increased activism in the 1960s and 1970s mobilized change in a wide array of social movements. Propelled by the Vietnam War, civil rights abuses, feminist struggles, and other reform impulses, books such as Silent Spring opened the floodgates of the burgeoning

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Post-War Environmentalism

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environmental crusade. Writer and environmentalist Wallace Stegner lent his eloquent support to the Wilderness Act, signed into law in 1964. A year later, social scientist Kenneth Boulding coined the term Spaceship Earth, later popularized by Buckminster Fuller, and helped many people understand both the fragility of the planet and its web of ecological interrelationships. (The stunning “Earthrise” photograph taken from Apollo 8 in December 1968 seemed to wake up the world to our delicate “spaceship,” as people saw the planet for the first time as it is, dwarfed by infinite space. A later photograph from Apollo 17 became the virtual poster child of many environmental causes.) In 1965, Supreme Court Justice and passionate environmentalist William O. Douglas published A Wilderness Bill of Rights, contending that nature, like people, had a right to legal protection. In The Population Bomb (1968), Paul R. Ehrlich underlines the obvious, but until then not widely articulated, connection between a worldwide population explosion and increased pressure on the environment. Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, a passionate and sometimes militant defense of desert wilderness, took the gloves off for some environmentalists in 1968—the most turbulent year of the decade. Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson organized the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, and the participation of an estimated two million people demonstrated the emerging strength of environmental awareness. Perhaps in response to this growing grassroots support, Congress established the Environmental Protection Agency and passed a Clean Air Act in 1970, as well as later bills to control water pollution, influenced in no small measure by the shock of fire breaking out on the surface of the heavily polluted Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1969. Increasing alarm about the state of the ecosystem can be read in such publications as Limits to Growth (1972) and the Global 2000: A Report to the President (1979). The latter came as a request from President Jimmy Carter in the last year of his term, but was later suppressed by President Ronald Reagan. Both volumes posit that the current demands placed on Earth’s resources by its population are unsustainable and that human survival depends on developing new, less environmentally predatory practices in industry and business. In 1976, the United Nations adopted the Belgrade Charter through which a majority of the world’s nations

embraced the need to support environmental education on a large scale “to develop a world population that is aware of, and concerned about, the environment and its associated problems, and which has the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations, and commitment to work individually and collectively toward the solution of current problems and the prevention of new ones.” And in 1983, responding to the increasingly urgent wake-up calls, the United Nations appointed a World Commission on the Environment and Development to address growing concern “about the accelerating deterioration of the human environment and natural resources.”

Green Moves into the Twenty-First Century

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By the 1990s, the emergence of environmentalism as a popular movement led to an accelerating flood of books, media coverage, conferences, symposia, and political dialogue. The movement became part of mainstream America. Scientific verification of species extinc- > “The powerful tion, global warming, air technological agents we pollution, and resource depletion became indis- have unleashed against the putably clear. Isolated local environment include many problems were seen as con- of the agents we require for nected, arousing concerted global concern and pro- its reconstruction.” viding a launching pad for —George F. Will worldwide environmental cooperation. Worldwide efforts included the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (1992) and the Kyoto Summit on Global Warming in 1997. Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability (1993) touched off a revolution in the business and consumer worlds with his call for more sustainable, Earth-friendly business and manufacturing practices. Interface, Inc., founder Ray Anderson’s MidCourse Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model (1998), is a classic example of the sort of epiphany Hawken inspired, as Anderson describes the genesis of his commitment to turn his carpet-manufacturing firm from heavily petroleum based to fully sustainable. Hawken’s subsequent volume, written with Amory and Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next 13

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Industrial Revolution (1999), provides a specific, optimistic handbook of achievable and profound changes to save and protect the ecosystem. The journey of the past century and a half is truly revolutionary, from the lonely voices of Cooper, Thoreau, and other isolated early environmentalists to the present phenomenon of nearly two million NGOs devoted to environmentally related causes. Some did, indeed, see it coming, but they were few and far between until natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and influential spokespersons, such as former President Al Gore, pro> “The first wave of Vice vided powerful catalysts in the environmentalism early years of the twenty-first was framed around century. Whatever the motivatoday “the movement” is conservation and tion, mushrooming. The worldwide the second around groups committed to enviregulation. We believe ronmental and sustainability the third wave will issues, social entrepreneurship, microfinance and microcredit, be framed around green building design and investment.” construction, and social justice include such diverse organiza—Van Jones, Executive Director, tions and movements as the Ella Baker Center for Evangelical Climate Initiative; Human Rights “keeper” groups, such as the 150 members of the Waterkeeper’s Alliance; hundreds of “watch” entities like Earth Watch; multiple “friends” groups, like Friends of the Earth; “defenders,” such as Defenders of Wildlife; over 7,000 “Roots and Shoots” youth groups organized by Jane Goodall; the Long Now Foundation; and even a “slow food” movement. Celebrities, politicians, and CEOs, such as Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, and Hank Paulson of the Goldman Sachs Group, “get” it and use their clout and name recognition to make things happen. Here are a few snapshots of a revolution in progress in 2007. Organic food products begin to grab serious shelf space in conventional grocery stores; recycled containers and unbleached napkins are commonly seen at fast-food restaurants; signs in many hotels 14

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encourage multi-day use of towels and linens and use of watersaving shower heads; recycling signs and bins show up everywhere; hybrid, biofuel, and electric vehicles hit the road, becoming the most popular models in some areas of the United States; state governments give tax credits for solar installations and allow customers who generate solar power to run their meters backwards; Wal-Mart and even some international oil companies green their operations; long-polluted major waterways, such as the Hudson, Thames, and Rhine recover; large lumber companies and furniture makers certify use of sustainable timber; green houses are sold by green real-estate brokers and financed by green banks; companies ranging from energy-bar producers to outdoor clothing manufacturers contribute a portion of profits to environmental causes. And that’s just the beginning. It doesn’t yet amount to the revolutionary change that saving ourselves and our planet will require, but it’s not just a flash in the pan or a marketing craze. Something big, new, and very, very green is afoot. Will it be big enough, bold enough, creative enough, and determined enough to prevent catastrophic environmental disruption? Will we have the vision to forge a new, sustainable prosperity—one that works not just for a few, for a short while, but for billions more, for the long haul? Answering that question with a resounding “Yes!” is the defining challenge of our century. It’s the test that will define us in the eyes of future generations. And rising to that challenge requires—it promises—a new and fundamentally healthier economy, with unprecedented opportunities for better employment and greater fulfillment.

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Chapter 2: Green Goes Mainstream > “Green is the new red, white, and blue.” —Thomas Friedman

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nvironmental concern, once a narrow niche in public consciousness, is rapidly evolving into an organizing principle for a new economy. The terminology used to discuss this transition is shifting rapidly as the field expands. A new vocabulary is emerging to accompany this growing movement (like LOHAS, people who live lifestyles of health and sustainability), but the meaning of each new term, like eco-friendly or sustainability, seems to change with the user. One study found over sixty different definitions of sustainability. One thing is certain: The primary shade of this new lexicon is green. The burgeoning “green economy” is fueled by “green capital,” powered by “green technology,” and staffed by “green-collar” jobs. Green is the color of the coolest cars (hybrids), the coolest clothes (hemp and bamboo), and the coolest actors (Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, and Robert Redford). Formerly, “green” was associated with back-to-the-land hippies, sacrifice, deprivation, and second-best or inferior quality, but no more. Green is definitely in. There is no standard definition for the “green” that’s being tossed about in the media (a Google search for the term as it relates to the environment produces some 400 million hits). Right now, it can mean whatever a person, corporation, or nonprofit wants it to mean, leaving it up to the consumer to interpret. But generically, and traditionally, it has described something that has a benign or moderate effect on the environment. By extension, green jobs, or green-collar jobs, are those connected to eco-friendly products

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and services and associated with work that contributes to a sustainable economy and better environment. Kevin Wilhelm, CEO of Sustainable Business Consulting, defines a green job as one that “tries to improve the environment as it simultaneously increases profitability and the branding of a business.” And just like any other catchphrase or media-speak, green can be misused and misinterpreted. Automakers who claim their fuel-guzzling SUVs are green because the gas mileage has been improved 25 percent are being disingenuous. Ultimately, the same caution applies to the green marketplace as to any other: caveat emptor. If you are looking to get a job with an environmentally conscious company, then do your research. Look beneath the green veneer and see if the business you want to work for not only talks the talk but walks the walk—preferably on a surface made from reclaimed, recycled, or sustainably produced materials.

What Green Means for Business “Greentech companies are the mother of all markets.” —Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers

Green Is the New Plastics

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If Mr. McGuire were counseling Dustin Hoffman’s Benjamin Braddock in a remake of the movie The Graduate today, the conversation would undoubtedly go something like this: Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Benjamin: Yes, sir. Mr. McGuire: Are you listening? Benjamin: Yes, I am. Mr. McGuire: Green. And just as in 1967 “plastics” turned out to be prophetic, “green” promises to be one harbinger and hallmark of coming prosperity. Back when The Graduate was filmed, the idea of a green company was almost unheard of. In the 1970s, when Ben and Jerry’s and Tom’s of Maine were established, they represented but a tiny niche far outside the corporate mainstream. Indeed, well into the 1990s, such companies based on integrating social conscience with profits were seen as fringe elements, certainly not the wave of the future. Contrast that with today. Companies from Terracycle, which produces organic plant fertilizer from worm castings, to Patagonia,

which makes outdoor clothing with sustainable and responsible manufacturing practices, have become the cover stories for established business periodicals like Fortune magazine. In 2004, the U.S. natural and sustainable products industry was estimated to be worth $230 billion. Analysts expect that industry to grow by 20 to 30 percent annually. Also in 2004, there were approximately 13,000 retailers devoted to selling environmentally preferable products. Some estimates say that between 2004 and 2007, green businesses in general grew at a rate of 5 percent per year, and according to Co-op America’s 2007 National Green Pages, “all sectors of the green economy are growing faster than their conventional counterparts.” In one week in May 2007, Rupert Murdoch’s giant media company, NewsCorp, pledged to become “carbon neutral” by 2010; one of the world’s biggest financial conglomerates, Citigroup, committed $50 billion over ten years in investments and project financing to reduce global carbon emissions; and IBM announced “Big Project Green,” an investment of $1 billion to make its global operations more energy efficient. Scores of other Fortune 500 companies, from Alcoa to Dell to General Mills to Wal-Mart, have followed suit in an effort to reduce their impact on the environment, water and air quality, energy use, and climate change. A growing number of companies like Eastman Kodak, Starbucks, Home Depot, and Sun Microsystems are implementing increasingly sophisticated green initiatives as they’re being held accountable by stockholders and consumers for things they never had to disclose before, such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy usage, and carbon footprints. Between mid-2006 and mid-2007, Hewlett-Packard saw a 120 percent increase worldwide in the number of inquiries connected to the environment. According to Co-op America, corporations received over 300 stockholder resolutions concerning the environment and sustainability in 2006. Companies now realize that being green is a core business issue. As the green groundswell continues, these businesses are finding ways to integrate safer, sustainable alternatives into their product lines. They adopt principles and practices that not only improve their goods and services and satisfy customers but protect the planet as well. The economy of the future, say those who follow these trends,

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Traditional Businesses Are Going Green, Too

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will be measured by the “triple bottom line”: an equal integration of environmental, economic, and social considerations. Particularly as the economics of fossil-fuel dependence continue to turn south, these three objectives become increasingly aligned. This isn’t some freak coincidence; it’s nothing short of a paradigm shift. Expanding environmental efforts are changing the world of traditional business in ways far beyond recycling programs or commuting options. As Lester R. Brown writes in Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth (2003), in order for economic progress to continue, “we have little choice but to systematically restructure the global economy in order to make it environmentally sustainable.” When a March 2007 Gallup poll asked how much of a factor a company’s environmental record should be when deciding whether or not to buy one of its products, 83 percent of respondents said it was either the most important or an important factor, and 55 percent felt that protection of the environment should be given priority even at the risk of curbing economic growth. Results in a 2007 Cone Cause Evolution Survey concurred, finding that 87 percent of consumers would be likely to switch from one brand to another, price and quality being equal, if the other brand were associated with a good cause, such as environmental conservation. Smart business owners who peddle everything from diapers to lumber to vacation packages are listening because it makes economic sense.

Being Green Is a Growth Industry

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If you grew up in the 1980s or earlier, you remember a world without the Internet or World Wide Web. Once unleashed beyond the confines of a few research laboratories and the military, these innovations proceeded to change the fabric of global society. In the Internet boom of the late twentieth century, new career fields, jobs, and products emerged at an astonishing rate—it accounted for 28 percent of the job growth in the 1990s. In the 1980s there was no such thing as a webmaster, multimedia developer, e-zine, music download, or YouTube. And Internet innovation shows little sign of diminishing. Similarly, tomorrow’s green businesses will not only produce the technologies needed for sliced solar cells and nanotechnology applications to control air pollution but include such job titles as

The Green Boom Is No Bubble

Anyone who lived through—and suffered from—the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000 would be understandably wary of anything resembling a boom. But, unlike Internet businesses, the green economy isn’t optional. The drivers for reducing fossilfuel dependence—security concerns, climate disruption, economic instability—will only get stronger if we fail to address them.

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emissions broker, bio-mimicry engineer, sustainability coordinator, and social responsibility manager. As demand grows for more and more products and technologies, new markets will follow suit and encourage the same sort of innovation, competition, investment, and market growth generated by the evolution of the Internet. Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) are just one example. If all Americans switched to CFLs, it would not only eliminate the emissions from eighty coal-fired power plants, it would create jobs for making, distributing, and selling the bulbs. (And since CFLs cost less than the energy they save, they also keep more discretionary dollars in consumers’ pockets, where they get spent on other job-producing goods and services.) Global clean energy markets alone are expected to quadruple in the next ten years for four benchmark technologies: biofuels, solar photovoltaics, wind power, and fuel cells. All of that spells more jobs in a widening array of career fields. Certainly, as new revenue streams and green technologies open up—and by many accounts the sustainable products industry is one of the fastest-growing industries worldwide—investors are taking note. In 2005, socially responsible mutual funds, such as the New Alternative Energy Fund, PAX World Fund, Cabot, and Winslow Green Growth Funds, represented $2.29 trillion and grew 260 percent since 1995. According to the 2006 CleanEdge/ Nth Power Clean Energy Trends Report, venture capital investment in energy technology start-ups increased to $2.4 billion in 2006, up 262 percent. Goldman Sachs has invested heavily in wind power. Silicon Valley venture capitalists like Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers are pumping money into green technologies. In 2007, Bank of America pledged $20 billion to support the growth of environmentally sustainable business activity over the next decade. SustainableBusiness.com notes that greentech companies are currently receiving a full third of all equity investments.

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According to the experts, there is a growing abundance of potential today in green industries. Former President Bill Clinton, in his keynote address to the Carbon Disclosure Project meeting in September 2007, noted, “Since energy is the core of all economic and social activity, it is a phenomenal opportunity.” He gave Denmark as one example. That country grew its economy by 50 percent while reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by shifting more of its electricity production to wind. Clinton also gave New York City as a hypothetical example. Just renovating and retrofitting 800,000 of its 950,000 buildings with energy-efficient power, insulation, and green roofs would create a need for diverse green products and thousands of jobs—and those jobs can’t be outsourced. “This is not data processing,” said Clinton. “You’ve got to actually be there.” The Boston-based consulting firm Green Economy estimated in 2005 that the total green labor force in the country was 1.6 million. That number has nowhere to go but up. Hubpages.com stated that in 2007, the green industrial cluster comprised the fifth-largest market sector in the United States. That same year, green building starts totaled more than $12 billion. In the next ten years, Silicon Valley alone will need 10,000 to 20,000 new workers to fill jobs just in the solar industry bolstered by the new “Million Solar Roofs” law. The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative reported in August 2007 that the state’s renewable energy industry was poised to surpass the state’s textile industry and become the tenth-largest job sector. Analysts expect growth in that field to be over 30 percent through 2008. The top five cities for labormarket growth in clean technologies are Austin, San Jose, Pasadena, Boston, and Berkeley (so-called cleantech incubation cities, as described on page 24). In early 2007, BP selected the University of California-Berkeley to lead the $500 Energy Biosciences Institute with partners Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The research consortium will develop new sources of energy and work to reduce the impact of energy consumption on the environment. Green jobs come with the same salaries, benefits, and perks of non-green jobs, but currently there aren’t enough qualified workers to fill them. That’s where you come in. If you think all of these opportunities require a degree in engineering or an MBA, look again. Green companies need people to manufacture, install, sell, and market their products. And by definition, many green-collar

jobs are local, such as retrofitting existing buildings with energysaving lighting and windows, or installing solar panels or green roofs. They create employment opportunities for previously unemployed or underemployed people and boost local economies. As Friedman writes in the New York Times, “you can’t make a product greener, whether it’s a car, refrigerator, or a traffic system, without making it smarter—smarter materials, smarter software, or smarter design . . . it means that to the extent that we make ‘green’ standards part of everything we design and manufacture, we create ‘green-collar’ jobs that are much more difficult to outsource.” According to Co-op America research, in 2002 the average American family spent over $17,000 annually on items like clothing, food, and household goods. Right now there are green businesses supplying all of these categories. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2010, there will be 115 million households in the country. Even at 2002 spending levels, if each of those households shifted 10 percent of its buying power to green businesses, it would mean nearly $200 billion toward building a green economy and a sustainable future.

Governments Are Going Green, Too “The penalty good people pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by people worse than themselves.”

In March 2007, results from a survey in the United Kingdom and the United States showed that consumers want tougher government action regarding products that affect climate change, as well as independent verification of the green claims made by businesses. Two-thirds of the respondents felt that corporations need to take global warming more seriously, and over half thought government should force businesses to phase out environmentally harmful products. Here, the federal government has been crafting its own response to green concerns. In 2007, a more environmentally friendly Congress debated legislation dealing with many of these issues. Congress passed the Green Jobs Act to provide millions of dollars to train 35,000 workers in green-collar jobs, and the Green Energy Education Act (HR 1716), which authorizes highereducation curriculum development and graduate training in advanced energy and green building technologies; and the Senate

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—Plato

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passed the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Workforce Development Amendment, allotting $100 million to train workers in green-collar jobs. Federal and local governments are looking for ways to implement green enterprise zones, areas designated for economic development where green businesses are given tax and other incentives to hire and locate workers there. Other programs are seeking a variety of ways to target local economic growth and put thousands of job corps and vocational school graduates to work in these environmentally friendly industries. “Cleantech incubation” is booming as federal, state, and local governments collaborate to provide opportunities for growth in clean technologies for energy, transportation, building, water, and air. Each incubator must demonstrate adequate capital, academic, or research lab collaboration, as well as government support. Austin, Texas; San Jose, Berkeley, and Pasadena in California; and Boston, Massachusetts were the top five cleantech incubator cities in 2007. Where federal action has been slow or nonexistent, local governments have stepped in. In January 2007, a California law took effect that is intended to help fund a million solar roofs in ten years and turn the state into “the Saudi Arabia of the sun.” Its provisions include a mandate that solar panels become a standard option for all buyers of new homes. Fourteen states have adopted the new limits on automobile greenhouse-gas emissions that California set in 2004. As of 2007, twenty-five states had passed laws requiring a certain percentage of the energy consumed in the state come from renewable energy sources. The Illinois General Assembly, for example, set a standard of 10 percent by 2015 and 25 percent by 2025. At least 75 percent of the standard must come from wind resources. In 2005, representatives of eighteen leading world cities met to talk about joining forces to tackle global warming and climate change. The result was C40 Cities, an agreement whereby the world’s largest cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Beijing, Sydney, Istanbul, Paris, London, and Sao Paulo, committed to accelerate climate-friendly technologies, influence the marketplace, and cooperate on reducing climate-damaging emissions. The next year, C40 Cities partnered with the Clinton Climate Initiative to find ways to pool the buying power of the cities to lower

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the prices of energy-saving products and hasten development of new clean technologies, mobilize expert assistance in developing and implementing programs, and create and deploy common measurement tools for greenhouse gas emissions. In this country, Seattle leads the way with green buildings. It requires all new city buildings over 5,000 square feet to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building ratings, and Mayor Greg Nickels established the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, signed by 691 mayors representing over 75 million Americans, with more signing up every week. Participants agree, for example, to strive to meet or beat the Kyoto Protocol targets in their own communities. In Chicago, the mayor’s Environmental Action Agenda has replaced 130 city vehicles with hybrids, and LED traffic lights have reduced energy use by 85 percent. Austin combines rebates, education, and regulation to reduce water usage. Its new city hall is built mostly from recycled materials, and residents get rebates for installing extra attic insulation or high-efficiency clothes washers. San Francisco’s recycling program puts nearly two-thirds of the city’s trash back into use, and that community has the largest city-owned solar-power system in the country. In truth, there is no end to the green initiative possibilities at the local, state, and federal level, and many of them will create new career fields and jobs, from conducting energy audits of buildings to making and installing more energy-efficient traffic lights, and from developing greener public transportation systems to improving water distribution systems and leak management. As the momentum grows, communities across the country are eager to roll out the green carpet to welcome these lucrative enterprises, and people like you to staff them.

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Chapter 3: Who Wants a Green Job and Why > You must be the change you wish to see in the world. —Mahatma Gandhi

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f you’re looking for a job—any job—you’ve no doubt scoured plenty of books and Web sites. If you’re looking for a job and picked up this book, perhaps something about the “green” in the title caught your eye. There are many reasons you may be job hunting. You could be in college and deciding on your first career. You may be at a crossroads and ready to change careers. You may have been downsized, laid off, or your position outsourced overseas, and you would like work that won’t be obsolete, lost to attrition, or sent to workers in a foreign country in the near future. On Labor Day 2006, the Pew Research Center released the results of a social trends study that looked at how Americans feel about their jobs now compared to thirty years ago. About two-thirds of the respondents felt less job security and more stress, and nearly one-third thought someone overseas could do their job right now. Perhaps you’re burned out or dissatisfied with your current job. A 2005 survey conducted by The Conference Board found that since 1995, overall job satisfaction decreased from 60 to 50 percent, and 25 percent of workers just showed up to collect a paycheck. In Greek mythology, the gods condemned Sisyphus to pushing an enormous boulder up a steep hill, only to have it roll back down. His fate was to repeat this frustrating, futile task into eternity. In an essay about the myth, Nobel Prize–winning writer Albert Camus decided that the struggle itself gave the task meaning and that Sisyphus was heroic and happy. From today’s perspective,

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it seems doubtful. If you know your work is pointless and unrewarding and you do nothing about it, that’s not heroic; it’s tragic. In those circumstances, everyone loses: employers, by not having passionate, dedicated staff working to the best of their abilities; and you, for doing work that doesn’t satisfy or fulfill you. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average employed American spends 8.2 hours a day working. If you’re going to spend a third of your life doing something, you should not only enjoy it, but you should find it meaningful and rewarding, too. A job that feels like a giant boulder you’re pushing uphill to no apparent purpose is not work that aligns with your values. And you, unlike Sisyphus, can do something about it. If you noticed the “green” in the title of this book, perhaps you’re concerned about the fate of the planet and would like employment more in harmony with the things that you find important. Significantly, that same 2005 Conference Board study also revealed that two-thirds of workers do not identify with or feel motivated by their employer’s goals and objectives. You don’t have to be one of them.

Deciding If a Green Job Is Right for You “To thine own self be true.” —Shakespeare

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Let’s assume that you’ve done all that you can do for the planet at home. If your outlook, behavior, and/or politics are green, maybe it’s time for your career to match. You talk the talk and walk the walk, now you want to work the work. What does success mean to you? Different people define success in different ways. For some, it’s a big paycheck and all the consumer goods it can buy. For others, fame, recognition, or awards are the big draw. For as long as there has been work, people have calibrated its worth with such quantifiable, external benchmarks. Sure, you can take a job because of the benefits, or even the view out the office window, and lots of people do (see The Conference Board study above), but for many people these aren’t enough. Perhaps you are one of the latter, and the only way you can derive meaning and satisfaction from the work you do—and not feel like you’re pushing a boulder uphill— is to have a career that’s in sync with your personal values. Many people look for humanitarian or altruistic ways to make a difference in the world. An April 2007 study by the University

of Chicago found that the most satisfied and happy workers were in jobs that focused on serving other people. Even people with all of the money and recognition that anyone could ever want have looked for meaningful uses for their fame and resources. In 2006, Bill Gates announced that in 2008 he would quit his daily involvement in Microsoft to head his charitable foundation full time. Academy Award–winning actor Paul Newman donates 100 percent of the proceeds from his Newman’s Own food products to charities. Jeff Skoll made a fortune as the first president of eBay and today heads a foundation that awards grants to entrepreneurs dedicated to addressing and solving social problems around the world. These people have channeled their renown and assets into work that aligns with their values and gives their lives a broader meaning. The word values comes from the Latin valeo, to be strong. Your values are the steadying force that enables you to handle whatever life—or work—throws at you. They are your deeply held ideals and convictions that develop from your culture, your experiences, and how others behave toward you. Your values motivate you and determine how you relate to the world around you. Your values, and how you prioritize them, are unique to you. You may not always be aware of them, but your values are always present, always part of who you are, and always influencing what you do. Michael Henderson writes in Finding True North (2003), “It is our values that give us meaning in life, and meaning, in turn, provides us with strength, motivation, and willpower.” Not a bad cache of attributes to take with you to the workplace. Your core values are also relatively stable over your lifetime. What does change is how you prioritize them. Given the nature of today’s working world, few people stay in one job—or with one employer—for an entire career. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics notes in a survey of younger baby boomers that they changed jobs an average of 9.6 times before they reached age thirty-six. Growth and change are the rule rather than the exception throughout your adult life, as more education, training, opportunities, or new interests shape your idea of the type of employment you want. And just as your interests, skills, and abilities expand and adapt, so does the way you prioritize your values.

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What Are Values?

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A single person whose values include fun, learning new things, love, and responsibility may place greater importance on having fun and learning new things, but once that person is married with children, he or she may reprioritize them to emphasize responsibility and love. Along any career path, you can, and should, revisit, reassess, and rebalance your goals and values. While your core values probably won’t change much over the course of your life, a change in your job circumstances may encourage you to reprioritize them. If you need more convincing, think about this: Aligning your work with your values can help you increase productivity, lower stress, feel fulfilled, and raise morale. Who wouldn’t want to do that?

Determining Your Values

There are books and Web sites with information to help you determine what your most important values are right now. Some have self-administered tests you can take. You can also meet with a career counselor or other professional familiar with these tools. Here are a few suggestions for helping you determine your values. While you can’t fully separate your work life from your personal life, try to think about how these values relate to your work life. The following exercise is adapted with permission from Mark Guterman of MeaningfulCareers.com and Terry Karp of the Bay Area Career Center (www.bayareacareercenter.com). Make a list of your top ten values. Decide what each word means for you and write that down, too. Be sure to include others that are important to you. Here are a few words that could pertain to green employment. Since values are so personal, there are purposely no definitions given:

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Accomplishment Affiliation Community Contribution Cooperation

Creativity Health Helpfulness Integrity Justice

Nature Social responsibility Service Team work Variety

When you have your list of ten words and definitions, decide if each value is critical to your job satisfaction and if it’s present in your current work situation. If a value is critical to you and not present in your current job, you’ll have a good indication of what you’re seeking in the next job and be better prepared to target your search and question your interviewers.

A job posting might disclose a corporation’s core values, but it’s unlikely. You’re going to have to ferret those out for yourself by doing research, asking the right questions during interviews, and listening carefully to the answers. Frame your questions so that they will help you discern whether or not your core values mesh with those of the potential employer. Ask interviewers what words they would use to describe their organization’s culture and work style. Do the answers include such words as social responsibility, collaboration, service, or justice? If these are values you’ve identified as important to you, then working at that company may be a good fit. Investigate the environmental policies and initiatives of potential employers—an increasingly easy task for anyone with Internet access. What is the company doing to reduce its carbon footprint? Does it have aggressive recycling and waste-reduction programs? Has it modified its company fleet to include hybrid or other fuel-saving vehicles? Does it operate out of a green office building and make a practice of using recycled and sustainable materials? A company that does these things will be proud to tell you of its achievements. Be sure to corroborate the information with independent sources wherever possible. For larger corporations, you can also screen by going to such Web sites as www.onepercentfortheplanet.org, launched by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, which lists, by category, those companies that contribute 1 percent of their profits to environmental causes and organizations. At the end of 2006, they numbered 500. The Carbon Disclosure Project (www.cdproject.net) offers another way to measure a potential employer’s green hue. Its Web site represents the largest repository of corporate greenhouse gas emissions data in the world. Some 1,300 companies, representing $41 trillion in assets, participated in 2007. In addition, thousands of companies and nonprofits now follow the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (www.globalreporting.org) in tracking their environmental, economic, and social performance. There are no guarantees that a green job will make your commute any shorter, give you more time with your family, pay you significantly more (or less), or make you less (or more) harried than a job in a non-green industry. Let your values help you find that balance between the little picture that is your life and the

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Use Your Values to Find a Green Job

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big picture—and there’s no bigger picture than the well-being of our planet.

Finding a Green Job “The world has never more needed a generation of heroes. . . . We need thousands of people, millions of people, swarming out of their lifestyles and leading world-changing lives . . . inventing new answers, changing their companies (or quitting their jobs and starting better companies) . . . redesigning their cities . . . and in every other way making it happen.” —Alex Steffen, Worldchanging.com September 12, 2007

In most respects, finding a green job is no different from finding any sort of job. The basics, like crafting an appropriate resume, targeting where to post your resume, writing customized cover letters, focusing your search, and so forth, are the same. What’s different is the slant you give to your search and the questions you pose to your prospective employers. The following questionnaire will help you identify some of the issues you should be investigating or inquiring about in your search: Life

Why are you considering a career or job switch?

Are you looking for your ideal job or a transitional job for a year or two in order to position yourself for an ideal job?

When do you want to make this career transition? G REEN J OBS

What do you think you need most at this stage of your career? (such as higher salary, flexibility, benefits, mentoring, growth potential, management experience, sustainability experience, etc.)

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Adapted with permission from Kevin Wilhelm, CEO, Sustainable Business Consulting (www.sustainablebizconsulting.com)

What personal plans over the next two years will need to factor in this decision? (marriage, move, house purchase, kids)

How will these affect your decision-making process?

Location

Where do you want to live and work? (your ideal city/town/ community) Consider not just location, but such things as whether the place has green jobs, outdoor activities, commute length, size, near your family, etc.

Personal

Describe your strengths. What would your coworkers, boss, spouse/ significant other, and best friends say about you? (These can include such things as generating ideas, writing, researching, team building.)

Describe your characteristics. How would your friends and the people you care about most describe you? How would your professional colleagues (bosses, coworkers) describe you? (These can include such things as attention to detail, passionate about sustainability issues, loyal, flexible, positive attitude, strong work ethic.)

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List five places that might fit your criteria.

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What do you love to do and why?

What are you best at from a career perspective and why do you think so?

Are the answers to the above two questions the same? Why or why not?

Work

Describe your ideal job.

Describe your ideal work environment. (This can include such things as independence, work/life balance, flexibility, nonprofit, results oriented.)

What do you want to do on a daily basis? (This can include such things as research, writing, public speaking, analyzing data, field work.) G REEN J OBS 34

Why do you want to do this work? Will this work enable you to make the difference that you desire in the world?

What do you not want to do? Consider both environment and content. (This can include nine-to-five hours, desk job, high pressure, compromising values, long commute.)

In what industry or industries do you want to work? (You may not know all the potential industries yet, but jot down the ones you can think of, for example, cleantech, green building, consulting, etc.)

Within these industries, what specific types of companies are you looking at? (For example, if you listed cleantech, the companies could include wind, solar, biodiesel, etc.)

If not, how could you create this job yourself? (Consider whether you could start your own business, get two part-time jobs, etc.)

What type of compensation and benefits are you looking for? What is the minimum that you could make and be happy?

If you need to transition, what are jobs (full time or part time) you could do as intermediate steps to better position yourself to find your ideal job? What other things can you do (volunteer, be on a board, etc.) between now and then to make yourself more marketable?

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Have you seen any jobs posted like the one(s) you want? Where?

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Target Your Search

While there is a world of possibilities out there, this exercise will help you to define an idea of what you want to do; the field or fields that interest you; the experience and training you already have, as well as what your field of interest will require; where you’d like to work. The questionnaire above will help you figure that out, and there are many published and online resources available to help you pinpoint the best jobs for you.

Do Your Research

Find out as much as you can about the organization or organizations that you’re interested in working for. Besides visiting the Web site of each business, seek out independent information about the company or nonprofit for a more balanced picture.

Network

Most jobs aren’t posted. Talk to friends and relatives and find out if they work in jobs similar to the one you want—or know someone who does. Contact people in your preferred fields and ask for an informational interview. Most people will be happy to tell you about their work if you’re respectful of their time and come well prepared. Think of all the other networking avenues open to you, such as college or graduate school colleagues, professors, casual contacts, and professional colleagues, and ask them for leads or suggestions.

Promote Yourself

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If you don’t blow your own horn, no one else will do it for you. Your one-of-a-kind collection of skills, training, education, expertise, and interests is what sets you apart from your competition. You may feel that your background isn’t directly related to the green job that interests you, but you may bring a unique perspective that the organization doesn’t know it needs—yet. Create a two-minute speech explaining why you’re the right person for the job. This can include such things as these: You worked in the sustainability industry and understand it, the marketplace, and the demand; you have a dual degree in business and environmental studies; you’re an excellent researcher and writer;

you’re good with people, collaborating, and teamwork; or you’re good at brainstorming creative solutions to problems.

Follow the Guidelines

If an organization prefers queries or applications by e-mail, regular mail, or some other method, be sure to follow their guidelines in a timely manner. Follow up with a phone call in a few days or a week.

Stay Flexible

Graduates with environmental sciences degrees work in diverse occupations with job titles such as lobbyist, safety engineer, ecologist, public health inspector, and environmental lawyer. Your dream job may not be available right now, so broaden your perspective and think of related green jobs that use the same or similar skills. You may be able to volunteer, take classes, or work part-time in this new field before committing yourself to working full-time in it. There’s a chance that the dream green job you desire just isn’t out there or available in the place you want to live or the industry you want to work for. The new green economy is going to have plenty of room for innovative thinkers and entrepreneurial types who have what it takes to strike out on their own as consultants or business owners. The same advice holds true for green entrepreneurs as for those in any other field: Do your research. There are books and online resources available that you can use to find out if you have what it takes to go solo. Let your skills, interests, and values guide you, get some savvy business help along the way, and you’ll find your niche, whatever shade of green it might be.

Keep Improving

In Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success, Masaaki Imai defines kaizen as “improvement . . . continuing improvement in personal life, home life, social life, and working life.” Companies use this principle to make change easier and to maximize potential in employees. You might say that more and more companies are applying kaizen (whether they know it or not) to reduce waste and

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Think Outside the Corporate Box

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greenhouse gas emissions, recycle more, and use less energy. You can apply kaizen to your career trajectory, too, as you consider your options in environmentally friendly jobs.

The Future of Green Jobs

If you haven’t figured it out by now, green employment is growing, and fast. Being green doesn’t mean confining yourself to a niche. For every specialty, college major, level of expertise, and specialized interest, there seems to be a green job available, and if there isn’t yet, there soon will be. The jobs are and will be in fields as diverse as the world of work itself. According to www. careerbuilder.com, in 2007 the top twenty-five green jobs included hydrologist, environmental engineer, science teacher, fundraising director, economist, environmental attorney, landscape architect, wildlife biologist, and pollution control engineer. Eco-conscious jobs will be woven into the fabric of every corporate structure, and in the future that fabric will be green.

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Chapter 4: What Green Means for Education and Training > “The renewable energy market is not going to grow if there’s not a corresponding, sustainable workforce.” —Jane Weissmann, Executive Director, Interstate Renewable Energy Council

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f, as experts predict, these next few years will be the tipping point for the green economy in the United States, will companies be prepared with enough trained staff to handle the increased work in jobs that focus on sustainability, eco-commerce, green marketing, or any one of the other emerging areas of expertise? Will you have the required proficiency in environmental competency and new technologies that these businesses will require? Colleges and universities, adult education centers, trade schools, graduate business schools, and many other educational institutions are gearing up to prepare the new green workforce for the tasks ahead. Van Jones of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights recognizes that we’re going to need hundreds of thousands of new workers, not just to install solar panels but to build wind farms, retrofit old buildings to be more environmentally friendly, and do the hundreds of other jobs that will be vital to the industry. Without relevant training and certification programs, the green boom stalls before it even gets up and running. Many green versions of traditional trade jobs, like carpenters, welders, electricians, and plumbers, require the same or similar skills as those for non-green employment. But some green jobs will require special training or certification. In the construction industry, for example, everything from site location to building design requires at least a fresh way of looking at these basic roles, and perhaps additional skills and training. Knowledge of recycled, recyclable, and sustainably produced

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materials and their use, higher standards for insulation, nontoxic adhesives and paints, the installation of special windows and solar systems, green roofs, and geothermal heating and cooling systems are just a few examples. Many colleges and universities across the country have certificate and degree programs in sustainable building, including Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California; Seattle Central Community College; Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado; University of California-Davis; and Boston Architectural College. Fortunately, just as the demand for green buildings is rapidly expanding, so too are various levels of education and training in response to these new market realities. The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) sees a growing number of universities, technical schools, and community colleges integrating renewable energy courses into their standard curricula, such > “If you can change as the two-year renewable business education to energy technician option at include an appreciation Lane Community College in Oregon. Austin Community for the social and College offers a semesterenvironmental context you long course on photovoltawind up with leaders who ics. Vocational and technical schools, two-year colleges, are really good at creating and trade unions all offer value all around.” specialized training for green jobs, like helping a plumber —Rich Leimsider, Director, retrain to install solar therCenter for Business Education, mal. Standard reference The Aspen Institute works, such as the annual Peterson’s Guide to Two-Year Colleges, list majors in various environmental and sustainability areas, from environmental sciences to biotechnology. IREC hosted the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Workforce Education event in Troy, New York, in November 2007 to help educators set up quality training programs in these new fields. Virtually every four-year college and university offers either majors or interdisciplinary programs specifically related to potential green jobs. Every field from agriculture to zoology has a new consciousness about environmental protection and sustainability. 40

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Specific areas, such as architecture, mechanical and electrical engineering, the biological and earth sciences, the health sciences, and many more, offer direct training. Comprehensive Web sites, like that of Rutgers University, not only describe each major, such as environmental science, but list occupations related to that field (from air quality engineer to toxicologist to grassroots coordinator), types of employers (chemical, food, or pharmaceutical manufacturers, environmental education, or recycling centers), and related job titles (analytical chemist to water resource specialist to compliance manager). Incidentally, Worldwidelearn.com ranks environmental engineer at number five in its list of the top ten jobs in the next decade. Again, the standard guides such as Peterson’s and Lovejoy’s College Guide are good beginning points for investigating areas of specific interest. While any of these institutions will offer something of relevance, look for those schools that have the most experience and proven track records. For example, Oberlin College in Ohio, a highly selective liberal arts college with a history of involvement in progressive activities from abolition to women’s rights, features a longstanding environmental studies program headed by David Orr, one of the leading voices in the field. Smaller and lesser-known Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina, also has a long tradition of environmental stewardship and offers a number of programs associated with its Environmental Leadership Center. Both Oberlin and Warren Wilson are home to exceptional green buildings. Look for schools that “walk the talk” in their facilities and everyday campus life—another good way to screen your choices. The November/December 2007 issue of Sierra, the magazine of the Sierra Club, lists the top ten environmentally friendly colleges and universities: Oberlin, Harvard, Warren Wilson, the University of California system, Duke, Middlebury, Berea, Penn State, Tufts, and Carnegie Mellon. Graduate and professional schools are now demonstrating the same heightened consciousness about the challenges faced by our ecosystem and, depending on the field, are responding with changes to their curricula. As stated in a brochure for the Presidio School of Management’s MBA program in sustainable management, “sustainability is not an elective.” Schools of government, political science, and public policy increasingly address the policyand decision-making areas that are so fundamental to meaningful

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progress, while discipline-related master’s and doctoral programs provide more specific training. The biennial report of the nonprofit group Beyond Grey Pinstripes (www.beyondgreypinstripes.org) will help you evaluate MBA programs. The group surveys 600 fulltime programs on six continents and lists the top thirty, based on the integration by these institutions of social and environmental stewardship into curricula and research. Students at the seventhranked Steven M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan are encouraged to intern at both a non-governmental organization and a corporation as part of their study. The topranked Stanford Graduate School of Business offers more than thirty elective courses addressing ethics, corporate social responsibility, environmental sustainability, international development, social and environmental entrepreneurship, and public and nonprofit management. Its director of admissions, Derrick Bolton, pegs the new students as the “and” generation: they want to make money and support the environment, hoping to prove that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Now and for decades to come, MBAs who want a green job need to know all they can about business. The editors at Greenmoneyjournal.com see no contradiction: “It no longer helps to argue between economy vs. environment. Neither can ultimately succeed without the other.” Or, as the first executive director of the Sierra Club, David Brower, once said, “There’s no business to be done on a dead planet.” Law schools, too, are responding to the need for increased legal training in the burgeoning field of environmental law. The courts have proven to be essential tools on the green battlefront, and there is likely to be a growing need for lawyers equipped with environmental competency skills. Barron’s Guide to Law Schools is a standard beginning point for a search. As with four-year programs, look for those institutions that have the most experience and exhibit the most overt advocacy by virtue of their physical plant and everyday operations. Also consider those institutions where some of the leading young voices of the green movement obtained their graduate training, such as K. C. Golden, policy director of Climate Solutions, Harvard Kennedy School of Government; Van Jones, executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Yale Law School; Kevin Wilhelm, CEO of Sustainable Business Consulting, Bainbridge Island Graduate Institute; Bracken Hendricks, a founder of the

What G reen Me a ns fo r Edu c atio n a nd Trai n ing

Apollo Alliance and a Fellow at the Center for American Progress, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, to name but four. There is an increasing number of graduate programs that focus specifically on sustainability, environmental planning, and related issues. Again, Peterson’s is a good resource for these. Two ways to evaluate the “greenness” of an institution are through the College Sustainability Report Card (www.endowmentinstitute.org/sustain ability) and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (www.aashe.org). Technical training institutions are gearing up for the green job market, too. Bronx Community College has provided photovoltaic (PV) installation training since 2000, and the City University of New York is training instructors who will teach students how to install solar PV technologies, leading to certification by the Institute for Sustainable Power. The Electrical Training Institute of Southern California offers photovoltaic training in the fifth year of its apprenticeship program, in partnership with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Los Angeles County Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association. As industry insiders note, cleantech is a developing and changing industry, with new technologies being added almost daily. Now community colleges, universities, technical training institutes, and other educational institutions are expanding the programs needed to equip the new green workforce with the knowledge and skills it will need to lead the way with business as un-usual. They are proving that an employee in any field—including you—can be an agent of change for good, making money as well as a positive impact in the world.

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5: Green Energy..................................................................... 47 6: Green Transportation......................................................... 95 7: Green Building.................................................................. 113 8: Green Organizations and NGOs...................................... 141 9: Natural Resources Management...................................... 149 10: Green Goods and Services.............................................. 181

What G reen Me a ns fo r Edu c atio n a nd Trai n ing

Part two

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Chapter 5: Green Energy > “Environmentalism is hot.” —Newsweek, July 17, 2006

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e all use it. We all waste it. Our current lifestyles and technologies gobble it up like there’s no tomorrow. From cars, computers, and kitchen stoves to televisions, furnaces, and factories, virtually everything we use and do needs some form of energy. Consider these statistics: >

The average American uses six times more energy than the world per-capita average.

>

The average American uses 50 percent more energy than the average European.

>

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population yet consumes about 25 percent of the world’s energy resources.

>

The United States uses about $1 million worth of energy every minute, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year.

>

Only 5 percent of the energy consumed in the United States came from renewable sources in 2006.

Most of the world, including the United States, burns fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) to meet its insatiable energy needs. Long plentiful and inexpensive, the supplies of these nonrenewable resources—one-time gifts from Earth—are now diminishing. Political upheaval in oil-rich countries makes their availability

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increasingly uncertain. Science has long recognized the harm that using these fuels does to the environment, but the low price of coal and petroleum has prevented widespread use of the cleaner, and sometimes more expensive, alternatives—until now. America’s awakening to the realities about fossil fuels makes the quest for options one of the most promising areas for green jobs. We’ve been here before. In the early 1970s, a sustained OPEC oil embargo sent gasoline and fuel oil prices skyrocketing and ignited a national energy crisis. Legislative action and voluntary fuelsaving efforts resulted in better gas mileage; efficiency standards for new vehicles; and federal tax credits for solar and other alternative energy sources. But once the crisis ended, people adjusted, and > “The use of solar for the next thirty years the counenergy has not try’s attention turned away from opened up because energy as we sank further into fossil-fuel dependence. the oil industry does Now in the early twenty-first not own the sun.” century, Americans again have to face the reality of the energy situa—Ralph Nader tion. Crude oil prices tripled within a year; an increasingly unpopular war was seen as linked to our national thirst for petroleum; and the persuasiveness of former Vice President Al Gore helped the longstanding evidence of global warming begin to sink in for most of the public. Politicians have had to respond, at least rhetorically, and more than a few have begun to propose meaningful steps to address the problem. And it’s a big one. Bill McKibben, writing in the October 2007 issue of National Geographic, notes that finding solutions to the energy and global warming problems is something akin to NASA’s having a goal to “put all of us on the moon.” The sun, wind, tides, and Earth’s underground heat reserves are abundant forms of energy that are free for the taking. The challenge comes in figuring out how to harness them where and when they’re needed. Populations grow, increasing the need for energy, but no single form of energy will work for everyone. Such factors as location, accessibility, cost, and safety vary from one state, region, or country to another. Iceland has plentiful geo­thermal resources; the U.S. plains states have acres of windy hills; and Arizona or Australia can make maximum use of solar energy. The

harmful emissions from these technologies are low, but each differs in efficiency, feasibility, and cost. Each has its own challenges, too. Wind farms can obstruct views, and the windiest places are often far from population centers; solar panels are still expensive compared to conventional power sources; and the effect of tidal power plants on marine habitats is not yet well understood. Plus, the power needs to be stored and transmitted from all of these sources to where it’s needed, and that’s no small task in itself. The good news is that these problems can be solved. Indeed, renewables like solar and wind are the fastest-growing sources of electricity worldwide, and investment in new renewable technologies is skyrocketing. That is very good news for you, the green job seeker.

What Green Energy Means for Green Jobs “Renewable energy and energy efficiency can create skilled, well-paying jobs, many of which are not subject to foreign outsourcing.”

People seen as prophets of doom a few years ago have suddenly become visionaries in this belated but necessary energy revolution. Businesses, and especially venture capitalists, now recognize the necessity—and the enormous economic potential—of alternative energy sources, and the money is flowing into green ideas. Global clean-energy markets, already totaling an estimated $70 billion in revenues in 2006, are projected to grow to $226.5 billion in the next ten years. A 2007 report by the Management Information Services and the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) states that the renewable energy industry “contains some of the most rapidly growing industries in the world,” including solar, wind, fuel cells, and biofuels. According to a survey by the CleanTech Network, venture capitalists poured $1.74 billion into North American and European green-tech startups in the third quarter of 2007, bringing the total to $3.94 billion to that point, and 92 percent of that went to green energy. Contrast that with the situation in extractive industries such as coal and oil. The Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org) notes that jobs in these sectors are on the decline—coal by 66 percent between 1980 and 1999—and are expected to decrease by another 36,000 workers by 2020.

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—American Solar Energy Society, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency: Economic Drivers of the Twenty-First Century, 2007

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A major new economic sector has clearly emerged, and it’s one that abounds with green jobs. If, by 2020, one-fifth of this country’s energy were to come from renewable sources (a realistic target), it’s estimated that something between 188,000 and 240,850 solar, wind, and biomass jobs would be created. And, according to estimates by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (www.aceee.org), if you broaden the impact to include all investment in energy-efficient technologies, that number will be closer to 1.1 million jobs in the next decade. The Apollo Alliance puts the projected number at over 3.3 million jobs. That 2007 ASES study mentioned above claims even greater numbers. It asserts that in 2006, the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors created more than eight million direct and indirect jobs, over half of those in manufacturing. It goes on to note that over 80 percent of the energy-efficiency jobs were in state and local government. Note that the report includes every sort of job related to these fields, from accoun> “What we are tants to welders, engineers to office trying to achieve clerks, chemists to janitors—and all is a fundamental can be considered green, depending on who’s doing the reckoning. shift in the way this And expansion isn’t limited to country (and the just the jobs in the industries that world) produces and produce these forms of alternative energy. Cars, refrigerators, cell consumes energy.” phones, and everything else that uses —Josh Reichart, energy will be retooled to use less of Environment Director, it. That spells jobs for the people who PEW Charitable Trusts dream up, design, and build these new, highly energy-efficient products, too. The potential to solve the energy problem is there, however, and the solutions will come from many sources. As James Sweeney, director of the Precourt Institute on Energy Efficiency at Stanford University (www.stanford.edu) said, “There may be no silver bullet, but there may be some silver buckshot.” A report by the Energy and Resources Group at UC-Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy (http://gspp.berkeley.edu) found that “supporting renewables within a comprehensive and coordinated energy policy that also supports energy efficiency and sustainable transportation 50

will yield far greater employment benefits than supporting one or two of these sectors separately.” Many of the outstanding energy questions require major research efforts in underfunded areas. > “The price tag for the Regarding such funding, in global transition [away December 2007, Congress passed the Energy Independence and from fossil fuels] will be Security Act, a big boon to ethain the trillions of dollars. nol and other biomass fuels. But the legislation disappointed many Of course, along by omitting proposals that would the way it will create have supported wind, solar, and myriad new jobs.” geothermal energy development —National Geographic, with subsidies funded by a higher October 2007 tax on oil companies. Enthusiastic government support of renewable energy technologies continues to be a primary reason that European and Asian countries are leading the way in these areas. But if you’re passionate about renewable energy, the green jobs are out there, many of them involving innovative research and development, as well as manufacturing, distribution, installation, and maintenance, all of which will keep the green job market busy for decades to come. Even with advances in ethanol and biodiesel, it appears likely that electric-powered ground transportation will be the wave of the future. This increased pressure on the grid will need to be met from sources other than coal-burning or nuclear power plants. In the short term, the corn-based ethanol fad will continue to create jobs, but if you’re taking the longer view, your prospects are brighter in the solar, wind, marine, and biomass industries. There are new opportunities opening up in the private sector for job applicants who are passionate about sustainability, knowledgeable about renewable energy and energy efficiency, and eager to help corporations see the green light. Many companies aren’t waiting around to see what the government will require them to do; they’re creating staff positions to lead the way. This sort of job calls for a risk-taking, entrepreneurial spirit who can take the initiative, build and lead a team, research and evaluate the latest research and development data and investment in solar, wind, and

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Head of Renewable Energy Engineering

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other breakthrough technologies, collaborate with experts with diverse skills, and guide the company’s renewable energy direction. Good communication skills, as well as the ability to distill complex technological concepts for a nontechnical audience are a must. You would need at least a bachelor’s degree in engineering, with a master’s or Ph.D. often preferred, plus several years’ experience managing engineering and development teams. Web giant Google (www.google.com/jobs/energy) based in Mountain View, California, is looking to fill as many as thirty positions with people who have expertise in not only engineering but also regulatory issues, materi> “From the als science, thermodynamics, land perspective of acquisition, and other areas. The investors and company announced in late 2007 that it will invest tens of millions entrepreneurs, this is of dollars in research into makthe new Internet.” ing clean energy technologies cheaper than coal, particularly —Matthew Nordan, President, solar, wind, and geothermal, and Lux Research, Inc. hundreds of millions to bring new projects to market. Google lists other related job opportunities at its philanthropic Web site (www. google.org). Another job source is General Electric, which has as many as 3,000 jobs on its Web site at any one time (www.gecareers. com) in solar, wind, and other energy sectors in this country and around the world. Also, if you’re interested in the global energy market, Renewable Energy World (www.renewable-energy-world. com) has job listings.

Solar Power “We have a pretty good feeling the sun will be shining with the same intensity two decades from now.” G REEN J OBS 52

—Dan Shugar, President, PowerLight

Sunlight is the most plentiful energy resource on Earth. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (www.ucsusa.org), all of the energy stored in Earth’s reserves of coal, oil, and natural gas is matched by the energy from twenty days of sunshine on Earth’s surface. Sunlight converts readily to electricity, fuel, and heat. If you need proof of the power and reliability of solar, just look at the Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which were designed to last

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ninety days but are still going strong after more than four years. Why don’t we use more of it? Back in the 1970s, when the government offered tax incentives for people who used passive solar, the technology was expensive and inefficient. Even with current technology, it would take seventy-four square miles of solar panels to supply a > “We’re growing like mad.” city the size of Manhattan —John O’Connor, Operations with energy. Where would Manager, Sun Light & Power, they go? Berkeley, California Today, solar is being reborn. Between 1980 and 2000, the use of solar power grew as much as 25 percent per year; between 2000 and 2007 it grew up to 45 percent per year. Blackouts in the Northeast, West Coast, and elsewhere in recent years have spurred even more interest. Major companies like Google, Target, Kohl’s, and Wal-Mart have installed solar systems, as have airports from San Francisco to Denver to Jacksonville, Florida. Competitions, such as the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Solar Decathlon, show just how innovative—and attractive—home solar power can be. It’s now a standard part of green building design (as described in Chapter 7). In both the long and short term, energy experts agree that solar power is one of the strongest components of the world’s alternative energy future. From ingenious designs and continual refinement, to manufacture and installation, solar power’s potential for jobs appears as abundant as sunshine itself. Federal, state, and local legislation and regulations are pushing this trend, too. Many states require solar as part of their renewable energy standards. California’s Million Solar Roofs program (www .environmentcalifornia.org), signed into law in August 2006, is part of a 1997 DOE partnership with states. The law will provide $3.2 billion over eleven years to encourage support of PV systems, and ultimately generate the equivalent of one million solar roofs and lots of jobs—15,000 by some estimates. The federal government now grants a 30 percent tax credit, up to $2,000, to purchase and install residential PV and solar water-heater systems. (The DOE estimates that heating water accounts for about 15 percent of an average household’s energy use.) In February 2007, Pennsylvania’s governor announced an Energy Independence Fund to generate $850 million to expand 53

the alternative fuel and clean energy sectors. It includes the “Pennsylvania Sunshine” program to help residents and small business owners save up to 50 percent on installations of solar energy systems. That same year, Oregon’s solar industry was estimated to be growing at over 30 percent annually, a number that is expected to increase with passage of a number of bills strengthening the state’s commitment to renewable energy. With new interest, new legislation, and new technologies, such as thin-film photovoltaics, photosynthetic solar cells from plants, and ideas for space-based solar that will, according to the Space Frontier Foundation, make Apollo, the space shuttle, and the space station look like a college science project, many authorities expect solar power to be the biggest source of clean power by 2020. With such expansion, solar companies are finding it difficult to hire enough trained workers to stay ahead of the demand.

Solar Energy on the Horizon “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy.” —Thomas Edison

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Even though America invented the industry, other countries have led the way in developing and using solar technology. If you work overseas, or would like to, solar is one way to go. Worldwatch Institute has reported that grid-connected solar, the world’s fastest-growing energy technology, expanded by 60 percent from 2000 to 2004. A joint study by Greenpeace and European Photovoltaic Industries Association (EPIA; www.epia.org) found that if 205 gigawatts of photovoltaic capacity were in place by 2020, solar energy could provide two million jobs worldwide. According to an Apollo Alliance report, Japan controls 43 percent of the solar market. Brunei plans to become the first country in the world to be powered 100 percent by solar energy by 2015, creating some 1,800 permanent jobs in the process. Israel requires all new homes and apartments to use solar water heating, and 92 percent of the homes in Cypress have solar water heaters. In 2007, Barcelona issued a law requiring every new public building to include solar technology. Canadian Solar, Inc. (www.csisolar .com), plans to complete a solar demonstration park in China by 2010. By 2020, it’s expected that twenty-six million households in the Mediterranean could be supplied by photovoltaic power.

Money to Go Green

> $20 million to Miasolé, Santa Clara, California, for thin-film PV manufacturing (www.miasole.com) > $17.9 million to SunPower, San Jose, California, for gridcompetitive residential solar-power-generating systems (www .sunpowercorp.com) > $18.6 to General Electric, Fairfield, Connecticut, to figure out how to put solar power into all kinds of buildings (www.ge.com) > $13.3 million to Boeing, Chicago, Illinois, for developing systems to concentrate solar power (www.boeing.com) > $9.4 million to Dow Chemical, Midland, Michigan for research into adhesives and manufacturing for PV roofing materials (www.dow.com) > $3.6 million to Konarka, Lowell, Massachusetts, for “integrated organic photovoltaics,” using organic dyes that convert sunlight to electricity, with the potential to make solar energy very inexpensive (www.konarka.com) > $2.3 million to GreenRay, Inc., Westford, Massachusetts, to develop an AC “plug-and-play” solar system (www.greenray solar.com)

Germany (much of which is cloudier than Seattle) has onequarter of the population and GDP of the United States, but it produces one-third of the world’s solar panels. It’s also studying the solar potential of North Africa. The German Aerospace Center

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From the second to the third quarter in 2007, North American investment in solar rose 16 percent—to $410 million. One company, First Solar in Phoenix, Arizona (www.firstsolar.com), saw its stock soar 586 percent in the first eleven months of trading (November 2006 to mid-October 2007). Because solar energy is everywhere and decentralized, many analysts consider it the game-changer, the technology with the greatest potential for reducing fossil-fuel dependence and transforming energy markets. In March 2007, the DOE announced Technology Pathways Partnerships (TPP) with thirteen solar research and development projects involving over fifty companies, with the goal of making solar power as cheap as current grid electricity. The DOE committed $168 million through 2009, with industry partners making up the balance of the total $357 million. Any of the TPP companies would be good places to start your job search. (See the DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Web site for more information, at www.eere.energy.gov.) Some of them are listed below:

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(www.dlr.de/en) estimates that harnessing the sun’s energy falling on about 3,700 square miles (6,000 square kilometers) of North Africa would supply the energy equivalent of the annual Middle East oil production of 9 billion barrels. The same study calculated that solar thermal plants could supply the electricity for Europe, as well as 68 percent of North Africa, by 2050. Germany is also constructing Waldpolenz, a four-square> “Transforming our mile solar park on a former military one of the largest photovoltaic energy system is the base, projects ever built (www.juwi.de). single most important The United States is rapidly catching up. While there are preschange we can make if we’re serious ently about 20,000 solar jobs in the United States, some analysts expect about protecting the that number to grow by 35 percent environment.” per year. In the San Francisco Bay area, 200 new green firms, including —Seth Dunn, those specializing in solar installaWorldwatch Institute tion, were created in the past year— and all are scrambling for trained green-collar workers. PV technology creates more direct jobs per megawatt of capacity than any other energy source—two to eight times that of conventional power plants. The New Jersey Public Interest Research Group estimates that if just 10 percent of homes in only the mid-Atlantic states used some form of solar power, it would create about 25,400 jobs with a payroll of $364 million by 2014. In the October 8, 2007, issue of Newsweek, the president of Greenjobs.com calculates that jobs in the solar sector could employ two million people by 2020, “more Americans than currently work as elementary school teachers.” With about 60 percent of the jobs expected to be in manufacturing and installation, 20 percent in sales and marketing, and 20 percent in engineering, the future of jobs in the solar sector is extremely bright.

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Solar Systems/Solar Panel/ Test/Mechanical/Design Engineers

There will be many jobs for electrical and mechanical engineers as solar power heats up. A 2007 study by the ASES predicts a 10 to 12 percent increase in these jobs over the next ten years. Depending on the job, you may be responsible for designing,

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modeling, and conducting computer simulations and analyses of structural components of solar panels, such as high-reliability connectors; solar generating systems; heliostats (devices that > “I have no doubt that track the movement of the we will be successful sun); support structures; or other devices. Mechanical in harnessing the sun’s engineering positions will have energy. If sunbeams you testing designs for optimal were weapons of war, performance, for which you’ll we would have had solar need to have knowledge of applicable materials and treat- energy centuries ago.” ments, such as galvanization, —Sir George Porter and perhaps skills in mechanical design using software such as SolidWorks. Other mechanical engineering jobs require you to design, develop, and implement systems that include pneumatics, robotics, sensors, vision systems, lasers, and more. These positions are very team oriented and require good collaborative and communication skills, to say nothing of excellent problem-solving abilities. For entry-level positions, you’ll need an associate’s or B.S. degree in mechanical, electrical, or chemical engineering, computer science, physics, mechatronics, or materials science, preferably experience in photovoltaic panel manufacturing, and, obviously, an interest in and training in renewable energy technologies. For the more senior positions, M.S. degrees are preferred or required, as well as five to ten years’ relevant experience producing complex engineering designs. You can obtain a degree in solar engineering from a growing number of institutions, such as the University of Central Florida’s Solar Energy Center, which offers mechanical engineering degrees with a specialization in solar (www.fsec.ucf.edu). U.S. institutions offering such degrees number in the hundreds and can be researched by using the standard Peterson’s or Lovejoy’s guides. For those in European countries, the European Solar Engineering School in Borlange, Sweden, offers a master’s degree in mechanical engineering with specialization in solar energy engineering. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers offers training in the electrical aspects of solar installation and operations (www .ibew.org). 57

Some of the companies that employ these engineers include eSolar, Pasadena, California (www.esolar.com); Heliovolt, Austin, Texas (www.heliovolt.net); REC Solar, San Luis Obispo, California (www.recsolar.com); Chesapeake Wind and Solar, Jessup, Maryland (www.cwsenergy.com); EnergoSolar, Geneva, Switzerland, with manufacturing facilities in Hungary (www.energosolar .com); and groSolar, White River Junction, Vermont (www.gro solar.com). Just four of the companies working on developing and manufacturing thin, flexible photovoltaics—100 times thinner than traditional crystalline solar arrays, cheaper to produce, and easier to install (they could be integrated into building facades, too)—include First Solar, Inc, Phoenix, Arizona (www.firstsolar. com), Xunlight, Toledo, Ohio (www.xunlight.com), Shell in Munich (www.shell.com), and Miasolé, Santa Clara, California (www.mia sole.com). Among the educational institutions working on these technologies is the Center for Organic Photonics at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta (www.cope.gatech.edu). One example of the widespread benefits of clean energy is Toledo, Ohio, once home to automobile manufacturers and suppliers. Today the city is growing a national reputation in solar power. Since glass is a major component of solar panels, those former windshield factories are being reborn. Helped by the cutting-edge research in photovoltaics conducted at the University of Toledo (www.utoledo. edu), the region has seen employment in solar grow to 6,000. An organization interested in the economic growth of the area recently launched a $22 million venture fund to help more startups.

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As solar power heats up, the demand increases for installers to mount rooftop panels and install electrical wiring, plumbing, and solar systems for residential and commercial applications. For entrylevel installers, employers look for journeyman electricians with an interest in solar energy, preferably with some experience, although many companies will train you. Some employers also want one to two years of experience in construction (especially electrical, plumbing, or HVAC). These jobs can require skills in customer relations, knowledge of the National Electrical Code, Universal Building Codes, and building materials and techniques (such as lumber and roofing materials), and certification by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP; www.nabcep.org).

Wind Power “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” —William Arthur Ward

From sailing vessels to Medieval windmills to the wind-driven water pumps that still dot the American countryside, humans have long found ways to harness the wind for free usable energy. The downside, of course, is that the wind doesn’t blow all the time or in all places. It costs nothing to feel the wind blow, but the same

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Employers for this work are many. Just a few include Apex Solar, Sacramento, California (www.apexsolarinc.com); Independent Power Systems, Boulder, Colorado and Bozeman, Montana (www.independentpowersystems.net); Solar Works, Sonoma County, California (www.solarworksca.com); Greenline Energy, San Marcos, California (www.greenlineenergy.com); Sun Light & Power, Berkeley, California (www.sunlightandpower.com), and Cromwell Environmental, Kansas City, Missouri (www.powertomorrow.com). The Web site FindSolar (www.findsolar.com) is designed to help consumers find providers of solar products and services in their area, but it’s a great way for job seekers to find them, too. The site has links for sending e-mail to the companies, customer ratings, as well as contact information and Web site URLs. The Web site for the first International Photovoltaic Power Generation Expo in Tokyo in 2008 (www.pvexpo.jp) lists nearly 250 companies from around the world involved in this field. The American Solar Energy Society Web site specifically addresses solar-related jobs and provides information about solar industry professionals around the country (www.ases.org). The Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) Web site (www.solarelectricpower.org) contains a wealth of information on solar technologies. Over 12,500 people attended its 2007 conference, a good place for job seekers to network with companies in this industry. Solar Today magazine has articles on the current state of the technologies, as well as information about businesses in this field (www.solartoday.org). Don’t forget to look for regional renewable energy organizations near you that work to promote and publicize solar and other alternative energy sources. Many of them, like the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (www.nesea.org), hold annual conferences, and their Web sites are a great source of information and links.

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can’t be said for turning that wind into usable electric power. Wind power is already competitive with cheap coal, the most polluting form of energy production, but it has other hurdles:

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Many people find wind farms unsightly, making the development of urban sites nearly impossible.

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Giant blades can injure and kill birds. (This has been largely resolved by improved siting and technology.)

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Electricity produced during windy times can’t be stored easily for calm days.

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Electricity has to be transmitted from the turbines to where it’s needed.

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Global warming may alter wind patterns, affecting the location of future wind-power installations and the efficiency of those already built.

Power companies, big business, and the government have noted which way the wind is blowing, however. Wind power is one of the most promising and fastest-growing renewable energy sources today, accelerated by strong policy support in roughly half the states and the lure of cost-effective energy. Wind-generated power doubled in the United States between 2000 and 2004. The United States led the world in new installations in both 2005 and 2006. In 2006, wind created the second-largest number of direct and indirect renewable energy jobs, after biomass. Thirtysix states currently have wind projects either in place or underway, with Texas edging out California as the nation’s top windpower generator. While in 2007, only 0.5 percent of our total electricity came from wind, the DOE wants that number to be 6 percent by 2020. Experts at the 2007 American Wind Energy Association (AWEA; www.awea.org) annual conference aimed higher: They predicted that by 2030, half a trillion dollars in investment will move wind power’s share of electricity generation to 20 percent. In 2007, FPL Group, Inc., in Miami, Florida, unveiled its plans to spend $20 billion to triple its nearly 4,500-megawatt windgenerating capacity by the end of 2012 (www.fplgroup.com). Also, BP Alternative Energy North America, Inc., announced that it’s constructing five windpower generation projects in California,

Colorado, North Dakota, and Texas (www.bp.com). Other states with significant wind projects underway include Oklahoma, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington. One controversial development affecting the wind industry is the anti-wind provisions in H.R. 2337, which would add new requirements not applied to other energy sectors, such as directing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to review every existing and planned wind project—a mandate beyond the agency’s resources and capabilities—and criminalize operation of wind energy facilities not formally certified by USFWS. (As of October 2007, this issue had not been voted upon.) The proponents of wind energy aren’t slowing down, however. WindPower 2007, the annual AWEA conference, included over 400 companies exhibiting and more than 6,500 attendees. Contrast those numbers with the twenty-five exhibitors and 1,000 attendees at the 2001 conference. Program information at www.awea.org is a good place for job seekers to look for those companies leading the way in wind power. Worldwide, between 2000 and 2006, wind-generation capacity increased over 400 percent, and the World Wind Energy Association (www.wwindea.org) anticipates a net growth rate of 21 percent per year. Wind represented a global value of nearly $18 billion in 2006, and is expected to expand to as much as $80 billion in a decade. Clearly, there is plenty of room for job growth in wind power.

A compelling idea from the 2007 AWEA conference focused on wind energy as a power solution for schools. They can be ideal candidates for wind because they typically have the land and clearance needed for turbines, access to cheap capital, and are comfortable with payback periods of eight to ten years. They represent a huge market potential, too: there are over 5,000 schools in Texas alone and almost all of them would need systems of around 50 kilowatts. At Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, a 1.65-megawatt wind turbine supplies 40 percent of the school’s electrical needs. Developing this market across the country would be an effective example of a renewable energy source replacing the use of polluting coalfired plants. It would also help drive down costs in the wind-system manufacturing industry by growing production volume.

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Winds of Change

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As with solar, wind technology has greatly improved in the last several years. In the past three decades, the cost of a wind-generated watt of electricity has dropped 80 percent, to a current range of four to six cents per kilowatt-hour. Transmission systems are more efficient, better positioning of turbines has reduced bird mortality, and larger turbine blades mean fewer turbines. According to Time magazine’s special “Global Warming” issue (2007), where in the 1990s a town of 8,000 needed forty turbines, it needs just one of the new super-turbines today. In July 2007, Clipper Wind> “There’s potentially a power (www.clipperwind.com) lot of benefit for older in California opened a wind industrial firms in this farm in Iowa using its superefficient turbine design with country in making the a rotor span of over 300 feet. components for the One Canadian company, Magturbines, too. There’s a lot enn Power, Inc., is working on commercializing tethered aerial of work to be done to be turbines held aloft by helium able to ramp up domestic (www.magenn.com). These and production of these very other innovations to make wind energy components smaller, complex machines.” faster, and cheaper will help —George Sterzinger, Director, to stimulate the job growth in Renewable Energy Project the field. Job seekers with skills and interest in such cuttingedge efforts might want to investigate the companies pioneering these technologies, as well as opportunities in research labs, such as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado (www.nrel.gov). The United States has a ways to go if it hopes to match the level of government, commercial, and popular support for wind power in countries overseas. There are over 100,000 wind turbines installed in over seventy countries, employing around 200,000 people. As of 2006, 65 percent of the world’s wind capacity, as well as most of the major turbine manufacturers, were in Europe. That means many employment opportunities in wind power all over the world. One excellent place to find out more about global wind energy projects is the Web site of the Global Wind Energy Council 62

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Germany and Spain each generate 5 percent of their energy from wind. In 2007, EWEA reported that Spain employed about 35,000 people in the wind industry.

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Denmark is the world leader in building wind turbines and gets 20 percent of its energy from wind. In 2007, the Danish Wind Energy Association reported that wind energy created over 20,000 jobs in Denmark (www.wind power.org).

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China’s $53 million Chang Mountaintop wind-power plant south of Yinchuan began generating electricity in March 2007. China leads the world in the use of small wind turbines. Wind-power generation in China has grown exponentially in recent years. For more information, see www.nrel.gov/china.

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Encompassing the region between the Mediterranean, the Bay of Biscay, Atlantic Ocean, North Sea, and Baltic Sea, the “pan-subsea European energy grid” by Airtricity (www.airtricity.com) is designed to link a series of offshore wind farms and deliver electricity around Europe. When completed in 2017, the Supergrid will be the largest offshore wind park in the world and is expected to provide power to 6.25 million homes.

If wind technology expands as expected, it will create tens of thousands of jobs. Some calculations indicate that every new 1,000 megawatts of electricity generated by wind power creates 3,500 manufacturing jobs. The ASES reported that in 2006, the wind industry created nearly 53,000 direct and indirect jobs. A November 2007 study by the Renewable Energy Policy Project found that nationwide development of 50,000 to 70,000 megawatts of

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(www.gwec.net), which not only includes up-to-the-minute news, information about wind energy technology, industry reports, and notices for worldwide conferences, but also links to dozens of regional, national, and international wind energy organizations. The European Wind Energy Association Web site has all that as well as links to the wind projects planned and underway in Europe, the names of the companies doing the work (www.ewea.org), and information such as the following:

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wind energy could potentially create 215,000 to 331,000 full-time equivalent job/years of employment (www.crest.org). Turning the Rust Belt into the Wind Belt The site of a former Bethlehem Steel plant—and Superfund site— in Lackawanna, New York, is now home to Steel Winds, eight windmills with 153-foot blades that produce enough electricity each year to power 7,000 homes. The wind farm, the largest in a city, was able to make use of existing infrastructure, from railroad tracks to power lines to roads. With plans to build another nineteen towers, the city has breathed new life into an economically and environmentally damaged area. (For more information on this project, see www.bqenergy.com). Similarly, the world’s number-two producer of wind turbines, Spain’s Gamesa Wind, converted a former U.S. Steel plant in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, into a wind-turbine manufacturing plant, creating 300 new skilled-manufacturing jobs in the process. (For more information, see the discussion of brownfields in Chapter 9).

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Every sort of job will be required, from climatologists and engineers to electricians and shipping clerks. Topics at the Southeast Regional Offshore Wind Power Symposium in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 2007 included sessions on ocean ecology, migrating birds, the local tourism industry, coastal development, noise, ship navigation, and sustainability, a clear indication of the broad knowledge base this field draws upon. Expertise in community relations and public relations will be required to offset the “not in my backyard” syndrome that has plagued some wind farm proposals, and sales, marketing, and financing will also be fundamental to the process. Also, anyone interested in employment in this rapidly growing sector should familiarize themselves with two software programs, WindPRO and WindFarmer, used for designing and planning wind farms. Online resources for wind power job seekers are many: >

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA; www. awea.org) in Washington, D.C., is a national trade association representing wind power project developers, equipment suppliers, services providers, parts manufacturers,

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The North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (www.nabcep.org) has solar- and windenergy-related training and certification courses. This certification process ensures the standards of the Institute for Sustainable Power are upheld.

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The World Wind Energy Association (www.wwindea.org) is a global nonprofit with eighty member countries that works to promote wind technologies around the world. Its Web site has lots of information about worldwide conferences, news, and technology.

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The National Wind Technology Center (www.nrel.gov/ wind) in Boulder, Colorado, part of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, works with industry to research, design, and build advanced wind technologies. You can find out about its projects and capabilities from the Web site.

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The DOE’s Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program Web site (www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro) contains many publications on technologies, research, and financial opportunities for small businesses and inventors.

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Sandia National Laboratories (www.sandia.gov) conducts research and testing in areas of aerodynamics, structures, materials, and reliability, particularly in improved blade design, for the wind industry.

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National Wind Coordinating Committee (www.national wind.org) is a collaborative that identifies issues relating to the use of wind power and supports the development of environmentally, economically, and politically sustainable markets for wind power. Its Web site features wind power in the news as well as meetings and other events across the country.

Wind Farm Technician

These employees are responsible for the operation and maintenance of a wind farm and all related facilities according to established health and safety standards. You would develop and

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utilities, researchers, and others involved in the wind industry. Its Web site has a job board and career help for people interested in working in this growing field.

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implement procedures for dealing with day-to-day operations and maintenance; oversee operational issues and ensure proper maintenance of facilities, including collection systems, substation, and control building; interface with contractors, landowners, local and state authorities, and general public as required; provide high-voltage substation and turbine switching, as required; while ensuring compliance with all local, state, and federal regulatory requirements. In this fast-moving field, you may also be required to work as a member of the construction team and monitor performance and compliance before completion. You’ll need an associate’s degree in engineering or related science, plus two to eight years’ experience in power operation, transmission, or substation electrical systems, preferably specific to wind energy; all necessary training and qualifications to work on high-voltage equipment; and a working knowledge of IT systems and applications. Companies like Clipper Windpower, BP, and Airtricity advertise for these positions. Lists of institutions offering technician degree training, as well as numerous turbine technician jobs, can be found at www. windturbinetechnicians.com.

Wind Resource Analyst

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This type of job will have you outside making site visits to ascertain terrain, roughness, and obstructions for potential wind farms. You’ll produce and analyze meteorological data, conduct modeling studies, estimate wind project output, and produce final layouts using software (such as WindFarmer), as well as use GIS tools like Global Mapper to produce high-quality maps. You must be familiar with and experienced with statistical and analytical techniques and have experience with boundary layer modeling (wind flow, dispersion, or mesoscale models), as well as excellent capabilities in engineering applications. Programming skills in such languages as Fortran, Basic, and C++, are highly desirable. Duties will also require you to deal effectively with clients and write technical reports. Employers want to see a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in physical science, atmospheric sciences, engineering, or physics. Some may require a master’s or concentration in atmospheric measurement or modeling, boundary layer analysis, or fluid mechanics. Companies like Acciona in Barcelona, Spain (www.acciona .com) and 3TIER in Seattle, Washington (www.3tiergroup.com) hire these professionals.

Traditional construction and engineering firms, like the Conti Group in New York, are spinning off wind power partnerships. The company’s Alternity Wind Power (www.alternitywindpower.com) plans to help develop more than 2,100 megawatts of wind power capacity in the United States by 2012. Mortenson Construction in Minneapolis, Minnesota (www.mortenson.com) reports that it’s constructing approximately 1,800 megawatts of capacity. The total employed skilled construction workforce for that 1,800 megawatts is about 2,000 to 2,300. There are many, many jobs involved in the manufacture of wind turbines. Junior wind engineers conduct siting, feasibility studies, new technology evaluations, conceptual designs, and performance estimates. Employers want to see a master’s—especially in business administration—from a university accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (www.abet.org). Measurement engineers design, implement, and manage various tests and measurements of wind turbines; install and calibrate such systems in the field; and analyze and evaluate the data. You’ll need a bachelor’s degree in electrical or mechanical engineering for these jobs. Mechanical engineers, with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, work on design projects to develop and optimize new wind turbine and tower systems to include analysis for performance. Employers looking for these workers include Germanischer Lloyd AG, GL Industrial Services, Hamburg, Germany (www.gl-group.com/ glwind) and Earth Turbines, Hinesburg, Vermont (www.earth turbines.com); LM Glasfiber, Lunderskov, Denmark, is the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbine blades. They have manufacturing plants in the United States, Canada, Spain, Denmark, India, China, and Germany (www.lmglasfiber.com). Other employers include Vestas, Copenhagen, Denmark (www.vestas.com), and Makani Power, Alameda, California (www.makani.com).

Geothermal Power “Instead of mining minerals out of the ground, we’re mining heat.” —Jefferson Tester, H.P. Meissner Professor of Chemical Engineering, MIT

Earth is one big reservoir of heat energy. Geothermal energy comes from tectonic forces deep underground. Up from the planet’s molten core, where temperatures can reach 9,000 ºF, hot magma continually

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flows through the mantle, warming underground water reservoirs to hundreds of degrees. Dozens of other countries take advantage of this reliable power source, most of them located along the margins of continental plates, where tectonic forces are most active, although the global world use of energy from geothermal sources today is less than 0.1 percent. The regions with the highest underground temperatures are the areas with the most seismic activity:

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United States: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. Nearly 300 U.S. communities use geothermal energy. California gets 5 percent of its electricity from this source. A steam-driven facility about seventy-five miles north of San Francisco is the largest tapped geothermal field now operating in the world. It has twentytwo plants, with a capacity of 850 megawatts, and Calpine is going to spend $200 million to expand the operation (www.calpine.com).

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Europe: Iceland, Switzerland, Turkey, and Italy. Think of geothermal power and most people think of Iceland, where it supplies 50 percent of the country’s energy, heats virtually every home, and provides hot tap water. Reykjavik is developing several geothermal projects, including one at Hellisheidi, said to be the world’s largest geothermal power plant, with substantial room for expansion. There are also significant geothermal projects underway in Turkey. According to the Turkish Daily News (February 6, 2006), developing the geothermal projects in the Aegean region of Turkey alone will create some 5,000 jobs.

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Pacific region: Indonesia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and other “Ring of Fire” countries. El Salvador gets 25 percent of its electricity from geothermal sources. New Zealand announced in September 2007 that it would commit to 90 percent renewable electricity by 2025, much of it from geothermal sources. Scientists recently discovered a film of molten magma under the central North Island, which could provide the heat necessary to fuel more than twenty geothermal systems in the region. Seven geothermal-producing provinces in the Philippines have been designated as special economic zones to encourage development.

You can see aboveground evidence of Earth’s hidden heat reserves in geysers and hot springs, but most of that heated water stays below ground, ready to be tapped for usable energy. Geothermal power plants capture that underground heat, harnessing the natural hot water and steam to turn turbine generators to produce electricity and heat and cool buildings. While equipment can be subject to corrosion, these power plants burn no fuel and produce no emissions. The facilities also take up less space than traditional power plants. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, there is 50,000 times more energy in the heat 33,000 feet below Earth’s surface than in all the oil and natural gas resources in the world. Scientists say geothermal energy could meet the world’s energy needs 250,000 times over with essentially no environmental impact. And, unlike present solar or wind technologies, the fuel is available around the clock, every day of the week. The DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energies Department runs a Geothermal Technologies Program (www1. eere.energy.gov), which sponsored a two-day conference in June 2007, “The Future of Geothermal Energy.” That organization estimates that Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) could supply 10 percent of our electricity needs by 2050.

While a tax credit that has supported geothermal development since 2005 is set to expire in 2008, rising oil prices and climate change concerns have fueled continued interest in geothermal energy. In addition, a bill is pending that proposes extension of the tax credit through 2012. A July 2007 renewable energy report by the Union of Concerned Scientists notes that several Southeastern states could benefit from new technology to more cost-effectively tap into geothermal energy through existing gas and oil wells. California, Washington, and other states have issued requests for proposals for innovative energy concepts, including geothermal, that would provide benefits to ratepayers. In September 2007, the Senate Energy Committee began hearings on a bill to establish a national geothermal initiative (S 1543) that would create a program of research, development, demonstration, and commercial application.

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Geothermal Legislation

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Hot Stuff

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Not everyone lives in an area of high tectonic activity near a geothermal energy source, so researchers are looking for other ways to capture this energy. Advances in drilling and exploration technologies over the past twenty years have yielded engineered artificial systems that can emulate the world’s best hydrothermal reservoirs. EGS technology, or “heat mining,” involves drilling as deep as 30,000 feet, circulating cold water to break apart underground rock formations and freeing up reservoirs. The steam this produces can drive turbines, heat buildings, and supply power to factories. It produces fifty times less pollution than conventional power plants running on fossil fuels. Because the hot bedrock is everywhere, transmission costs are low. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are adapting oil drilling equipment to tap the bedrock. A 2007 report from MIT estimates that a government investment of up to $600 million over the next decade could yield output equal to that of 200 large coal-burning power plants by 2050. But challenges still remain, including drilling costs, pumping cold water down several thousand feet under pressure and keeping it cool along the way, and the danger of seismic activity caused by the drilling, as happened in Switzerland in August 2007. In this country, the electrical energy produced from geothermal resources is more than double that from solar and wind combined, but that doesn’t begin to capitalize on its potential. The Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) estimated the total number of jobs supported by the existing industry in 2004 to be about 11,500, about 1.7 jobs per megawatt of capacity installed. It also notes that this number is probably a historic low because there were few geothermal power plants constructed between 1993 and 2004. However, geothermal power has high green job potential in both power plants and heat pumps because of the many new projects under development. Those jobs include ones traditionally needed to construct, operate, and maintain power plants, such as carpenters, backhoe operators, electricians, engineers, machinists, pipe fitters, plumbers, and welders. The Energy Information Administration (www.eia.doe.gov) estimates that over 34,000 jobs will be created by electricity production alone, and that number is higher when you factor in research, maintenance, and other jobs related to different aspects of the geothermal industry. Some analysts

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The Geothermal Energy Association (www.geo-energy .org) in Washington, D.C., doesn’t post job listings on its Web site, but it does host an annual convention with dozens of exhibitors (potential employers in this industry) and provide basic information and updates on the technologies and pertinent legislation. Its publication Geothermal Industry Employment (2005) is available on the Web site as well.

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The Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium (www.geo exchange.org), a membership organization in Washington, D.C., works to increase awareness and usage of geoexchange technology in this country and around the world. Its Web site contains fact sheets, as well as information on geoexchange installations in schools, homes, and businesses around the country.

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GeoPowering the West (GPW; www1.eere.energy.gov/ geothermal/gpw) is a program begun by the DOE in 2000 to foster development of geothermal energy. Its Web site contains useful industry links, news and legislation updates, calendars of related events, and downloadable documents.

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U.S. universities offering specialized training in geothermal energy include Washington State University (www .wsu.edu), Kansas State University (www.k-state.edu), Oklahoma State University (http://osu.okstate.edu), Stanford University (www.stanford.edu), Virginia Tech (www .vt.edu), Oregon Institute of Technology (www.oit.edu), and the University of Nevada-Reno (www.unr.edu).

Geothermal Reservoir Engineer

Professionals in this job collect and process information on geothermal well field and plant performance, including determining optimal drilling schedules; diagnose problems; and design sometimes innovative technical solutions to fix them. You’ll oversee data collection and problem solving essential to reservoir development and forecasting as well as governmental reporting.

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expect electricity generated from geothermal plants in the Western United States to triple in the next decade. As with other green jobs, there are many online resources to help get you started:

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This engineer is also responsible for compliance with all safety and environmental rules, policies, and procedures. Employers want to see a bachelor’s degree in an appropriate engineering discipline, five years’ successful industry experience, and an advanced technical degree. Registration as a licensed professional engineer and eight years’ experience as a practicing engineer can substitute for the advanced degree. Some Web sites to visit to find training in this and other engineering fields are those of the American Society for Engineering Education (www.asee.org) and The Association of Energy Engineers (www.aeecenter.org). You might also check out the site of the International Association of Drilling Contractors (www.iadc.org). The mandate of the Committee on Women in Science and Engineering (http://www7.nationalacademies.org/cwsem) is to coordinate, monitor, and advocate action to increase the participation of women in these currently male-dominated fields. Another organization working to increase the participation of women in the geosciences is the Association for Women Geoscientists (www.awg .org). You can also find information on every aspect of the geology field, as well as job descriptions and prospects, at www.geology.com. Worldwide, the employers in this field are many. Sinclair, Knight, Merz (SKM), Auckland, New Zealand, has geothermal projects in New Zealand, Nicaragua, Kenya, and Indonesia (www. skmconsulting.com); Benatec Associates, Rockville, Maryland (www.benatec.com); Nevada Geothermal Power, Vancouver, British Columbia (www.nevadageothermal.com); and Yoder Drilling and Geothermal, Sugarcreek, Ohio (www.yodergeothermal.com).

Geothermal Heat Pump HVAC Engineer

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Geothermal heat pumps (GHP), also known as ground-source heat pumps or geoexchange systems, take advantage of the relatively constant temperatures a few feet below ground. They don’t require the extensive digging and expense of a geothermal power plant, and they aren’t restricted to any geographical area. Heat pumps are much more efficient than conventional electric heating and cooling systems. They are considered by the EPA to be one of the most efficient systems available, reducing electricity consumption by 30 to 60 percent. Today there are over one million ground-source heat pumps installed in the United States, with 50,000 to 60,000 new installations per year in homes, schools, and office buildings. There is great

Biomass Power “I think we will look back in a few decades and wonder what all the oil fuss was about because, just like whale oil, we will have made this product obsolete.” —Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute

The world consumes oil at the rate of 40,000 gallons per second—about 31 billion barrels in 2006 alone. Since the dawn of the petroleum age over 100 years ago, the globe has used over a trillion

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potential for expanding their use in this country, as many analysts describe this field as “rapidly evolving” with high demand for these workers. The U.S. General Accounting Office estimates that the nationwide installation of geoexchange systems could save several billion dollars in energy costs per year while reducing pollution. These engineers continually evaluate heat pump operation; troubleshoot, repair, and maintain all equipment, motors, electrical components, low- and high-voltage controls, generators, and power transfer switches; and recommend or implement system upgrades or improvements. You need the ability to work independently on any repair as needed, as well as coordinate contractor personnel who perform the repairs. If you like to work with your hands, this could be a good fit. These jobs require you to work with a variety of materials and hand tools, as well as measuring devices, power tools, milling machines, lathes, band saws, welding equipment, and bench grinders. You need to be able to make minor electrical repairs, as well as read electrical schematics, and to detect and report faulty equipment, defects, and unusual conditions. You may also repair air-conditioning systems and air handlers. Most employers want to see a high-school diploma or equivalent and appropriate HVAC certification. More supervisory positions may require a two-year or bachelor’s degree. Other requirements can include at least three years’ experience in industrial maintenance of conveyors, controls, hydraulics, and pneumatics. There’s lots of information on the Web, as you might expect. Visit the site of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (www.ashrae.org), a membership organization that holds conferences and publishes journals and documents. The Web site of the Association of Mechanical Engineers (www.asme.org) not only has plenty of information, but extensive employment postings for all kinds of engineering jobs.

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barrels of oil. Fossil fuels—oil, coal, and natural gas—are great sources of energy. They’re compact, easy to transport and handle, and for a long time they were cheap and abundant. But burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, which accounts for the lion’s share of global warming pollution. They are changing our climate at an unprecedented rate. The United States is now responsible for 25 percent of the world’s emissions of greenhouse gases, but even if we cut back on those emissions, the Chinese are building new coal-fired plants at a rate of about one a week. As President George W. Bush stated in 2006, “America is addicted to oil.” Eighty-five percent of the energy used in the United States today, fueling virtually every activity of modern life, comes from burning hydrocarbons. Researchers keep looking for more fossil fuels, but there are fewer and fewer untouched places left to look, and it’s getting more expensive to extract them. Finding a cure for this addiction isn’t going to be easy. The rapid rise in gasoline prices in the early twenty-first century has focused more public attention on biomass energy sources as one solution to the energy problem. Biomass includes plant- and animal-based materials, such as crops, crop residues, trees, animal fats, byproducts, and wastes. Plant-based biofuels come from a range of crops, such as barley, corn, soybeans, and mustard seed, as well as fast-growing trees like willow or sweetgum. They can be made from perennial grasses like bluestem and switchgrass. They can also come from the residues of plants that are used for other things, such as lumber and paper mill wastes (biomass feedstock) and crop residues; the methane given off by dumps and sewage plants; and even from used cooking oil. (The popular example is often given of people using the cooking oil residue from fast-food French fries to run their diesel vehicles.) The feedstock presently supplements up to 20 percent of the coal used in boilers at power-generating plants. Bioenergy isn’t pure green, however. It takes water, land, and other resources to produce it, and making and burning biofuels release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, too. Biofuels take up cropland that could be used for food production and can drive up food prices. Richard Coniff calculates in Smithsonian magazine (November 2007) that it would require 2 billion acres of corn per year to provide enough ethanol for America’s 200 million cars and light trucks. And what is the potential farmland in this country? About 800 million acres.

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Producing corn ethanol consumes almost as much fossil fuel as the ethanol replaces. Care must also be taken to ensure that biomass production doesn’t degrade valuable ecosystems or land set aside for soil or wildlife conservation. As one observer noted, nobody should be cutting down old-growth trees to > “We hope to make the make biofuel. At present, biomass sup- Bay Area the center of the plies slightly over 1 percent universe for biofuels.” of the electricity and 2 per—Chris Somerville, cent of the liquid fuel used in Professor of Biological Sciences, the United States. The DOE believes this country can dou- Stanford University ble the use of biomass by 2010 and achieve as much as 20 percent usage by 2030. It also estimates that biomass has the potential to supply as much as 14 percent of the country’s electricity needs. According to Worldwatch Institute, the world production of biofuels rose 28 percent in 2006. And money is pouring into biofuel research. In 2006, investors pumped $813 million into U.S. biofuels, much of it focusing on developing and commercializing the technologies that can produce cellulosic ethanol. Toward that end, in June 2007, the DOE announced that a group including the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California-Berkeley, University of California-Davis, Stanford University, and Sandia National Laboratories will collaborate in a new $125 million biofuels research center, the Joint BioEnergy Institute, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its goal will be to produce affordable, renewable road fuels from plant fiber. Two other bioenergy centers funded by the DOE will be located at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Also in the Bay Area, the University of California-Berkeley received a $500 million grant from BP for a separate biofuel research institute, the Energy Biosciences Institute (www.energybio sciencesinstitute.org), in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign. The think tank will conduct research into finding new plants that can be used as fuel, identifying enzymes that will turn plant cellulose into sugars, developing ethanol from cellulose rather than 75

corn grain, and producing more energy-rich products that can be used as jet fuel and other fuels. These two new California biofuel research centers alone are expected to employ some 280 scientists, researchers, engineers, and support personnel. There are lots of biofuel resources online:

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The Bioenergy Wiki is an encyclopedic compendium of information, resources, and links (www.bioenergywiki.net).

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The country’s first international biomass conference premiered in September 2007. The Energy from Biomass and Waste Expo (www.ebw-expo.com) Web site provides information on the exhibitors from around the world and showcases the latest technologies in this field.

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The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the chief scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and its Web site has lots of information on biofuel research (www.ars.usda.gov).

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The Biomass Energy Research Association (www.bera1. org) is an organization of biofuel researchers, companies, and advocates that promotes education and research on renewable biomass energy and waste-toenergy systems. The Web site has lots of links to experts in the field as well as legislation and news updates.

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In March 2007, the United Nations announced the launch of the International Biofuels Forum, a one-year joint project of Brazil, China, India, South Africa, the United States, and the European Union, to help create a world market for alternative fuels that would result in economic, social, and environmental benefits for developed and developing countries—including creating jobs, according to the director of energy efficiency in South Africa. Another of its goals is to plan for the International Biofuels Conference in Brazil in 2008 (www.un.org).

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Also, 2007 saw the launch of the Global Bioenergy Partnership, a cooperative venture of two dozen governments and organizations devoted to promoting biofuel development around the world. Its Web site links to partner organizations and a tremendous amount of information (www.globalbioenergy.org).

Ethanol Most cars now run on a gasoline-ethanol mix that includes about 10 percent ethanol. Many cars are now being manufactured with flex-fuel capability that allows them to burn up to 85 percent ethanol. In the United States, about 1 billion bushels of corn were turned into ethanol in 2002; that number was expected to be 3 billion by the end of 2007, although in September 2007 an ethanol glut—coupled with inadequate distribution—lowered prices. According to the Renewable Fuels Association (www.ethanolrfa .org), the number of ethanol plants in the country has increased from 81 in 2005 to 129 in late 2007, with 80 more under construction or expanding. Together, the United States and Brazil produce nearly 90 percent of the world’s fuel ethanol. Ethanol production from corn is suspect in many green circles because of the energy used, fertilizer application, soil depletion and run off, and other elements of growing corn that can harm the environment. While it’s true that corn-based ethanol has become politically popular, and there seems to be no question that there is a net energy gain—something in the range of 15 percent when compared to fossil fuels—ethanol is more expensive than gasoline, and a car can’t travel as far on a gallon of the biofuel. A November 2007 study by the Rand Corporation (www.rand.org) compared the societal benefits of diesel, hybrid, and E85 (85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline) and found diesel ranked first, hybrids second, with E85 providing no net benefits because of high production costs. Resources to help you in your search for a job in ethanol include the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE, www.ethanol.org),

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So, green jobs in biofuels are already here—the field supports 66,000 jobs in the United States, and that will triple if the DOE achieves its objectives in the fuel and electricity areas. The job potential in biomass is especially interesting because it bridges the urban/rural divide. In rural areas, not only will jobs be stimulated in agriculture but there will also be the need to construct, operate, and maintain production facilities. In urban locales, jobs range from waste oil collection to manufacturing and construction opportunities associated with ethanol and biodiesel production facilities. Component manufacturers will have to make the parts to be used in ethanol and biodiesel plants, and the plants themselves will have to be built and operated.

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the “nation’s largest nonprofit association dedicated to the use and production of ethanol.” Its Web site features industry news, legislation updates, and basics about the fuel. The group also sponsors an annual convention and makes the exhibitor list available online. According to 2002 research, ACE says nearly 700 permanent jobs are created in the area near an ethanol plant. The National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition (www.e85fuel.com) lists several workshops, conferences, trade shows, as well as a U.S. Department of Commerce Biofuels Dialogue Series.

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Cellulosic Ethanol Plants other than corn offer far more potential for sustainable and higher-yield ethanol energy sources. Perennial, fast-growing switchgrass and other prairie grasses, and crop and forest > “We create ethanol waste products like corn stalks in an incredibly dumb and paper pulp, produce ethaway. [Combining other nol that’s chemically identical to that made from corn. The approaches and more difference is that these can be efficient vehicles and made from the whole plant, communities] could not just the seeds, making use of the parts people don’t need eliminate our demand for for food. The U.S. Department gasoline by 2050.” of Energy and the Department of Agriculture estimate —Nathanael Greene, Senior that such waste products Researcher, Natural Resources could provide 1 billion tons Defense Council of biomass for ethanol production annually—enough to offset at least 30 percent of the nation’s current fuel usage. Cellulosic ethanol takes less energy to make than corn ethanol and produces less greenhouse gases (an 87 percent reduction over gasoline, according to the Argonne National Lab, even less when the fuel is made from waste products). Researchers also make the case that cellulosic feedstocks, such as prairie grasses, benefit wildlife and the land, providing habitat while growing on less fertile soil and using less water than corn. The downside? Cellulosic ethanol is still in the research and development phase. By some estimates, practical widespread use 78

Biodiesel A fuel that runs in unmodified diesel engines in cars, buses, trucks, construction equipment, boats, generators, and oil homeheating units, biodiesel is usually made from soy or canola oil. It can also be made from recycled frying oil, animal renderings, and other oil sources. But perhaps the most promising feedstock in the long run is algae—a phenomenally efficient photosynthesizer that produces enormous quantities of oil per acre relative to other sources. Biodiesel can be used alone or blended with regular diesel fuel. Any blend rated above B20 (20 percent biodiesel and 80

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is still a decade away. The hundreds of corn ethanol plants that exist today, with dozens added annually, cannot be reconfigured to produce cellulosic ethanol, either. “Changing course . . . is going to require a drastic shift in gears on the part of our politicians,” > “If we don’t end up says Co-op America. Other countries have already with cellulosic ethanol shifted gears. Brazil gets 40 perquickly, we are going to cent of its transportation energy from ethanol derived from sug- hit the wall on ethanol.” arcane, which has greatly reduced —William Clay Ford, Jr., that country’s need for imported New York Times, oil. Using sugarcane instead of November 14, 2007 corn yields eight times the energy it consumes. Cane yields more than twice as many gallons of ethanol per acre as corn, but it comes at a cost. In Brazil the fields are usually burned before harvest, releasing greenhouse gases and soot into the atmosphere, while expanding the acreage for cane displaces farmers and adds to deforestation. But research into cellulosic ethanol continues apace in this country. A Palo Alto–based subsidiary of Danish company Novozymes (www.novozymes.com) has about 100 researchers developing enzymes that will be able to break down cellulose to produce ethanol more cheaply and efficiently. And Cambridge, Massachusetts–based fuel company Verenium (www.verenium. com) is searching the world for insects that will provide better enzymes from nature, and may have found them in Costa Rican termites. All of these companies list a range of jobs from legal to business process to research on their Web sites.

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percent conventional diesel) receives a federal tax credit. In 1998, a joint study by the DOE and the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that biodiesel reduces new carbon dioxide emissions by 78 percent compared to petroleum diesel. Biodiesel now flows through the pipes of one former orange juice factory in Florida. Pensacola-based Agri-Source Fuels (www.asfuels .com) converts chicken fat hauled in from Georgia and Alabama, and palm and cottonseed oils shipped from South America into as many as 125 million gallons of the clean-burning alternative fuel. More such innovative factory repurposing could create jobs in this growing industry. Orbitek, “the Global biodiesel solutions company,” in Tulsa, Oklahoma, makes biodiesel production systems (www.orbitekinc. com). Its Web site has lots of useful links to organizations working in the biodiesel field, as well as news and market updates. The Web site of the National Biodiesel Board, the U.S. trade association for biodiesel based in Jefferson City, Missouri, posts information sheets, industry news updates, health and safety data, and information about legislation and regulations (www.biodiesel. org). Biodiesel Now has links to many companies that make and use biodiesel fuel—potential resources for employment information and industry news. As you might expect, there are publications devoted to every sort of biofuel. Biodiesel Magazine (www.biodieselmagazine.com) claims to put the biodiesel world at your fingertips with news, conference information, and links to biodiesel business directories that would be good starting points for your job search.

Biomass Industry Development Coordinator

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As one of these professionals, you would research market conditions in local, regional, or national areas to determine the potential use of biomass products and services. You’d gather information on competitors’ prices, sales, and methods of marketing and distribution and use survey results to create a marketing campaign based on regional preferences and buying habits. You’d solicit business from a variety of prospective commercial customers of varied size and industry and assist in the assessment of data and methods of service delivery. Employers want to see a bachelor’s degree in business administration, economics, or marketing research, with a minor in biology, chemistry, engineering, or environmental science. You’d also need a basic understanding of scientific concepts and

terms. Other acceptable preparation for this career includes legal studies or a law degree with a science background. To advance, you’d need a master’s or Ph.D.

Some of the biggest research into biofuels is taking place on a really small scale. If your interests run more toward chemistry or biology than geology or engineering, these may be good green options for you. These firms need research scientists and assistants specializing in bioprocess, microbiology, genetic engineering, fermentation, molecular biology, and bio-organic chemistry. For the latter, you would need extensive experience in enzymology, a Ph.D. in biochemistry, chemistry, or a related discipline with at least five years’ research experience, with additional experience in the industry desirable. Microalgae—tiny aquatic plants—grow extremely fast in hot, shallow saline water in places like the desert Southwest. GreenFuel Technologies Corporation of Cambridge, Massachusetts (www.greenfuelonline.com), uses carbon dioxide emissions from power plants as a means to stimulate algae growth. The algae, turned into a range of fuels through a technology called “emissions-to-biofuels,” shows great promise and could transform the way utilities produce energy. An acre of corn produces about 300 gallons of ethanol per year; in theory, an acre of algae could produce over 5,000 gallons of biofuel annually. Another advantage is that algae can be grown in all kinds of climates and environments and harvested every day. Dartmouth professor Lee Lynd’s goal is to create a bacterium that will make sugar out of cellulose and then turn that sugar to ethanol—a process that now requires two separate steps. His corporation, Mascoma (www.mascoma.com), is building an ethanol plant in New York and a production plant in Michigan to pursue consolidated bioprocessing. And scientists at the University of California-Berkeley, Amyris Biotechnologies (www.amyrisbiotech.com) and LS9, Inc. (www .ls9.com), all in the San Francisco Bay Area, are working on building microbes that can turn cellulosic biomass into a fuel that’s molecularly similar to gasoline, but with a higher energy content than ethanol. Companies like this need technicians to perform fermentations at a variety of scales. You’ll need experience with fermentation process equipment and routine sample analysis in order to set up and operate bioreactors. Requirements include a two-year or bachelor’s degree in biology or life sciences, and preferably at least three years of biotech experience.

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Micro-Green Fuels

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Bioenergy Process Engineer

In this job, you would be developing environmentally friendly processes to derive plant biomass from crop residues, such as wheat straw, rice straw, rice hulls, and other underutilized agricultural fibers, with the ultimate aim of producing predictable compositions for use in the creation of composites, nano-composites, and valueadded products, such as specialty chemicals and/or ethanol. You’d need a master’s degree in engineering, fiber technology, materials science, or chemistry; or a background in chemical, mechanical, agricultural, materials, fiber, or process engineering; in addition, you should be a licensed professional engineer. Some pertinent organizations include the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG), which is a nonprofit partnership of U.S. wheat growers. Its Web site has a section on biomass production and NAWG’s activities in this area (www.wheatworld. org). The National Corn Growers Association provides similar services in the interests of their crop (www.ncga.com). And a mission of the United Soybean Board is to find new uses for its crop (www.unitedsoybean.org). Significant research into biofuels is going on at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Science Center at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee. The Web site contains comprehensive information about bioenergy (www.bioenergycenter .org). As of December 2007, the Web site indicated that there would be upcoming job postings in such areas as microbiology, bioinformatics, plant sciences, and other disciplines.

Marine Power “I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide/ Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied.” —John Masefield

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As long as we have a moon and an earth with oceans, wind, and gravity, we’ll have tides, currents, and waves. And if you’ve ever witnessed a storm at sea, you’ll have no trouble imagining the ocean’s power. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI, www.epri.com) estimates that the potential wave energy that could be harnessed in the United States equals about 6.5 percent of the total electricity supply—about the same as our current hydropower resource. But therein lies the rub: harnessing this abundant and perpetual energy source, called marine energy, blue energy,

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Energyocean.com has information on upcoming marine energy conferences.

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EnergyPlanet (www.energyplanet.info/ocean_energy) has a renewable energy directory on its Web site with lots of links and information pertaining to marine energy.

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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce (www.noaa.gov), National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado (www. nrel.gov), and Ocean Energy, European Commission (http:// ec.europa.eu) provide global industry-related information.

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Ocean Energy Council (www.oceanenergycoucil.com), a nonprofit in West Palm Beach, Florida, advocates for developing and implementing ocean energy technologies around the world. Its Web site contains technical information, worldwide news and events, as well as a calendar of conferences around the globe, places where jobseekers can network and connect with the companies and research institutions doing work in this field.

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or ocean energy, poses significant technological challenges. The greatest disadvantage of current wave and tidal energy systems is that they can’t yet match the low price of more traditional sources of electricity. In addition, they face the very real hurdles of severe ocean weather, corrosion, and installation and maintenance. But there is considerable motivation to overcome these obstacles. Fifty percent of this country’s population lives within fifty miles of a coastline, making transmission easier than, say, for wind. And marine energy sources offer the potential for unlimited clean, renewable energy, making them attractive subjects for many research programs. Current green jobs in this emerging field are principally limited to development and marketing, but there is the potential for many more in manufacturing, installation, sales, and maintenance if the technologies become commercially viable. You’ll find lots of online resources on this developing technology. Many of these Web sites will link you to others, including the businesses and research labs that hire workers in these technologies:

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O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory (www.wave .oregonstate.edu) has world-class wave tank facilities.

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Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, California (http://sio.ucsd.edu) is another research-oriented facility.

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Videos of marine energy installations at work can be viewed on the Web at www.youtube.com/group/oceanenergy.

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Wallace Energy Systems and Renewables Facility at Oregon State University (eecs.oregonstate.edu/wesrf ) is the nation’s highest-power capacity, university-based energy systems laboratory.

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Wave Power Make no mistake, the search for price-competitive electricity generated by wave energy is in the forefront of the rapidly moving alternative-energy frontier. Some experts place its stage of development about where wind energy was fifteen to twenty years ago. One exciting example just emerging from the theoretical and development stages is the neo-aerodynamic turbine. This electricitygenerating device can use wind or water (waves or creek, ocean, or tidal current) to harness torque from the kinetic and pneumatic energy of the respective flow. Only time will tell which of the many devices being tested will prove to be the most effective. > “There is a lot of raw Many wave energy projenergy to be captured.” ects have been proposed but, to date, few have been imple—Andrew Laing, Aotearoa Wave mented. In this country, a and Tidal Energy Association joint venture between Ocean Power Technologies, Inc., and Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative plans to install their PowerBuoy system about two and a half miles off the Oregon coast. The installation is expected to deliver 2 megawatts of power initially, with potential capacity up to 50 megawatts. Australia, New Zealand, and Europe are committed to taking advantage of their oceans for clean energy. Europe plans to generate up to 20 percent of its electricity from non–fossil-fuel sources, including waves, by 2020. Toward that end, in October 2007 an Irish firm, Wavebob Ltd., joined the ranks of a handful of companies to generate energy from this source (www.wavebob.com). At full scale, the buoy system off the coast of County Galway will 84

produce enough power for 1,000 homes. Wave Dragon of Copenhagen, Denmark, plans to deploy the world’s largest wave-energy generator off the coast of Wales in 2008 (www.wavedragon.net). A project off the coast of Portugal (Povoa de Varzim) with an initial investment of nearly $12 million is to be expanded to nearly $100 million. It will generate 2.25 megawatts in its first phase, increasing to 72.5 megawatts by 2009. New Zealand is actively pursuing marine energy development to take advantage of the “roaring forties” winds, and the high seas they create, in the Southern Ocean and Tasman Sea. Power from Waves

> The buoy system uses the rise and fall of waves to force a piston up and down. The piston, in turn, extends or compresses hose pumps, pressurizing water that turns a turbine and generates electricity. Clusters of the buoys, which are twelve feet in diameter and fifty-two feet long (about thirteen feet of which extends above the ocean surface), also called “wave farms” or “wave parks,” multiply the energy-generating potential. Ocean Power Technologies, Inc., in Pennington, New Jersey installs this type of technology (www.oceanpowertechnol ogies.com). > The Pelamis wave energy converter uses the motion of waves to pressurize a fluid that in turn drives a hydraulic ram in an electricity generator. Pelamis Wave Power Ltd. in Scotland is developing projects using this technology in Europe (www .pelamiswave.com). > The “wave dragon” has large collector arms that channel waves up a ramp to fill an offshore reservoir. Gravity returns the water to the ocean surface, powering hydroelectric generators as it descends. The only moving parts are the turbines. The technology used is not new—the turbines and other structures have been used in the hydropower industry for decades. Wave Dragon of Copenhagen, Denmark, developed this technology (www.wavedragon.net). > CETO uses seafloor pressure coupled to a high-pressure hydraulic pump to send pressurized water to shore to drive generator turbines. SeaPower Pacific in Australia holds the patent on this technology (www.ceto.com).

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Deriving power from wave energy is an evolving technology using a variety of techniques:

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Tidal Power Tidal power uses two basic approaches. The kinetic, or direct, approach uses moving water currents to turn power turbines. This system is most efficient where land masses constrict the tidal flow, such as in the Strait of Gibraltar, the Bosporus, the Strait of Magellan, and numerous sites in Southeast Asia and Australia. Norway has the first grid-connected site. It began generating up to 300 kilowatts of power in 2003. Another site, in Northern Ireland at Strangford Lough, uses a device like a windmill that tidal flow turns to generate electricity. When fully operational, Strangford Lough will generate up to 1.2 megawatts. Another kinetic approach uses the tidal change to compress air that in turn spins turbines. A new design of shrouded turbines uses the Venturi principle to achieve three to four times greater power generation than a conventional free-stream turbine. The second type, the barrage system, uses caisson storage units > “As an island in that are filled by rising tidewater. At the middle of the low tide, the stored water is released energetic Atlantic and drives turbines as it returns to Ocean, Ireland can be the low-tide sea level. Only three barrage systems are currently operto wave energy what ating, and only one, on the Rance Saudi Arabia is to oil.” River in France, produces significant power (240 megawatts). A second —Andrew Parish, barrage system operates at AnnapoCEO, Wavebob Ltd. lis Royal on the Bay of Fundy (18 megawatts) and a small capacity unit operates at Kislaya Guba on the Barents Sea (0.5 megawatts). The phases of the moon and the weather—especially wind patterns—affect tidal power systems. Since they are efficient only with a markedly rising and falling tidal flow, current generation can be as little as twelve or as many as twenty hours per day. Such generation cycles don’t always coincide with grid demand, but during off-peak times tidal systems can also be used to desalinate ocean water through reverse osmosis and to produce hydrogen. FreeFlow69 is a new company in Cornwall, England, that has developed a vertical axis, free-flow turbine called the Osprey. It can be used to create electricity offshore at sea or in tidal waters and inland waterways. The company is planning systems for the 86

Power from Ocean Currents In addition to the currents caused by tidal action, there are much larger-scale ocean-current circulatory systems that mix the water in all the oceans. They draw their energy from the extremes between the cold fresh water from the polar regions and the much warmer and more saline tropical seas, which can absorb large levels of solar radiation. These deep-water currents are reasonably predictable and offer a promising source of renewable energy. In December 2007, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior announced regulations that would “guide the use of wind, wave, and current resources on the 1.8 billion acres of Outer Continental Shelf on the coasts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf Coasts.” Researchers in South Florida at the Center of Excellence in Ocean Energy Technology are already hard at work finding ways to harness the power of the Gulf Stream. Director Rick Driscoll points out that the center’s location is the closest of any place on earth of a major ocean current to a load center that needs power immediately—Florida’s population is growing by 1,000 people a day (www.coet.fau.edu). This technology involves mooring a field of 100-foot-diameter turbines 1,000 feet underwater in the middle of the Gulf Stream, which flows at a rate of 8 billion gallons a minute. Ultimately, the current could yield as much energy as several nuclear plants and provide a third of the state’s power. Other innovations the center is exploring include tapping the enormous potential energy source that is the reservoir of cold water in the deep ocean and using the temperature differential between the cold bottom water and the warm surface water to generate electricity. This investment, $5 million from the state so far, will not only help fill Florida’s power needs but create lots of jobs as well.

Electronics/Hydraulic/Mechanical Design Engineers

As a mechanical engineer for a marine power company, you’d lead the delivery of advanced mechanical engineering designs and manufacturing support for offshore wave-power technology that captures wave energy using large floating buoys anchored to the seabed. It would require extensive design work, innovation, and analysis of a range of wave energy mechanical designs principally

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entrance of the San Francisco Bay and for the Bristol Channel in the United Kingdom (www.freeflow69.com).

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made up of large, steel-fabricated components. You would develop designs for manufacture and manage the manufacturing process, focusing on creative solutions for alternative technologies for wave energy conversion, leading to cost-effective products. Employers require a degree in mechanical engineering, with a background in a similar industry and in-depth knowledge of design software, such as SolidWorks. Good writing skills for high-quality reports are also required. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) has information on training, certification, and continuing education in this field (www.asme.org). A hydraulic engineer performs a variety of tasks in support of engineers and scientists, including hydraulic circuit design, assembly, and testing; testing of prototypes; and troubleshooting. You’d also select hydraulic components, manage the drawing database, and track deliveries of parts. This collaborative job requires you to work with other technicians, engineers, assembly personnel, vendors, and fabricators. Employers want you to have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, with a master’s a plus, and a minimum of five years’ experience in hydraulic product development, and experience with hydraulic circuit layout and design, instrumentation, design of hydraulic circuits, and troubleshooting. Electronics engineers in marine power companies work with other system and software engineers on developing the control systems for the technology. You would participate in the conceptual design of circuit boards and systems containing field programmable gate array (FPGA) devices, from the design level through circuit testing, algorithm development, system integration, and commissioning; work with manufacturers to facilitate mass production of system control cards; and write functional specifications, test procedures, and interface documents for hardware and firmware. Employers want to see a degree in electrical/electronic engineering or an equivalent, with a minimum of three years’ related work experience. You’ll need some skills in FPGA design, HDL design and implementation, and knowledge of OrCAD or a similar drawing package, signal conditioning, A-D converters, and MOSFET driver circuit design. See the Web site of the American Society for Engineering Education for information on training and certification for these jobs (www.asee.org). Potential employers for all of these jobs include the companies mentioned above in the text and sidebar, as well as AWS

Ocean Energy in Scotland (www.waveswing.com), Ocean Wave Energy Company in Rhode Island (www.owec.com), Ocean Motion International in Oregon and Colorado (www.ocean motion.ws), and ORECon in the U.K. (www.orecon.com).

Fuel Cell and Battery Power

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Fuel Cell Today (www.fuelcelltoday.com) is an information site based in Cambridge, England.

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Fuel Cells 2000 (www.fuelcells.org) has a useful link to many fuel-cell-related job sources. The Web site also lists educational opportunities in this area.

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Global Smart Energy (www.globalsmartenergy.com) has news and other information pertaining to the $40 billion per year smart grid industry, including the Smart Grid Newsletter (www.smartgridnews.com).

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GridWise Alliance (www.gridwise.org) has collaborated with the DOE on an action plan to revitalize the national electricity grid.

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The National Fuel Cell Research Center at the University of California–Irvine (www.nfcrc.uci.edu), has a great deal of information on its Web site, including notices of upcoming conferences and symposia, as well as academic information if you’re thinking about getting a graduate degree in fuel cell technology.

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This almost $50 billion industry already creates a lot of jobs— both fuel cells and batteries are two areas where intense research and development are underway—but the jobs aren’t necessarily green ones. The thrust of the new battery technologies, however, is decidedly green, and this field is one that has great growth potential. Many job sectors, from engineering to manufacturing to home building to mass transit, and many employers, from government agencies to power companies to automobile manufacturers, will need workers with battery and fuel-cell expertise. Most of the jobs in this arena now are in research and development, but once the technology evolves, there’s potential for jobs in manufacturing and distribution. You’ll find plenty of resources on the Web for fuel cell and battery research, technologies, and uses. Each one links to many other sites, and some also link to potential job sources:

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The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and Infrastructure Technologies Program (www.nrel.gov) conducts research and development in hydrogen production and delivery, hydrogen storage, fuel cells, technology validation, safety, codes and standards, and analysis, involving research in photovoltaics, bioenergy, transportation, wind, buildings, and basic sciences. The Web site has a great deal of research information on this field.

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Think Energy Group (www.thinkenergygroup.com) is one starting point for finding battery-industry-related jobs.

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The DOE’s (www.doe.gov) focus is on the polymer exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, and it publishes an annual research progress report on its Web site.

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The U.S. Fuel Cell Council (www.usfcc.com) is an industry association dedicated to fostering the commercialization of fuel cells in this country.

Fuel Cells Hydrogen is the simplest and most abundant element in the universe. It can be produced from many different resources and technologies. It seems natural that we find ways to harness its power for our energy needs. Fuel cells have been around since 1839, but rising gas prices and concern over global warming have recently focused attention on this technology. A hydrogen fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device that turns hydrogen and oxygen into water, and in the process produces electricity. A conventional battery stores electricity, while a fuel cell produces it. The hydrogen fuel cell’s almost romantic appeal is simple: Use abundantly available materials to generate electricity, leaving only water and heat as byproducts. However, harnessing hydrogen’s power in a usable and economical way hasn’t proven to be as simple. In 2003, President Bush announced the “Hydrogen Fuel Initiative” with the goal of developing practical and cost-effective fuel cell vehicles by 2020. To date, the effort has received $1.2 billion and plans to spend a total of $1.7 billion, far beyond what any other government has committed to fuel cell research and development. It seems clear that the administration has placed most of its eggs in the fuel-cell basket, and many have questioned the wisdom of

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Cost: To be competitive with gasoline vehicles, even at the current fuel prices, a fuel cell system must cost about $35 per kilowatt (the present cost is about $110 per kilowatt). The use of platinum in the system keeps the cost high, but nanotechnology may produce cost-reducing breakthroughs.

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Durability: Hydrogen fuel cells must be made more durable in order to be used in vehicles.

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Safety: Researchers must find a reliable and safe way to transport hydrogen in consumer vehicles.

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Infrastructure: A national infrastructure of hydrogen filling stations and storage facilities will need to be developed, and some cost estimates for this work alone range as high as $500 billion.

What does all this mean for green jobs in the fuel-cell sector? Over $1 billion is a big investment. It’s funding many jobs now,

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making this technology a priority as opposed to supporting other, more readily attainable technologies. The United States is gambling on the success of the hydrogen polymer exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system. A vehicle with a stand-alone system only wastes 36 percent of the energy produced, as opposed to a gasoline-powered vehicle that wastes 80 percent of the energy in gas before it’s converted to mechanical work. The downside, however, is that the efficiency estimate for a vehicle powered by a hydrogen fuel cell doesn’t take into account the energy required to capture the hydrogen and make it usable. Deriving the hydrogen from solar, wind, or hydropower would be a clean answer to the problem. Presently in the United States, most hydrogen is obtained from natural gas through a process that releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. However, in October 2007, Ohio State University researchers announced that they used eggshells to produce hydrogen for fuel cells. Adding eggshells to the process absorbs CO2. And Penn State University scientists have developed a fuel cell that runs on wastewater, using microbes to break down the wastewater, releasing heat and pure water. Besides capturing the hydrogen, there are many other challenges for the hydrogen initiative to overcome before it can be commercially viable, including these:

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and more are certain to come. A few years ago, one analyst estimated that if just 20 percent of cars used fuel cells, it would create some 800,000 jobs. There are many researchers around the world working to solve all of these fuel-cell challenges. Beijing, for example, has pumped nearly $200 million into fuel-cell research in the past two years. “The Chinese government,” says one industry observer, “will go to all lengths to make fuel-cell cars work.” Considering the millions of cars destined to be on the road in that country in the decades to come, let’s hope they succeed. In the meantime, you can get in on the action by coming up with the next innovative fuel-cell technology.

Fuel-Cell Technician/Engineer

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These technicians work in both the manufacturing and research areas of fuel-cell technology. Using both sophisticated machinery and hand tools, a fuel-cell technician assembles fuel-cell stacks; runs performance tests using complex electronic equipment; tracks and orders materials; and mixes chemicals. You need strong teamwork, numerical, and written and oral communication skills. Employers want to see a two-year degree, although a high school diploma and substantial manufacturing experience may sometimes be substituted. Relevant specialized technical training in the military can also substitute for the degree. Technicians can advance to test-and-verification specialists and senior technicians. Companies like the following need these types of technicians: NanoDynamics Energy, Inc., Buffalo, New York (www.ndenergy .com); Ballard Power Systems, Burnaby, British Columbia (www .ballard.com); Plug Power, Sidney, Ohio, and Gallatin, Tennessee (www.plugpower.com); MTI Micro, Albany, New York (www.mti microfuelcells.com); Aerotek, Burbank, California (www.aerotek.com); and Acumentrics, Westwood, Massachusetts (www.acumentrics.com). Also, if you’d like to work more directly with the vehicles that will make use of these fuel-cell technologies, companies like GM Motors and the Ford Motor Company advertise jobs for fuel-cell researchers and engineers. They’re looking for people with experience and training in failure analysis, root-cause methodology, and other disciplines. Your expertise might be in fuel-cell performance, design, materials, reliability testing, or manufacturing. These jobs require you to have the ability to generate hypotheses and construct

and execute experiments and mathematical models to support or refute those hypotheses. Creativity and good verbal and written skills are a must. Employers look for a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate in electrochemical, electrical, mechanical, or chemical engineering, with at least three years of research and/or development experience.

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Nanotechnology is very much part of the quest for more efficient batteries. Researchers at MIT are using nanotubes to enhance the storage and recharging capabilities of capacitors to produce a battery that lasts longer and recharges more rapidly than conventional ones.

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An MIT materials scientist and bioengineer is creating a new kind of battery—one that grows viruses that coat themselves with gold and other inorganic materials. Line up the resulting nanowires, and you have the components of an extremely compact and powerful battery— one that grows itself and is partly biodegradable to boot.

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EEStor, in Texas, has patented a battery-ultracapacitor hybrid that it claims is more efficient (recharging in only five minutes), safer, and less costly than any other battery option. Toronto-based ZENN Motor has licensed this ultracapacitor for use in its vehicles.

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Batteries When you add up the number of batteries in your home and office—in laptops, remote-control devices, cell phones, digital cameras, flashlights, portable CD players, MP3 players, PDAs— you can see why there are over 3 billion household and industrial batteries sold in the United States every year, over $48 billion dollars’ worth in 2005 alone. Research and development in battery technology is robust, as it is in the rest of the alternative energy sector. Improved battery technology is key for more viable electric vehicles, more efficient hybrid cars, and better storage of electricity generated by wind, solar, and hydropower devices. Lithium-ion batteries are on the cutting edge of this technology, but haven’t yet reached the storage capacity or gotten cheap enough to make electric vehicles cost effective for more than short commutes. There is a lot of research underway in this expanding field, including the following:

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Ultracapacitor Jobs

Companies like Maxwell Technologies in San Diego, California, are on the cutting edge of ultracapacitor development and use in consumer and industrial electronics, transportation, and telecommunications. These companies post jobs for account managers, supply base engineering managers, process engineers, manufacturing engineers, program and project managers, and customer support personnel (www.maxwell.com).

Green Energy Gets Smart

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In addition to the rapid growth occurring in renewable energies like solar, wind, marine, and geothermal, a broader-based approach with high promise is what has been called “Smart Energy.” Patrick Mazza, research director for Climate Solutions in Seattle, defines it as the “application of digital information technology to optimize electrical power generation, delivery, and end use.” Mazza and others see this convergence of information technology and electrical power as holding some of the greatest potential for clean energy. Smart energy, or the “smart grid,” would also avoid major blackouts such as the one California endured in the summer of 2001 and the Northeast and Midwest experienced in the summer of 2003. This type of system will require employees trained in digital and distributive power systems, in addition to dataprocessing personnel. Mazza points out that the utility industry has an aging employee base, and this presents the potential to provide the replacement workers with the training that will be required to develop smarter energy systems. In January 2006, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (www.pnl.gov) teamed up with regional utilities, industry, and about 200 homeowners to test its GridWise Initiative. The new technologies are designed to improve grid efficiency and reliability while increasing customer choice and control. A controller chip installed in appliances is intended to help prevent widespread power outages by turning off certain parts of an appliance when it senses instability in the grid, something that happens about once a day on average. Multiplied on a large scale, this instant energy reduction can give grid operators time to bring new power generation resources on line to stabilize the grid.

Chapter 6: Green Transportation > “The horsepower party that automakers have been reveling in the last few years seems to be coming to an end. The hangover may be about to begin.” —New York Times, September 26, 2007

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ritish Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli observed, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” But any way you slice them, the numbers tell a stark tale about transportation, oil dependence, and global warming pollution in the United States. Consider these: >

Nearly twenty-one million barrels of oil are consumed in the United States each day.

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Over 67 percent of the oil consumed in the United States is used for transportation.

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40 percent of total U.S. energy use is from petroleum.

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One-third of this country’s annual carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) emissions come from transportation.

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19 percent of U.S. household expenditures are annual car costs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2001).

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The 2006 model year includes the heaviest vehicles in thirty years in the United States.

This country managed to stay self-sufficient in meeting its national energy needs through the 1950s, but our increasing thirst for oil now requires us to import 58 percent of the oil we use.

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If things continue as they are, the federal government estimates we’ll be importing 68 percent by 2025. While some tentative steps have been taken to combat this significant increase in fossil-fuel importation, such as tax credits for the purchase of hybrid vehicles, attention needs to focus on taking steps to conserve energy—steps that would result in immediate gains—and developing technologies that use far less energy—steps that would spur a significant increase in green employment. As the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) points out, many of these technologies already exist: efficient engines, hybridelectric powertrains, better tires, and lighter and stronger materials. The UCS quantified the benefits of moving these technologies into vehicles that reach a fleetwide average of thirty-five miles per gallon. What they found was that by 2020, investing in fuel economy would lead to 241,000 more jobs throughout the country, with 23,800 jobs in the automotive sector, not to mention the decreased dependence on foreign oil and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (www.ucsusa.org). Co-op America Quarterly’s “12-Step Plan to Curb Climate Change” advises the country on what we need to achieve by 2054 in order to lessen our strain on the environment. It’s no surprise that the top four steps focus on transportation: 1. Increase average fuel economy to forty miles per gallon by 2012, then sixty miles per gallon. 2. Cut our driving by 50 percent. 3. Move to zero-emissions vehicle technology. 4. Replace fossil fuels with waste-based biofuels, without displacing cropland or forests.

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Upping the average fuel economy, creating and implementing zero-emissions vehicles, and developing and using waste-based biofuels will spark innovation in every sector. Decreasing the number of individual vehicles on the road will expand the use of—and jobs in—mass transit. The problem is by no means a solely American one. In one year, humans around the world burn an amount of fossil fuel equal to more than 400 times the amount of plant matter that grows in the world in a year, including microscopic plant life from the oceans (according to a November 2003 study by ecologist Jeff Dukes).

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With the economies of China and India accelerating, and their populations eager to own cars—and more of them able to afford them—the potential effect on the climate is catastrophic, according to Iain Carson and Vijay Vaitheeswaran, authors of Zoom, The > “In a lab you can show Global Race to Fuel the Car of the that [the technology] Future (2007). Total global oil use right is working in one now is eighty-six million barrels experiment, but taking a day. If India and China’s per that to selling it at Kmart capita oil consumption equaled half of ours, and they drove is a different thing.” the kinds of cars readily available today, they’d need another —Auto Executive 100 million barrels of oil a day. According to Global Insight, passenger car production quintupled in China during the past decade (www.globalinsight.com). With worry over global warming intensifying, concern for the environment reinvigorated, and advances in green technologies essential, the greenest jobs in transportation will be those that help us find ways to dramatically lower vehicle emissions and make it easier for more people to take mass transit. You as a green job seeker, the country, and the planet all stand to gain. That said, the alternative transportation sector, while offering enormous green job potential, right now isn’t the biggest source of such employment. As with many other aspects of the quest for a greener world, meaningful federal leadership and funding are needed. As noted above, much of the necessary technology is either already here or on the cusp of being widely available. Cities and states in the United States are ahead of national efforts, and increasing public awareness can generate more action. As of October 2007, it looked as though some national leaders were jumping on board the public transportation bandwagon. The Senate passed a bill cosponsored by Senator Frank Lautenberg and Senator Trent Lott to allocate $1.9 billion per year for six years to expand passenger rail in the United States, with the goal of developing high-speed, short-haul rail corridors modeled on those in Europe. Such funding bodes well for the future of jobs in rail. For job opportunities in the general transportation sector, look at such Web sites as www.transportationcrossing.com, a subscription 97

site with jobs in all areas of transportation. Also look at city and regional transit authorities and nonprofit groups interested in the quality of mass transit in your area. One example is the Oregon Transit Association (www.oregontransit.com), which posts jobs, hosts an annual conference, and provides training and networking opportunities for everyone in the transportation industry.

Automobiles “Mobilizing the ingenuity to create a better car must be matched by finding the wisdom to create a society worth driving around in—but less often.” —Paul Hawken

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Driven by the price of gas, environmental awareness, and, to some extent, the predilection of celebrities, the popularity of hybrid vehicles is growing. Toyota sold 15,000 of its Prius hybrid when it was introduced in North America in 2000. Sales of all new hybrid vehicles increased 49 percent (57 percent in the Midwest) in the first seven months of 2007, reported R.L. Polk & Co., with new registrations totaling 215,997 compared to 144,721 in the same period of 2006. Currently, you can choose from among more than a dozen hybrid models in this country, but the auto industry as a whole has been slow to adapt to changing market realities, and in many cases it has simply dug in its heels. In 1993, President Bill Clinton convened a meeting of auto executives and labor leaders to strategize a new energy-efficient car that would be moderately priced, good looking, safe, and recyclable. In 2002, a billion dollars later and months before the prototypes were ready, the Bush administration scrapped the project to focus on vehicles that run on pure hydrogen. The industry has been playing catch-up to Japanese automakers ever since. It may soon have a new impetus. Legislation passed in December 2007 requires automakers to meet an average of thirtyfive miles per gallon over their fleet, including SUVs, by 2020. The new standard represents a 40 percent increase over the old one. Twenty or so years ago, vehicles began to include computerized components; today, the average new car contains dozens of microprocessors. That shift left some transportation jobs behind while creating openings for workers skilled in the emerging technologies. Now many of the components and mechanical systems

found in the new hybrid and electric vehicles differ from those in conventional vehicles. This will create another huge potential for trade-off and transition in the auto industry as it replaces many of the jobs being lost with new ones. To cite just one example, the vast majority of components in the General Motors electric-powered EV1 were designed from scratch. Between 1996 and 1999, GM manufactured 1,117 of its EV1, demonstrating the promise of electric cars for urban and suburban commuters. (For one perspective on the controversy generated when GM decided to stop production of the EV1, see the documentary film Who Killed the Electric Car?) If you’re trained in one of these emerging fields, you’ll have a jump on the transportation job market of the future. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which let drivers use electricity from gas engines and the grid, seem poised to enter the vehicle market in the next few years. Like today’s gas-electric hybrids, PHEVs have an electric battery and a fuel engine. The battery is bigger and better (getting up to 100 miles per charge), which lets drivers use electricity more exclusively than with a conventional hybrid. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that the average American drives twenty-nine miles a day, so most drivers would use little or no liquid fuel between charges. And the cars are pollution and emission free if the electricity comes from clean sources, like wind or solar. According to the Argonne National Labs, even those charged with electricity derived from coal power still emit a third to a half less emissions than conventional engines (www.anl.gov). (See www.transportation.anl.gov for the papers presented by the Lab at the December 2007 Electric Vehicle Symposium 23.) Co-op America Quarterly (Summer 2007) calls PHEVs that are plugged into renewable energy “our brightest hope for curbing transportation-related emissions while matching the performance of today’s cars.” And there are other upsides: Advanced information and communication technology (vehicle-to-grid, or V2G technology) will enable cars and the electric power grid to work together in ways that reduce fuel consumption and allow for greater integration of distributed renewable electricity sources.

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The National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado, estimates that PHEV use could help double the use of wind power by 2050 (www.nrel.gov). And the Federal Regulatory Commission notes that PHEV owners could “rent” their batteries back to the utilities when the vehicles are parked, earning money while helping to make the grid more efficient. The mayor of Austin, Texas, has already set aside rebates for the first residents who buy PHEVs, and the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in Northern California is looking into setting up a V2G system that would tap into commuter cars in BART parking lots.

Automotive Engineer

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With a surge in the number of eco-friendly rides hitting the streets, you’re going to see an increase in automotive design positions available for hybrid, PVEC, fuel cell, multi-fuel, and biodiesel > “Putting technology vehicles. Designing and drafting to work means putting the concepts and components of people to work, these environmentally friendly cars and trucks will require you to whether it’s in the develop innovative test procedures, computer industry or analyze emissions data and sustainthe auto industry.” ability, and negotiate the costs of these advanced technologies. Vari—David Friedman, ous specialties run the gamut from Research Director, Clean ergonomics to alternative fuels to Vehicles Program, Union of safety. An intrinsic understanding Concerned Scientists of automobile design and function is necessary, but you’ll also need a working knowledge of the latest green technologies, transportation trends, and applicable DOT and EPA regulations in order to bring climate change to street level. Many automakers are creating more fuel-efficient models. General Motors is developing a new PHEV called the Volt, able to be configured to run on electricity, gasoline, E85, or biodiesel, and scheduled for production in 2010. The Web sites of GM (www .gm.com) and other manufacturers detail a variety of engineering jobs and qualifications needed. Toyota’s Web site (www.toyota 1 0 0 .com) includes openings for automotive technology trainees in

many areas, including hybrid powertrain project quality assurance, and jobs for hybrid vehicle engineers. Smaller companies, like Zap Motors in Santa Rosa, California, advertise jobs for project design engineers who can lead and manage the refinement of their existing electric cars and micro-cars, as well as develop new products (www.zapworld.com).

Another indication of the vast job—and entrepreneurial—potential of greener auto transportation is the August 2007 announcement by the X Prize Foundation (www.x-prize.org) of a competition (endorsed by the NRDC, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Apollo Alliance; see the appendix) offering $10 million to anyone who can develop a marketable vehicle that gets the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon. Within a month, thirty-one teams had entered the race. It’s easy to see how bringing such a vehicle into mass production will create green jobs. Another consequence would be providing a much-needed transition to a greener future for the ailing U.S. auto industry. Another competition is the 2008 Challenge-X: Eco-CAR, the NeXt Challenge, sponsored by General Motors Corporation (GM), the DOE, and other government and industry leaders (www.challengex.org). This three-year competition gives teams of engineering students the opportunity to participate in hands-on research and development with leading-edge automotive propulsion, fuels, materials, and emissions-control technologies identical to those under investigation by the automotive industry to meet the demands of improved energy efficiency, including fullfunction electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cell hybrid vehicles. If you’re a student with an interest in the future of automobiles, such a competition can give you invaluable experience in realworld technologies, as well as contacts in the industry. MIT bills its Vehicle Design Summit as the catalyst for an “energy space race,” seeking to imbue the auto industry with the same focus, energy, passion, and urgency that propelled humans to the moon (www.vehicledesignsummit.org). The consortium is working on the VDS Vision 200, a hyper-efficient vehicle earmarked for India that will demonstrate a 95 percent reduction in embodied energy, materials, and toxicity from cradle to grave. The group plans to unveil its fully functional concept car in fall of 2008, followed by a LEED Platinum factory design for its commercial production. Such initiatives can help provide new jobs at the very forefront of this market.

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Research underway at institutions like Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (www.rpi.edu) and MIT has broken ground for advances in cleaner automotive design. Whether it’s an RPI student’s discovery that light can ignite carbon nanotubes—making nanotube ignition systems possible (Honda and GM are working on such systems)—or the work being done at MIT to increase the capacity of energy storage devices, keeping abreast of such green advancements will have you looking sharp in your job interview. An organization like the Society of Automotive Engineers (www.sae.org) offers a wealth of information to members in the form of publications, online training, and symposia on the new technologies, from near-zero-emission gasoline-powered engines to advanced braking systems to hybrid technologies. It also hosts job postings in worldwide mobility engineering. Remember, an interest in eco-friendly technology isn’t the only qualification you’ll need. Forward-thinking automobile manufacturers also expect engineer candidates to have at least a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering (or a related field), appropriate certifications, and at least two years’ relevant field experience.

Automobile Manufacturing

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As automakers expand their output of fuel-efficient vehicles, new jobs will be created. In 2006, Honda announced its plan to build a $550 million automobile plant on a 1,700-acre tract in Decatur County, Indiana, fifty miles southeast of Indianapolis. The plant will employ 2,000 people and begin mass production of fuelefficient four-cylinder vehicles in the fall 2008, with an annual production capacity of 200,000. Such companies seek quality control personnel with a two-year or four-year degree and anywhere from one to five years’ experience. In 2006, Ford Motor Company (www.ford.com) unveiled its SUV concept car, the Super Chief, at the Detroit Auto Show. The first “tri-fuel” vehicle, it’s engineered to run its 310-horsepower engine on gasoline, ethanol, or hydrogen. Ford advertises a range of jobs, from plant safety supervisors to chassis machinists to interior lighting specialists at its plants across the country. No matter what your interest or expertise in the auto realm, you’re liable to find several opportunities to suit. Any automaker that’s developing alternative-fuel vehicles needs technical analysts to work on its proving grounds. Auto-

makers look for car-loving people with good computer skills, a few years’ experience, and basic automatic maintenance skills (or, in some cases, just the willingness to learn them) to maintain their prototype hybrid fleets. Other job opportunities are opening up with collaborations between domestic and foreign companies, such as the discussions announced in November 2007 between Chrysler and the Russian manufacturer GAZ about assembling Chrysler cars in Russia (www.chrysler.com). GAZ already buys engines from Chrysler, and in 2006 it bought the former Sebring assembly line and the rights to build the car in Russia. GAZ acquired a presence in North America when it purchased a stake in Magna International, Inc., Chrysler’s largest supplier (www.magna.com). Magna designs, develops, and manufactures automotive systems, assemblies, modules, and components for cars and light trucks in twenty-three countries. GAZ pledged to invest over $1.25 billion in the United States over the next five years. Even alternative vehicles don’t sell themselves. Perhaps your skills are more verbal, people oriented, and strategic than mechanical or technological. In that case, you’ll find opportunities in marketing the new hybrid, electric, and other eco-friendly cars that will be produced in greater numbers in the next decade. Not all such positions require an MBA, but you’ll probably need a bachelor’s in business, marketing, or communications, as well as good communication skills, and experience writing and implementing marketing plans and launching an automotive brand. You’ll put those people skills to work building teams, interacting with a network of dealers, and developing and closing sales. If your preference runs to a small, up-and-coming concern rather than a big established corporation (and in the field of green jobs many of the innovations are springing from the little guys), companies like Zap Motors advertise for marketing personnel. It makes and sells several electric vehicles, one in partnership with Lotus. If you’re a student, the various X-Prize competitions (see sidebar) don’t just offer opportunities in engineering. The Web site for the team from the University of California–Davis (www.teamfate.net) notes, “Working on this project gives good insight into possible career fields . . . and our outreach group gets to work on

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real marketing strategies.” If money’s no object and your goal is to gain experience, there are opportunities aplenty for you to volunteer in the green-vehicle realm. Nonprofit organizations, such as the California Cars Initiative in Palo Alto (www.calcars.org), is a group working to promote hybrid electric vehicles that get over 100 miles per gallon. You can put your detail-oriented skills to work managing media efforts, organizing public events, and developing marketing campaigns and collateral materials.

Mechanics and Repair Jobs

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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS; www.bls.gov) notes that in 2004 automotive service technicians and mechanics held over 800,000 jobs, mostly in repair and maintenance shops, dealerships, and retailers and wholesalers of parts, accessories, and supplies. The BLS estimates that the auto industry will need 35,000 new technicians every year through 2010, and you can bet they won’t be looking for people who can fix 1972 Buicks. According to one training center, the Prius now outsells the Mustang. To be at the forefront of this growing market (and the BLS cites an ongoing lack of qualified workers), you’re going to need diagnostic and problem-solving skills, a knowledge of electronics and mathematics, and mechanical aptitude, to say nothing of a familiarity with hybrid and other alternative-fuel vehicles. Today’s auto mechanics need to continue their training in order to stay at the cutting edge of the rapid advances in computer and electronic technologies, while still possessing the more traditional skills of mechanical repair procedures and the maintenance requirements of a wide variety of cars. It’s a good field for entrepreneurial types, too. The BLS notes that over 16 percent of automotive technicians are self-employed. What are the three basic hybrid architectures? If you don’t know, companies like Automotive Technician Training Services in Mahopac, New York (www.attstraining.com), offer seminars on diagnosing, repairing, and servicing hybrid vehicles. One company providing that training is Perfect Sky in Carpinteria, California, whose clients include the cities of Toronto, New York, and San Francisco, to fleets, dealerships, and independent repair shops. Many of those independent repair shops are going green, too, and would be good places for auto mechanics to look for jobs. Luscious Garage in San Francisco (www.lusciousgarage.com) bills itself as

a hybrid specialist and hosts training classes that give mechanics hands-on experience with Toyota, Honda, Lexus, and Ford hybrids.

Carsharing Jobs

Bridging the gap between driving one’s own car and taking mass transit are services that offer carsharing. Some estimates indicate that most Americans drive their car less than an hour and a half a day. Sharing vehicles distributed throughout a city saves money as well as cuts emissions. Mobility CarSharing in Lucerne, Switzerland, launched the concept in the 1980s and now has the world’s largest carsharing company (1,750 vehicles). In October 2007, two leading carsharing companies, Zipcar and Flexcar merged under the Zipcar brand (www.zipcar.com). Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company has offices in the United States, Canada, and England. One industry report put the North American carsharing growth potential at 10 percent of individuals over the age of twenty-one (see Shaheen, Cohen, and Roberts in bibliography). Overseas, Mobility’s Web site lists current job openings (in German) at www.mobility.ch. Besides the jobs available in carsharing companies themselves, there are technology vendors, such as Metavera Solutions (www.metavera. com) or INVERS Mobility Solutions (www.invers.com), developing software innovations for the future of this green driving alternative.

“There are all kinds of things we could do that would save energy without any change in lifestyle. That’s the easy part. When you talk about lifestyle changes, it gets harder. We live in a country that has had cheap energy forever.” —Lester Lave, economics professor, Carnegie Mellon University

One of the best changes America can make to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to design communities so that you, your neighbors, and your coworkers can walk, bicycle, or take mass transit rather than drive. Such redesigned communities are good for the economy, too. Robert Puentes, a Brookings Institution fellow (www.brook ings.edu), points out how a good transit system can help a community concentrate, attract, and sustain development. In one

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report, he uses the example of Arlington County, Virginia, which attracted thousands of new housing units and millions of square feet of office, commercial, and retail space largely because of its position on the Metrorail and Metrobus corridor, development that created lots of jobs, and development that would have contributed to sprawl had it occurred elsewhere. When the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) proposed building a parking garage between a rail station and a commercial district in Oakland, California, residents countered with a plan to turn the low-income area into a pedestrian-friendly “transit village.” Oakland estimates that the idea generated up to 1,000 new jobs in the neighborhood. According to the American Public Transit Association (APTA, www.apta.com) in 2004, every $20 million invested in transit operations generated 1,200 jobs and $32 million in business sales. Results of an October 2007 study, “How to Create More Jobs,” published on the Web site of Foreign Policy in Focus (www.fpf .org), shows that twice as many jobs are created by equivalent public spending on mass transit as on the military. In the study’s example, a $1 billion investment would yield 8,555 military jobs, but 19, 975 mass transit jobs. Add to that the benefit to the planet, and you can see why relying less on personal cars makes a lot of sense. Both urban transportation systems and long-haul railroad offer potential for green jobs, especially when bolstered by federal subsidies and incentives. A 2003 Brookings Institution study found that the federal government pays an average of 80 percent of the cost for highway projects but only 50 percent of the cost of transit projects. Remember reading about the building of the transcontinental railroad of the late 1860s and the Interstate Highway System, begun in the 1950s? Both were built largely with federal funds. These examples of aggressive national investment in new transportation infrastructure are exactly the kind of gamechanging policy that we’ll need in order to reduce our country’s dependence on oil and make our communities more livable. And we don’t have to reinvent the wheel—quite. A rail infrastructure already exists. While transporting goods by diesel railroad is already eight times more energy efficient than carrying the same cargo by diesel trucks, converting the rail system to electric power would make it twice again as green. Even in a worst-case scenario—one in which all the electricity comes from coal-fired sources—the system would emit two-thirds less carbon dioxide

per mile than that powered by diesel fuel, and it would cost five to six times less. Refurbishing and converting these systems would create a huge number of jobs. Some European companies are taking a different tack. In June 2007, the Virgin Group launched its Virgin Voyager, Europe’s first biodiesel train. If all of Virgin’s trains in the United Kingdom ran on biodiesel, it would cut the railway’s carbon dioxide emissions by 14 percent, the equivalent of taking 23,000 cars off the road. Urban transit systems, including bus, rail, and light rail, have already created and continue to create construction, maintenance, and operating jobs in cities like Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Portland, Miami, New York, Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago. As the trend toward greener transit options continues, the expansion of these systems will generate more jobs. Mass-Transit Ridership Is Up

Urban Regional Planner/Transportation Engineer

County and city planning departments need qualified applicants to perform technical and analytical urban/regional planning work relating to the transportation infrastructure. Starting out, you’d evaluate land-use requests; implement long-range land use plans; conduct various planning and environmental studies; and explain the planning program, policies, ordinances, and regulations to the public. At higher levels, you would review applications for zoning changes, conditional uses, variances, plot plan approvals, and subdivision approvals for consistency with the general plan;

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According to the APTA, in October 2007, Americans took seventyeight million more trips on public transportation during the first six months of 2007 (for a total of over five billion trips) compared to the first six months of 2006 (www.apta.com). And 30 percent of those riders said this was the first year they had taken public transportation. Commuter rail ridership saw double-digit growth rates in San Jose, Dallas, Miami, and other cities; light-rail (modern light rail, streetcars, trolleys, heritage trolleys) had an overall 4.1 percent increase, with an impressive 78.9 percent in Denver; numbers of subway riders grew nationally by 2.8 percent; and bus ridership increased by 0.6 percent. As ridership goes up, so does the need for staff for the increased service.

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compliance with local ordinances, regional and state requirements; and extent of environmental impact. You may need to contact various public agencies to gather information or transportation studies. These jobs also may have you collecting raw data from a variety of information sources, including site visits, and analyzing the validity and comparability of the data, as well as conducting planning studies and assessments of human, physical, natural, economic, and/or governmental resources. These planners need a working knowledge of ordinances, laws, regulations, policies, and procedures governing land use and transportation planning development; the purposes and functions of a planning department; the methods involved in designing research studies; and basic statistical methods and their uses. Requirements for entry-level jobs include a bachelor’s degree, preferably with a major in urban/regional planning, transportation planning, public administration, architecture, environmental sciences, geography, landscape architecture, or a related field. The higher-level positions will require that you be certified by and a full member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (www.planning.org/aicp) with two or three years’ experience working as a planning technician. Transportation planners can work for public or private organ­ izations. For this job, you’d apply engineering techniques and analyses to a variety of transit-related assignments. You would need to be proficient in most engineering and transportation planning theories and practices, traffic analysis and routing, and Federal Transit Administration work, as well as knowledgeable about computer-aided engineering and computer-aided design applications and relevant software programs. You’ll need to have a degree in engineering, transportation planning, or related field, and several years’ experience in transport network design and optimization and demonstrate a knowledge of industry protocols. Professional engineering registration is often preferred (see the Web site of the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying—www.ncees.org—for useful information and links). Employers, such as PB (www.pbworld.com) in New York, develop and implement infrastructure projects around the world.

Mass Transit Construction/Operations

There are many types of these jobs in mass transit, requiring a wide range of skills and expertise, from laying track to operating

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www.business.com: Search for mass-transit construction jobs.

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www.cantrak.com: Cantrak constructs and maintains railways in Canada.

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www.go4construction.com: Includes surveyors, civil, electrical, and mechanical engineers in jobs around the world.

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www.hheng.com: H&H Engineering does railroad construction.

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www.railcorp.com: Includes job postings for the railroad industry.

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www.railnj.com: This is the Web site of the Railroad Construction Company of South Jersey, Inc.

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www.amtrak.com: Amtrak posts jobs for machinists, pipe fitters, and other rail-related jobs nationwide.

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www.railwaypeople.com: Posts job and training opportunities in the United Kingdom.

There are also new opportunities opening up in manufacturing innovative components that go into modern mass transit systems. One example is EcoRail, made by International Track Systems, Inc. (www.itsrailroadrubber.com), which are railroad ties made of recycled plastics and composites. Billed as environmentally friendly alternative to wood ties, they resist moisture, decay, insects, and so don’t require treatment with hazardous chemicals. They’re used in many transit systems and railroads including New Jersey, Chicago, New Orleans, and New York City. If your dream is to be a conductor, engineer, dispatcher, or any one of dozens of other jobs on the railroad, www.railroaddata .com links to many sites offering railroad training programs from California to Finland to Argentina to Canada. Rail Serve (www .railserve.com) links to dozens of companies and agencies that employ railroad workers—including national, regional, intercity, and commuter—of every kind, from professional to trade to laborer. You

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equipment to managing the project. Some of the Web sites that post jobs in rail and mass transit include the following:

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can find onsite and online training, workshops, and publications on employment in the railroad industry at the Railway Educational Bureau in Omaha, Nebraska (www.railwayeducationalbureau.com). Bus Rapid Transit In the United States, India, South Africa, China, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Ghana, Canada, Thailand, and elsewhere throughout the world, bus rapid transit systems (BRTs) are gaining traction. They offer efficient public transportation in dedicated lanes, without the costs of building the infrastructure necessary for rail systems (although a BRT system can serve as a stepping-stone to rail service). New services and technologies, such as priority signaling systems, can be added incrementally with increased market demands. TransMilenio, the BRT system in Bogota, Colombia, described as the most advanced BRT system in the world, is essentially a high-end subway or metro that happens to use vehicles with rubber tires. On an average weekday, 1.3 million passengers—nearly twice the number carried by the entire Washington, D.C., subway system—use the well-maintained and efficient express service rather than the local buses. There is lots of information to be found online about who is building the systems, and where, including these resources:

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> Bus Rapid Transit Policy Center (www.gobrt.org) > American Public Transit Association (www.apta.com) > Embarq, the World Resources Institute’s Center for Sustainable Transport, has a wealth of information, research, publications, and news about BRT and other sustainable transportation systems around the world. Current job openings are listed as well (www.embarq.wri.org). > The Transportation Research Board is a division of the National Research Council (jointly administered by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine). It promotes innovation and progress in transportation by sharing information on transportation practices and policies by researchers and practitioners; stimulating research; providing expert advice; and disseminating research results. On its Web site, you can find the BRT newsLane newsletter, which contains updates on important BRT activities taking place in the United States and abroad. For jobs in the BRT or other mass-transit sectors, look at employment postings on the Web site of the transportation authority in the city of interest (www.trb.org).

Computer programmers and other IT specialists can find a place in the public transit realm, too. Companies like Syncromatics (www.syncromatics.com) develop and install computerized systems that let transit operators track their fleets in real time. Software developers are responsible for managing the design and engineering > “You really required to deliver and install systems like the Automated Train Operation don’t need a used in the United Kingdom. You’ll Hummer for a need a degree in engineering or science and a minimum of five years’ trip to the experience in related systems and grocery store.” practices of software design. According to the company’s Web site, after —Alex Campbell, installing a system for the buses at the Zapworld.com University of California–San Diego, the university saved over $1 million in fiscal year 2006 by optimizing routes and spacing out the vehicles where they were needed most. And the dependability of the public transit system increased ridership. Other companies, such as Express Technologies in Wexford, Pennsylvania, develop software for the transportation industry (www.xpresstech.com).

Green Planes Take Flight “We’re confident that we can fly a plane in twelve months’ time using biofuels and having zero emissions.”

According to ABC News in May 2007, in the last twenty-five years, the amount of jet fuel used in the United States has more than doubled—to over seventy million gallons a day. In one transAtlantic flight, a plane can use about as much fuel as one car uses in fifty years. According to the Worldwatch Institute, private and business planes emit as much as four tons of carbon dioxide per hour. Since they carry few people, the pollution-per-passenger ratio is much greater than on commercial flights—and there were some 4,000 new private planes built in 2006 alone. Because the emissions from planes occur high in the atmosphere, they contribute to global warming at two to four times the rate of emissions closer to Earth. The rising cost of oil and the growing pressure to reduce greenhouse gases has inspired at least one airline, Virgin Atlantic,

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—Sir Richard Branson, owner, Virgin Atlantic Airlines

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to do something. Owner Sir Richard Branson is working with Boeing (www.boeing.com) and General Electric engineers (www.ge .com) to test potential biofuel sources like corn, algae, switchgrass, and newspaper, and find one that won’t freeze at high altitudes. (See Chapter 5 for more on biofuels.) Branson announced that he would be plowing profits from his travel companies into the venture—to the tune of about $3 billion over five years. These and many other innovations happening in aviation contribute to increasing green job opportunities. Avianation is one Web site with thousands of jobs of all types in the aviation industry worldwide (www.avianation.com).

Aviation Designer

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Aircraft design is much more than looking good. Today’s aircraft are 70 percent more fuel efficient than those built forty years ago and 20 percent more efficient than those built only a decade ago. Rising fuel prices are inspiring manufacturers to build aircraft that have longer, lighter wings with engines mounted at the tips, reducing drag and weight and cutting fuel use. An aircraft designer develops, maintains, and modifies structural and component designs using 3D CAD tools and/or other design methods to provide product definition to other engineering groups, production operations, suppliers, and external customers throughout the product lifecycle. You’ll need a knowledge of CAD/CAM systems (computer-aided three dimensional interactive [CATIA], Mentor Graphics, Unigraphics), a knowledge of structural design principles and practices from requirements generation to production and product support, and the ability to manipulate datasets, (for instance, compare CATIA to measurement data, create stereolithography files). Employers want to see an engineering degree and typically several years’ worth of experience in an engineering classification. Boeing Company is just one firm with many job postings on its Web site (www.boeing.com). In July 2007, it rolled out its 787 Dreamliner, due to fly customers in 2008. It is the first commercial airliner whose structure contains about 50 percent carbon fiber, which is lighter and more durable than aluminum and uses 20 percent less fuel than similarly sized airplaces. The planes are sold out into 2014, the “fastest order takeoff of any airplane in history,” according to Amory Lovins in an August 2007 Newsweek article.

Chapter 7: Green Building > “Build, therefore, your own world.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

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ne of the single most effective green strategies available right now is to design and build environmentally friendly structures. Not only does it make significant progress toward a sustainable society, it creates legions of green jobs to boot. Consider the impact that buildings have on our resources. In this country alone, they presently account for the following: >

12 percent of potable water consumed (The U.S. Green Building Council says buildings consume five billion gallons of potable water per day just to flush toilets.)

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30 percent of raw materials used

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30 percent of waste produced

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30 percent of global warming pollution

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48 percent of total energy use (Some estimates say that buildings consume as much energy as industry and transportation combined.)

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76 percent of electricity used

These figures don’t take other impacts into consideration, such as the heat island effect caused by vast expanses of asphalt and other heat-absorbing surfaces in cities or the acreage taken up by parking lots. It isn’t difficult to see where changes can and should be made.

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According to estimates by the Green Building Resource Center, a partnership between Global Green USA (www.globalgreen. org) and the City of Santa Monica, California, by 2010 there will be another thirty-eight million buildings constructed in the United States, bringing the total to over 100 million. “The challenge,” the center says, “is to build those new buildings, and renovate the older ones, in ways that reverse . . . unhealthy trends.” The solution is to build green. And all that designing, buying, building, retrofitting, and manufacturing adds up to lots of green jobs.

What Does “Building Green” Mean? “Fewer and fewer places on the planet are unaffected by the dynamics of cities.” —“The State of World Population 1999,” United Nations Population Fund

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“It’s hard to put in a sound bite,” says Duane Woik, a green building consultant for Earth Advantage in Oregon (www.earth advantage.com). Like the other terms in this growing green lexicon, the definition often depends on the person using the word. It encompasses everything from where and how a structure is sited on the land, to how efficiently it uses resources, to how environmentally friendly the products are that go into its construction and maintenance, to how it handles waste, and so on. From floor tiles, insulation, and windows, to roofs, parking garages, and HVAC systems, every aspect of a building can be designed to use fewer resources and make less of an impact on the planet. Green buildings were virtually unheard of a decade ago—at least in this country. They now seem to be the rule rather than the exception. The rapid change is driven by a convergence of factors, including greater consumer demand, growing environmental awareness, new technologies and financing tools, and a growing focus on life-cycle economics rather than just the first costs of construction. In 2006, architect Ed Mazria spearheaded the 2010 Imperative to make ecological literacy a central tenet of all architectural schools (www.architecture2030.org). On top of all of that, people love green buildings. There’s no doubt that we’re in the midst of a sea change in this field.

Green Design Goes Environmentally Benign “We are close to the tipping point at which green design becomes the default option for smart building.” —Andrew Blum, BusinessWeek, July 21, 2006

Why build green? If the statistics at the beginning of this chapter didn’t sway you, here are a few more things to consider. Green buildings conserve natural resources by using recycled, reclaimed, or sustainably produced materials. They improve air, acoustic, thermal, and water quality. They conserve water and reduce solid waste while they enhance and protect ecosystems and biodiversity. In the long run, they save money through reduced energy and resource consumption while contributing to the overall quality of life in the community.

In 1993, a coalition of construction industry leaders with environmental concerns founded the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC; www.usgbc.com). In 2000, the USGBC inaugurated its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards (ten other countries have similar green building standards) and a rating system for certification (certified, silver, gold, and platinum). The rating system looks at each building’s environmental performance, from energy and water consumption to indoor air quality and use of renewable materials. Since the first building was certified in 2000, over 1,000 have received certification and nearly 8,000 are in the pipeline as of September 2007. These include all types of structures, such as hotels; libraries; community centers; condominiums; banks; museums; schools at all levels of education; medical centers; federal, state, and local government buildings; private homes; manufacturing plants; and skyscrapers. Adherence to LEED certification is voluntary and largely left up to the client, but USGBC estimates that in 2007 about 3 percent of new building starts now have some earth-friendly features, and the number grows every year. Other groups are instituting green changes. Architecture 2030, a visionary group of architects that formed in 2002, has called for a progressive reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions through both new green construction and the renovation of existing buildings. Their goal is to achieve carbon neutral status from all buildings in this country by the year 2030. On a broader front, the EPA’s Green Building Workgroup (formed in July 2003) signed a memorandum of understanding with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 2005, whereby both parties committed to increasing the sustainability of future buildings.

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Certified Green

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Not only do green buildings have a positive effect on the environment, they improve the health and well-being of their occupants, too. Extensive data confirm the obvious: People who work in healthy, attractive environments that make use of sustainable practices, such as improved air quality and natural light, enjoy life more and perform better. Test scores are higher for kids in green schools. Morale is higher for workers in green offices. A building that is also a good environment pays for itself not just in lower > “The market is operating costs but in the health incredible for green and productivity of the people who commercial. The sea occupy it. And, most importantly for your purposes here, experts say change in attitude the green building boom presents in the development innumerable opportunities for community in the last green jobs. Not everyone wants to be eighteen months is just green; however, early resistance to breathtaking.” building green grew out of concerns that such construction would —Jerry Yudelson, Yudelson markedly increase costs by as much Associates, December 2007 as 20 percent. The California legislature assumed there would be a 5 percent premium to build green schools and designated $100 million of a $10 billion school construction appropriation to offset this possible cost factor—and they were right (see below). The increased costs, for the most part, have not proven to be the case. A 2006 study (www.usgbc.org) found that there is no significant difference in average costs for green buildings compared to non-green buildings. And a 2007 survey by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) found that real estate and construction professionals overestimate the cost of building green by more than 300 percent, guessing 17 percent above conventional construction when the real cost difference was about 5 percent. (Those same respondents also estimated that greenhouse-gas emissions by buildings was about 19 percent, when in reality it’s more like 40 percent.) The long-term savings in the cost of energy alone make building green a worthwhile investment, even at a slightly higher upfront cost. 116

The fact that profit-wise and investment-savvy financial institutions like Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Toyota, and J.P. Morgan Chase have built or are in the process of building some of the greenest office structures in the world presents compelling evidence of the financial viability of such a course. The nearly 8,000 buildings currently in the running for LEED certification also indicate a bullish market for green construction, with tremendous green job opportunities. The USGBC has put the value of green building construction starts in 2007 at over $12 billion.

Cities Go Green “What we did was take [being green] from a Birkenstock cultural environment into a pinstripe environment.”

The footprint of cities is growing—whether you’re talking about acreage or carbon. In 1910 in the United States, less than 50 percent of the population lived in urban areas. Ten years later it was over 50 percent. According to the Census Bureau, over 80 percent of this country’s population now lives in metropolitan areas. The trend is a global one. In 1960, about 33 percent of the world’s population lived in urban areas; in 2005 it was 50 percent. The UN predicts that by 2030, 61 percent of the world’s population will be city dwellers. Over twenty of those cities will have populations over ten million. “No precedent exists for protecting the environment from the pollution and resource consumption required by such multitudes,” notes Janice E. Perlman, founder and president of The Mega-Cities Project (www.megacitiesproject.org). Cities are prime candidates for greener construction. Poorly managed cities contribute to a number of global environmental concerns. They consume ever-increasing amounts of the world’s energy—now 75 percent, according to some estimates. Inefficient power and transportation systems pump needlessly high amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere—now 80 percent of worldwide emissions. Their vast expanses of concrete, asphalt, and stone contribute to the heat island effect, a condition in which the urban air and surface temperatures are higher (by 10°F and more) than those in nearby rural areas, increasing energy consumption and generally making inhabitants miserable in the summer.

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—Bruce Fowle, Designer, FXFowle, Condé Nast Tower, New York

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C40 Cities and the Clinton Climate Initiative The C40 Cities group (www.c40cities.org), a coalition of the largest cities in the world, has partnered with the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI, www.clintonfoundation.org) to address global warming through aggressive reduction of energy use and subsequent carbon emissions. The largest number of potential jobs in the green building sector, and perhaps overall in the green jobs area, will come from the Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program, a major project of these two groups. Already there is $5 billion earmarked for this program, and sixteen of the member cities have agreed to pilot the effort (Bangkok, Berlin, Chicago, Houston, Johannesburg, Karachi, London, Melbourne, Mexico City, Mumbai, New York, Rome, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, and Toronto). Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Inc., Siemens, and Trane have signed on to participate in the retrofits. Some of the numbers, and subsequent potential jobs, are staggering. Former President Bill Clinton points out, for example, that in New York City alone there could be some 800,000 buildings that need retrofitting to become more energy efficient. Far beyond the actual skills and labor required to accomplish such building conversions, it isn’t hard to imagine the positive domino effect of jobs created by the need for new windows, HVAC systems, lighting, green roofs, and additional insulation. (Note: As of January 2008, no further details are known.)

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In 2006, David J. Burney, the commissioner of New York City’s design and construction department said that going green has “almost become as American as apple pie.” While that may still be hyperbole today, there are some notable recent examples of the switch to low-impact high-rises. In November 2007, the American Institute of Architects (www.aia.org) noted that one in seven cities (50,000 or greater population) now has a green building program, an increase of 418 percent since 2002, and current projections put the ratio at one in five in 2008. Some of the cities noted in the report include the following: >

Portland, Oregon, offers green building tax credits.

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San Francisco streamlined solar permitting for residences.

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Scottsdale, Arizona, was the first city to mandate a LEED gold rating for municipal buildings.

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Atlanta had the most LEED buildings per capita in 2006.

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Chicago has more LEED-registered projects than any other U.S. city.

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Austin, Texas, set up the first green building program in the United States. By 2012, city buildings will run on 100 percent renewable energy.

These forward-thinking communities would be good places for you to start looking for a green job. As they and other cities ramp up their eco-friendly efforts, they’ll be hiring sustainability directors, staff knowledgable about building rating systems, and people to investigate far-reaching sustainability initiatives, such as green purchasing programs, hybrid fleets, and streamlining the permitting process for renewable energy technologies. Skyscrapers Go Green

> Hearst Tower, designed by Foster + Partners (www.fosterand partners.com), was the first building in New York to win USCGB gold LEED certification. > The Federal Building in San Francisco, designed by Thom Mayne of Morphosis (www.morphosis.net) and dedicated in July 2007, has a computer-controlled skin that adjusts to weather changes and eliminates the need for air conditioning in 70 percent of its area. A March 2007 New York Times review describes the building’s design features as “mesmerizing” and “magical.” > Bank of America Tower, designed by Cook + Fox Architects (www.cookplusfox.com) is a $1 billion, fifty-five-story skyscraper scheduled to open in Manhattan in 2009. It anticipates a platinum LEED rating for its many green features, including concrete made from 55 percent cement and 45 percent slag, a byproduct from blast furnaces. You can find more green skyscrapers, as well as information about who designed and built them at the USGBC Web site (www .usgbc.com). The site also lists job openings.

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There are many opportunities for improvement in cities, but the skyscraper is perhaps the most iconic symbol of big city life to go green. These engineering marvels are tourist attractions, as well as work and living spaces. Until recent years, they have also been energyguzzling, waste-generating behemoths whose designers had little regard for any adverse effects they might have on the environment. Things have changed, as the following examples demonstrate:

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Green Overseas “Will America ever catch up with Europe’s impressive green record?” —Nicholai Ouroussoff, Architecture Critic, New York Times, May 2007

The pyramids may not have been the first “green” buildings, as one blogger surmised, although they are carbon neutral, constructed of local materials, and they’ve lasted far longer than later efforts, but there’s no question that the rest of the world has had a big head start in the green building department—think of the turf roofs on tenth-century Viking homes. Consider that the average building here uses a third as much energy as a comparable building in Germany. European and other countries have long exhibited more initiative and political will in favor of environmentally friendly construction. Rather than being regarded as something new and faintly suspect, as in the United States, it has long been an everyday reality, helped along in the 1990s by basic energyconsumption requirements stipulated by national governments and the European Union. The Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB) has promoted sustainable building in the United Kingdom since 1989. The first ultra-low energy Passivhaus buildings in Germany were built in 1990. The World Green Building Council (www .worldgbc.org), formed in 1998 and now headquartered in a state-ofthe-art green building in Toronto, supports worldwide green building councils in the United Kingdom (www.aecb.co.uk), Australia (www.gbcaus.org), Japan, New Zealand (www.nzgbc.org.nz), India (www.igbc.in), and elsewhere “whose common mission is to create a sustainable built environment through market transformation.” Some green buildings overseas are listed below. You can find a wealth of information on the Internet about the architects and builders of each of these overseas projects, and more: G REEN J OBS 120

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Commerzbank Tower, Frankfurt, Germany, is regarded as one of the first “ecological” skyscrapers.

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Shiodome Tower, Tokyo, Japan, has a façade covered with domestic-clay terra cotta tiles made from 40 percent waste material.

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SIEEB Building, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, features a tiered design that allows sunlight to hit solar panels.

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30 St. Mary Axe, or “the Gherkin,” as it’s known in London, gets its energy efficiency from its unusual tapered shape.

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The Lighthouse, Dubai, UAE, has three225-kilowatt wind turbines and 4,000 photovoltaic panels to generate electricity.

The construction boom in the developing world presents huge opportunities to build sustainably from the outset and increase energy efficiency by 35 percent or more (buildings represent about 40 percent of global primary energy use). The worldwide trend toward urbanization is enormous and energy consumption is expected to rise markedly in the fastest-growing and most populous countries, like China and India. Industry professionals can help ensure that the urban sprawl and wasteful practices of the past aren’t repeated. A report published in 2007 by the WBCSD, Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Business Realities and Opportunities, can be downloaded from its Web site (www.wbcsd.org).

The Sky’s the Limit for Green Building Jobs “Any architecture firm of any size has seen [green practices] as a necessary knowledge—a necessary skill to compete for getting good work.”

Many building professionals recognize that a tipping point has been reached in the green building realm, pointing to new national building standards by the National Association of Home Builders (to be finalized in 2008) and the increased interest in designing structures that reduce fossil-fuel consumption, make use of renewable energy sources, and incorporate reusable, recycled, and sustainably produced components. Architecture, construction, and retrofitting offer some of the most immediate and abundant sources of green jobs, in particular the C40 Cities and Clinton Climate Initiative’s Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program (see sidebar and below). These fields encompass an enormous variety of subcategories involving the design, manufacture, sales, and distribution of green materials and fixtures (PV panels, solar water heaters, insulation and carpeting made from recycled materials, and so forth), the building, installation, and maintenance of energy-efficient components, which in some cases will require special expertise, and many related jobs.

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—Rafael Pelli, Pelli Clarke Pelli Associates

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Construction of new green buildings will not directly generate as many new green jobs as retrofitting because, for the most part, the work won’t differ significantly from traditional construction, and the same crews can do both types of building. But many contractors, builders, and others are beginning to specialize in green construction because it’s good for business. A resource like the exhibitors’ list and program for USGBC’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo (in Boston in 2008) is a great place to look for architects, code officials, engineers, educators, developers, interior designers, landscape architects, government agencies, product manufacturers, educational institutions, and others whose interest is primarily green (www.greenbuildexpo.org). Many, if not all, of the organizations promoting green building practices around the world have copious amounts of information on their Web sites, from upcoming conferences to LEED certification guidelines, case studies, technical training, and job postings. You’ll find more information in the appendix. In the future, the buildings that aren’t green will be the anomaly. In fact, many architects are already looking beyond LEED platinum ratings to buildings that are net-zero-energy and better. All of this spells huge job opportunities in the green building trades.

Urban and Land Planning Jobs

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Green building jobs start long before the cornerstone is laid. Urban designers and land planners focusing on sustainability identify, evaluate, and select a site; inventory its physical, biological, and cultural attributes; analyze the land’s suitability for its projected purpose; work on concept design and development; and communicate with clients, government agencies, and other stakeholders. The Web site of the American Planning Association (www. planning.org) has a wealth of information from current legislation to worldwide news, including articles and publications on sustainable design. States and cities have affiliated planning agencies, such as the Illinois chapter (www.ilapa.org), and their Web sites are packed with more localized information, as well as job listings. These jobs will usually require a bachelor’s or master’s degree in urban or regional planning or related field and several years of relevant experience. Employers also like to see applicants who are accredited by the American Institute of Certified Planners (www .planning.org/aicp). Towns, counties, and consulting firms, such as

William McDonough & Partners, Charlottesville, Virginia (www .mcdonoughpartners.com), are among the employers for these jobs. These professionals help architectural and engineering firms, construction companies, manufacturers, schools, municipalities, and building owners integrate green building and eco-design features to make their structures more environmentally sustainable. Entry-level jobs will have you researching local and regional suppliers of green building materials to help your employer meet sustainable design goals, as well as supporting the project from concept through occupancy. More advanced analysts perform and review facility energy audits, feasibility studies, and reports; work with clients to develop programs that promote energy efficiency; help develop strategic plans for clients who want to “green” their operations; research emerging green technologies and standards, such as LEED; and conduct site visits to verify installation and operation of technologies. Employers want to see that you have a knowledge of building systems, energy efficiency, green building, and sustainability. For these jobs you’ll need at least a bachelor’s degree (with a master’s often preferred) in one of these areas: civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, architecture, sustainability planning, environmental studies, natural resource management, conservation, energy management, natural resource management, economics, or related areas. For entry-level positions, LEED training is desirable, but often the employer will train you. More senior jobs prefer a LEEDaccredited professional (AP) and two to five years of experience in the green building, energy efficiency, building industry, environmental, or resource management fields; as well as knowledge of building systems, energy efficiency technologies, green building, and high-performance design. All of them want to see someone who’s passionate about the benefits of sustainability—someone who won’t be fazed by the client who is new to the green design concept. Engineering, consulting, and construction management firms, such as TRC Companies, Inc. (www.trcsolutions.com), SAIC (www.saic.com), ECW Environmental Group LLC (www.ecw environmental.com), and The Green Engineer (www.greenengineer .com) list openings for these jobs on their Web sites.

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Sustainability/Green Building Analyst

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Project Architect

You can be the one designing green buildings that are functional as well as beautiful. There are many job openings for architects, from interns up through senior project leaders, on the Web site of the American Institute of Architects (www.aia.org). Their informative site also posts up-to-the minute news on legislation, conferences, and articles pertaining to all aspects of the building field, including sustainability. Also, www.architecture2030.org is a good Web site for targeting those architectural and related firms already committed to green building. Employers look for innovative thinking, flexibility, strong conceptual and follow-through design skills, technical proficiency, and excellent written and graphic communication skills. Experience in Revit, Sketchup, AutoCAD, Indesign, Photoshop, 3D digital modeling, and hand-drawing are desirable and sometimes required. Some jobs might ask that you have a familiarity with mixed-use residential projects using steel and concrete construction, or other specialized knowledge. A passion for sustainability and LEED accreditation will never hurt you, either. For the senior project architect positions, you’ll need to be a registered architect with either a bachelor’s or master’s degree in architecture, several years of experience, and experience in construction administration or project management.

LEED Specialist/Green Building Consultant

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This job didn’t even exist a decade ago. Engineering, architectural, construction, and environmental and consulting services of every size and stripe are looking to hire specialists in the LEED certification process and to assess and research sites relating to LEED criteria, such as water-use efficiency. From project concept to completion, you’ll incorporate sustainability concepts for clients requesting LEED criteria and/or documentation and identify creative strategies for sustainable design. The job will require you to research and document the certification process for submittal, as well as lead and guide the company on LEED and other sustainability initiatives, and keep abreast of the latest laws, policies, education, and regulations. You’ll be able to strategize and research new approaches for achieving sustainability in a variety of building projects. Depending on the job and employer, you may need to be a LEED accredited professional

with a bachelor’s degree in architecture or engineering from an accredited program, with five to fifteen years’ experience focusing on project management and LEED, with at least one LEEDcertified project completion on your resume. Some employers will accept a degree in interior design. All employers want to see detailoriented applicants with excellent written and verbal communication skills, as well as strong analytical and problem-solving skills. In November 2007, USGBC announced the incorporation of the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) to administer the credentialing program related to green building practice and standards. GBCI takes over from USGBC the responsibility for the ongoing administration of the LEED AP program, including exam development. You can find out more at their Web site (www .gbci.org).

There are all kinds of engineering opportunities in the green building sector. For these types of jobs, you would evaluate private or public sector projects, including homes, office buildings, schools, multi-unit residential, and mixed-use projects, and their design plans, to make recommendations for improving indoor air quality, comfort, and energy efficiency and the meeting of LEED criteria, if applicable; perform site investigations and field audits; and make energy-savings calculations. Employers look for a bachelor’s of science in engineering, and, depending on the position, some years of experience and knowledge of the LEED rating system, and proficiency with energy modeling software, such as Trace 700, Energy Plus, and Visual DOE. Consulting firms, such as Sustainable Spaces in San Francisco (www.sustainablespaces.com) and GreenShape LLC (www.green shape.com) in Washington, D.C., hire these types of engineers and list job openings on their Web sites. Also, these and many other engineering job postings can be found at Think Energy Group (www.thinkenergygroup.com) and Aerotek Energy Services (www .aerotek.com). Energy audits are the necessary first step to retrofitting either a commercial building or a home. This highly skilled job requires training and certification and some utility companies, such as Pacific Gas and Electric in California, offer free energy audit training and there are many commercial training sites available.

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“Green House” Has a New Meaning “The home you design must stop the process of taking and begin the process of giving.” —Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C) Home Guiding Principle

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If you don’t think the environmental impact of residences is significant, consider this: There are over 120 million homes in the United States, with about two million new ones built every year. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, those residences account for 22 percent of the energy consumed in this country and 74 percent of the water. They also account for 21 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. Indoor air pollution can be four or five times that outside. Clearly, shifting toward more sustainable home building practices makes sense on many levels. And just as the green commercial building sector is growing, so is the green housing market, with even more implications for green jobs nationwide. A 2007 study, the McGraw-Hill Construction SmartMarket Report on Attitudes and Preferences for Remodeling and Buying Green Homes, shows flourishing markets for green homebuilding and renovation. “True” green homes, defined as containing specific green elements in three of five categories (energy efficiency, indoor air quality, water efficiency, resource efficiency, site management) made up 0.3 percent of the construction market in 2005—worth nearly $2 billion. Predictions are that green homes will hike the “true” green home market to $20 billion by 2010. The National Association of Home Builders (www.nahb .org), which accounts for more than 80 percent of the homes built in the United States, reports that by the end of 2007 over 50 percent of their builders will be incorporating green practices into the development, design, and construction of new homes. That trend has come about in large part because homeowners are demanding more energy-efficient homes, according to a September 2007 survey. According to the AIA, 70 percent of architects report that client demand is the leading driver of green building projects. In that poll, 91 percent of respondents said they would be willing to pay $5,000 more for a house that used less energy and protected the earth. The McGraw-Hill report also noted that two-thirds of homeowners are aware of green building, and 85 percent of those who have already built green are so happy with their homes that they’re recommending the practice to others. Energy savings top the list for reasons to buy green,

followed by concern for the environment, health, and higher potential resale value. Certified Green Homes In 2005, the USGBC started a pilot program for a separate LEED certification process for residences (LEED for Homes Program) to provide national consistency in defining the features of a green home and enable builders anywhere in the United States to obtain a green rating on their homes. The rating system looks at eight categories to measure a home’s green hue: Energy and atmosphere Materials and resources Indoor environmental quality Awareness and education

A green home uses less energy, water, and natural resources; creates less waste; and is healthier and more comfortable for occupants. It has fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and less exposure to mold, mildew, and other indoor toxins. As of September 2007, USGBC had certified over 270 homes. (The first four were in Oklahoma City; Freeport, Maine; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Mount Hood, Oregon, while a home in Santa Monica, California, was the first house in the country to earn a platinum LEED rating.) Another 8,204 homes are in the certification process, involving 425 builders. USGBC expects to launch the LEED for Homes rating system in fall 2008. It has a Web site devoted to all things green home (www.greenhomeguide.org) with tips and checklists for building and living green, as well as links to resources, news, and events. The featured project profiles give you lots of information on who designed and built the homes—good places for you to begin investigating jobs in this sector. Green homes aren’t a twenty-first-century idea, but there have been some innovations in recent years. The “Big Dig House,” completed in 2006, is made of 600,000 pounds of discarded materials from Boston’s $14.6 billion infrastructure project; and the first C2C home, completed in 2006 in Roanoke, Virginia, features locally harvested wood, soy-foam wall panels, a geothermal heat pump, and a green roof that collects and filters rainwater. The Cradle-toCradle (C2C) protocol, developed by architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart, considers the entire lifecycle of a product, from manufacturing to recycling or “up-cycling.”

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Innovation and design process Location and linkages Sustainable sites Water efficiency

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In 2002, 2005, and 2007, the U.S. Department of Energy hosted its Solar Decathlon Competition (www.solardecathlon .org) to encourage teams of college students to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solarpowered house. The houses displayed astonishingly innovative ways to capture and use every possible bit of solar energy, while remaining houses that real people could live in. (See the appendix for the Web sites of the top three teams in the 2007 competition.) Contests such as this one and others for fields like transportation push the envelope of sustainable design. The participants are tomorrow’s green engineers, architects, researchers, and homeowners. Search the Web for green building publications and sites for leads on green jobs. The USGBC links to dozens of local and regional green building councils across the country, probably one of the best resources for finding green jobs in your area, even though they aren’t specifically job-related sites. They vary in quality and information provided, but they all feature a wealth of data, from local projects, regulations and policies, to tips on who’s doing green building in your area. A few of them include the following: Build Green Program, Kansas City, Missouri: www.kchba.org/buildgreenkc Build It Green, Berkeley, California: www.BuilditGreen.org Build San Antonio Green, Texas: www.buildsagreen.org Built Green Colorado, Denver: www.builtgreen.org

EarthCraft House, Atlanta, Georgia: www.earthcrafthouse.com G REEN J OBS 128

Green Homes NorthEast, Boston, Massachusetts: www.ghne.org Green Built, Inc., Lansing, Michigan: www.greenbuiltmichigan.org Hawaii Built Green, Honolulu: www.hawaiibuiltgreen.com

Portland Green Rated, Oregon: www.green-rated.org

Sustainable Design, Hennepin County, Minnesota: www.sustainabledesignguide.umn.edu Vermont Builds Greener: www.bsr-vt.org

The online version of New York House (www.nyhouse-digital.com) has a Green Building Resource Directory with profiles of projects, interviews with architects and buildings, as well as advertisements for architectural, construction, and consulting firms specializing in green home design and building. Metro Green Business (www. metrogreenbusiness.com) caters to the real estate business and features information, interviews, and articles on sustainable and eco-friendly homes and commercial buildings. These and other online resources are good places to see who’s making the news in this industry.

Green Remodeling and Retrofitting “You can’t take a building you want to weatherize, put it on a ship to China and then have them do it and send it back.”

Retrofitting commercial buildings and homes to make them more energy efficient is probably one of the most promising avenues of all for green jobs. Unlike the new construction of green buildings, which uses the same crews that do non-green work, retrofit projects always create new jobs because this work on existing buildings otherwise would not be done. Remodeling or retrofitting an existing building to green standards poses its own challenges distinct from those in new construction, including the range of existing conditions, the custom nature of the work, occupants, integrating the old with the new, and the diversity of projects, from gutting a room to tearing a structure down to the framework and rebuilding. Green retrofitting and renovation are certain to accelerate because they make good economic sense. The McGraw-Hill study mentioned earlier found that green renovation is rapidly growing in popularity—and accounts for nearly 40 percent of current home remodeling. The most used green products for remodeling include replacement windows and HVAC systems, but even basic attention to a range of existing, non–energy-efficient systems, such as cleaning and unblocking air ducts, could save $20 billion of the commercial building sector’s annual $120 billion energy tab.

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—Van Jones, Executive Director, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

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Green Historic Buildings Older buildings present unique retrofitting and renovating challenges, particularly if the renovation is to result in an environmentally friendly structure. Two of the earliest such projects include the headquarters of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the National Audubon Society in New York City. Both older buildings were significantly retrofitted and “turned green” in the 1990s. These two reflect extensive top-to-bottom work, but even the most elementary modifications in buildings can mean savings. A $51 million renovation of the 235,000 square-foot Howard M. Metzenbaum Courthouse in Cleveland, Ohio, turned the building green. Originally constructed in 1910, the courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Despite the challenge of having no structural drawings for the building, the renovation incorporated ADA and security features, new technology upgrades, and updated circulation routes. The renovation also earned LEED certification for its green components. Reusing the building itself was a sustainable choice, but the design and construction team pushed the green idea further with aggressive waste reduction and the reuse of materials, the use of low-emitting materials, daylighting, carbon dioxide monitoring, real-time systems monitoring, and humidity and temperature controls.

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The Apollo Alliance (www.apolloalliance.org), a San Francisco-based organization that is promoting job growth and freedom from foreign oil, sees the great potential in green retrofitting jobs. It lists trade-specific workers who will be essential to retrofit work, including HVAC, plumbing, refrigeration, and sheet-metal workers to retune or replace systems, install control systems on hot water heaters, and reduce water usage in showers and washing machines; lighting and electrical workers to upgrade inefficient lighting fixtures, add lighting controls such as photo cells, electronic time clocks, and sensors, and/or completely replace lighting systems; glaziers to install skylights, weatherize windows, install glazing that helps control heat gain/loss, and replace old windows with new, energy-efficient models; roofers and insulation installers to markedly increase the R factor. (Homes and buildings “built to code” generally only meet the absolute minimum R factor.) Even planting trees to provide shade and re-landscaping with native plants that need less water or maintenance count as green upgrades. Combine the motivation to lower energy bills with the

larger agenda of groups like C40 Cities, and you can see how the green jobs can multiply. In 2007, the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) gave green retrofitting a shot in the arm with the announcement of several new partnerships representing hundreds of millions of square feet of public and private real estate throughout the country. In Chicago, the work includes overhauling the country’s largest and tallest buildings, Merchandise Mart and the Sears Tower. CCI is also collaborating with GE Real Estate (www.gerealestate.com) to identify and implement retrofit projects throughout GE’s global portfolio, which includes over $72 billion and 385 million square feet in assets in thirty-one countries. USGBC and CCI established a Green School Program to reduce the energy consumption of K12 school buildings nationwide, “a powerful way to show the next generation how we can all make a difference in this world,” noted USGBC President Rick Fedrizzi. And if all that weren’t enough, CCI is working with the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment to retrofit hundreds of colleges and universities across the United States.

In November 2007, the American Society of Interior Designers (ASAID) and the USGBC announced a new partnership, the REGREEN Program, to create the first nationwide guidelines for sustainable residential remodeling projects. Up until December 10, 2007, they invited public comment on the draft guidelines through the Web site (www.regreenprogram.org). As with new home building, there are a multitude of regreening links and resources on ASID and USGBC’s Web sites, as well as at www.greenhomeguide.org. As you might expect, USGBC has a LEED for Existing Buildings rating system designed to help building owners and operators measure maintenance and improvements on a consistent scale, maximizing efficiency while minimizing environmental impacts. The program addresses chemical use, recycling programs, exterior maintenance, and systems upgrades, and is designed for existing buildings seeking LEED certification for the first time or projects previously certified under new construction programs. You can download the USGBC’s document, Existing Buildings Reference Guide Version 2.0 (October 2006) from its Web site.

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CCI’s efforts don’t stop at our shores, either. In May 2007, former President Clinton announced the creation of a global Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program, bringing together eight of the world’s largest energy service companies, five of the world’s largest banks, and seventeen of the world’s largest cities in a program designed to reduce energy consumption in existing buildings. The program provides both cities and private building owners access to the necessary funds to do the work (as described in the sidebar). With so much green retrofitting work going on nationwide—and globally—you’re sure to find at least one project in your area. You can find more information about these projects on the Web sites of CCI and USGBC.

Green Affordable Housing “We know that every dollar we save on energy costs is a dollar we can invest in housing and neighborhoods.” —Carl Greene, Executive Director, Philadelphia Housing Authority

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Architecture-loving actor Brad Pitt has become a spokesperson for green design. In 2006, he heralded the benefits of green building as the jury chairman for a competition to design a low-energy housing complex in post–Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. Sponsored by Global Green USA (http://holycrossproject.globalgreen.org), a national environmental organization that combines innovative research, cutting-edge community-based projects, and targeted advocacy to create a sustainable future, the competition’s aim was to design a zeroenergy, affordable housing development in the Holy Cross neighborhood of the Lower Ninth Ward, while at the same time creating a showcase for green affordable housing throughout the country. Global Green estimates that if 50,000 of the homes destroyed by the hurricane were rebuilt to green standards, New Orleans residents would save up to $56 million in energy bills per year and it would have the same effect on carbon dioxide emissions as taking 100,000 cars off the road. Other green affordable housing projects include Colorado Court, a housing complex for very low-income tenants in Santa Monica, California, which earned a gold LEED rating when it opened in 2002. In August 2007, Philadelphia’s housing authority announced that it would build the city’s first completely green building, a $23.4 million senior development. In December 2007, the CCI announced a collaboration with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), energy service

companies, banks, product suppliers, and green building organizations to retrofit that city’s public housing units to be more energy efficient, creating many new green-collar jobs. NYCHA is the largest public housing authority in the country, representing more than 5.1 percent of the city’s residents. The mayor’s sustainability plan for the city is outlined at www.planyc2030.org. The Green Affordable Housing Coalition (www.frontierassoc .net) is a group of San Francisco Bay Area public- and privatesector professionals committed to incorporating green building practices into the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of affordable housing. The Web site offers lots of information, including case studies from the Bay Area and around the country. The September 2007 West Coast Green green building conference in San Francisco featured a zero-energy, prefabricated, modular home, called the mkLotus, made to LEED standards with sustainable materials, green roof, solar panels, rain catchment system, and structural insulated panels (ISP) by XtremeHomes (www.xhllc.com). The company lists openings for drywall installers, finish carpenters, painters, framers, and others on its Web site. These professionals visit home construction sites to inspect structures and mechanical features that affect environmental performance. You’ll use diagnostic equipment to gather data for the final certificate of compliance and need knowledge of indoor air quality, mold and moisture analysis, occupant/structural interaction, HVAC systems, and mitigation options, as well as the ability to do research on up-to-date energy concepts. You might have to work in crawlspaces or attics and be able to lift up to sixty pounds. These jobs require a high school diploma or GED. Also helpful would be some proficiency in residential design or construction, alternative energy technologies, and environmental stewardship. Job postings for the Pacific Northwest region can be found at the Web site of Earth Advantage, a nonprofit that works with builders and developers to make homes energy efficient and sustainable (www.earthadvantage.com). The Web site also links to the Web sites of several new homebuilders and remodelers and provides tech support for professionals.

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Window Installer/Reglazer

New window technology is a major avenue to energy savings. (For example, see the Web site of the Efficient Windows Collaborative at www.efficientwindows.org.) The Clinton C40 Cities project and other retrofitting efforts will need many green workers to replace or reglaze old, energy-inefficient windows. These jobs are just beginning to emerge, and you could get a leg up on this field by gaining installation master certification, a two-day program authorized by the American Architectural Manufacturing Association (the leading organization related to window installation). The course is available online from Architectural Testing, Inc. (www.archtest.com).

HVAC Technician

Heating and cooling systems consume a large percentage of energy use in both homes and commercial buildings. As both seek greater efficiency, energy cost savings, and improved indoor air quality, there will be an increasing need for technicians to install and upgrade HVAC systems. Thousands upon thousands of structures will require duct cleaning and insulation and recalibration of control systems. Building science engineering and energy auditors (jobs described in previous profiles) will do the analysis and formulate the approach, but lots of technicians will be needed to do the work. A high school diploma, a willingness to do some training to gain the necessary new skills, and a good work ethic are all you will need to get started. The Refrigeration Services Engineers Society (RSES) has many helpful links that cover all aspects of HVAC work, and appropriate training (www.rses.org). The North American Technician Excellence, Inc. (www.natex.org), lists multiple training and certification sites, as does the National Air Duct Cleaners Association (www.nadca.com). G REEN J OBS 134

Green Roofs Are Growing “We’re doing an enormous number of green roofs now. And the numbers are increasing.” —Cathy Garrett, Principal, PGAdesign, Inc.

Although natural roofs have been around for as long as humans have lived in sod houses, caves, and igloos, the idea for the modern green roof started in Germany in the 1960s. It has been increasing

in popularity in that country—at present, over 10 percent of Germany’s roofs are green—as well as Switzerland, France, Austria, and elsewhere. They are catching on in the United States, too. Green, or living, roofs grew some 25 percent in North America in 2006. Green roofs are multilayered, plant-filled rooftop gardens that can support a variety of plants from wildflowers to vegetables, and even shrubs and trees. Lightweight, thinner roof gardens are built primarily for environmental and economic purposes and are made up of organic and inorganic materials and specially selected hardy, low-maintenance plants. The most common type adds a weight increase of up to thirty-five pounds per square foot when fully saturated. Ongoing maintenance typically consists of only two visits per year by green roof applicators to weed invasive plant species and conduct safety and membrane inspections. Benefits of Green Roofs

> Typically last twice as long as conventional roofs (fifty years, so far, in Germany) > Help retain storm water, thereby reducing runoff and sewage system loads > Provide excellent insulation in all seasons, reducing heating and cooling costs and potentially the size of HVAC units (One estimate puts the cost savings at 10 to 15 percent per year.) > Absorb air pollution and urban noise > Store carbon > Improve air quality by filtration and oxygen generation > Offset carbon dioxide emissions > Provide a living environment for birds and other species > Help reduce the urban heat island effect (By reducing the heat island effect, green roofs have the ancillary benefit of creating a healthier urban environment with potential cost reduction of health care services.)

Green roofs make up a special category with great job potential for environmentally friendly commercial buildings, schools, and homes. Like many other aspects of the green job world, they are outsource-proof. As former President Clinton has pointed out,

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Green roofs have positive qualities, but research is still underway to understand all of the following and other potential benefits:

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someone has to be on that roof to do the green work; it can’t be delegated to Bangalore, China, or anywhere else! The technology ranges in complexity, but at a minimum entails installing a waterproof membrane on the building, topping that with a layer of soil or growing medium, and planting vegetation. Root barriers and drainage and irrigation systems are also normal parts of such an installation. The green roof market is still immature in North America, says the Canada-based Green Roofs for Healthy Cities organization (www.greenroofs.org). A green roof costs about twice as much to build as a regular roof, and it requires the expertise of structural engineers (as the building must be strong enough to support the additional weight), landscape or horticultural specialists, and green roofing specialists. Right now, the roofs themselves have an average cost of $10 to $24 per square foot, depending on the level of complexity, compared to a cost of $6 per square foot for a conventional roof. However, the savings in energy costs, as well as a lifespan double that of a non-green roof, make them good, eco-friendly investments. Many examples of green roofs can be found in the United States, ranging from city halls to factories to schools:

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Chicago’s City Hall sported the first municipal green roof in the country in 2001.

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Atlanta’s City Hall opened in 2003 as the first city-owned green roof in the Southeast.

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The new middle school addition at Portland’s Oregon Episcopal School has a green roof.

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Epicurious Garden restaurant in Berkeley, California, plants its rooftop garden with vegetables.

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Hyatt announced plans in 2007 to build a new luxury Andaz hotel in Austin, Texas, complete with a 20,000square-foot green roof where guests can dine and enjoy the views.

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Ford’s truck assembly factory in River Rouge, Michigan, has a 10.5-acre green roof, one of the world’s largest.

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California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco is installing a 2.5-acre green roof on its new building. Designed with undulating hills to blend in with the Golden Gate Park landscape, its seventeen million native plants will prevent about two million gallons of rainwater per year from washing pollutants into the city’s sewage system.

Green roofs create a wide variety of green jobs, as many as eight times those of the traditional roofing industry, which can be filled by people of all levels, from low-skill to professional. Some of these include salespeople, suppliers and manufacturers of roof membranes and root repellant layers, drainage layers, landscaping cloth, curbs, irrigation systems, and other specialty products; producers and suppliers of substrate, lightweight soils and nutrients; specialized nurseries and distributors of plant material and seeds; designers, consultants, engineers, contractors, landscapers, installers, and maintenance personnel. Installing green roofs is much more labor intensive than installing traditional roofing, and increasing numbers of green workers will be required to do these jobs. A high-school diploma, or the equivalent, plus physical fitness are prerequisites. Applying the membranes, drainage, and soil base systems, and planting the sod and other living plants and grasses will be physically demanding. Roofing and landscaping experience are pluses. If you enjoy working outdoors and don’t mind getting dirty, this might be an area for you. All of the leading green roof installation companies offer training programs. Tecta America employs 3,000 installers in fifty locations in the United States (www.tectaamerica.com). Roofscapes, Inc. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, maintains a network of sixteen landscape contractors around the United States who specialize in green roofs. They also offer training leading to licensing as a green roof installer (www.roofmeadow.com). American Hydrotech, Inc., a Chicago-based roofing company with offices around the country and the world, has a large green roof component (www.hydrotechusa.com). If your interests lie overseas, you can try a company like Blackdown Horticultural Consultants in Somerset, England (www.greenroof.co.uk).

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Green Roof Designers/Horticulturalists

Green roofs are obviously very different from traditional ones in many respects, including design, weight, and drainage. They also need to vary with the local climate conditions. These realities will require people with more specialized training. Engineers with at least an undergraduate degree and some knowledge of building construction techniques will be needed to design and oversee the installation of the roofs. Horticulturalists will have to make the decisions about the appropriate living plants to be used in different regions. Elevated Landscape Technologies of Brantford, Ontario, (www.eltgreenroofs.com) is one of the largest green roof and living wall installers in the world, serving North America, China, and Europe. They seek employees in all aspects of green roof work and also offer training for certification in the installation of green roofs. They also assist with the growth and delivery of plants and sod appropriate to green roofs. There’s lots more information out there to help you find out more about green roofs in general and the employment opportunities in the field. Here are a few resources to get you started:

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Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (www.greenroofs.org) is a nonprofit organization that promotes green roofs in North America. The list of members on its Web site is a good starting point for green job seekers. They also hold an annual convention and trade show and have information about training for green roof design, installation, maintenance, and certification, including such courses as Design 101: Green Roof Basics, and Waterproofing and Draining.

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Green Walls 101 symposia are given in major cities on green roof technology, training, and performance evaluation, and credits are available through the American Institute of Architects (www.aia.org) and the American Society of Landscape Architects (www.asla.org).

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There are several research programs at universities, such as the Green Roof Technology Project at Oregon State University in Corvallis (www.oregonstate.edu), which includes twenty-five test plots on OSU’s campus and the roof of the Portland Building in downtown Portland. Also, the Penn State Center for Green Roof

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Many federal, state, city, and local agency Web sites have information about green roofs, from Sustainable Hudson Valley in New York (www.sustainhv.org) to the EPA (www.epa.gov).

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One example of a model training initiative is the Sustainable South Bronx program (www.ssbx.org), which works with urban youth in a broad restorative development initiative, including planting and caring for green roofs.

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Research (http://hortweb.cas.psu.edu/research/green roofcenter) is a wealth of information on the green roof industry, with links for conferences, publications, and professionals.

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Chapter 8: Green Organizations and NGOs > “Everyone on earth will be an environmentalist in the not too distant future, driven there by necessity and experience.” —Mark Schmitt

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ne of the most obvious places to seek a green job is with an organization whose mission is committed to environmentally friendly causes. Given some estimates of nearly two million nonprofit organizations around the world that address environmental, indigenous rights, and social justice causes, that constitutes a lot of potential jobs. Yes, many of them encompass more than just green issues, but the ethos of all of them is probably consistent with what you or any green job seeker would value. Given the abundance of possibilities in this ever-expanding area, you will need to prioritize your search by, for example, organizational mission or location. The number of jobs available at any non-governmental organization (NGO), of course, will be a reflection of the size of the entity and the resources the organization has to support its work. This chapter briefly describes some of the largest, as well as a random sampling of other smaller organizations.

World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

www.panda.org www.wwf.org The largest environmental organization in the world, the World Wide Fund for Nature, known as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in the United States, was founded in 1961 by Julian Huxley and others. The WWF’s mission is to protect endangered species, preserve biodiversity and the sustainable use of natural resources, and reduce pollution and wasteful consumption. It presently

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operates in 100 countries, where it is funding some 2,000 conservation projects. Prince Philip was president of the WWF from 1981 to 1996. WWF membership totals over five million (1.2 million in the United States), and it employs almost 4,000 people. Jobs are listed on its Web sites. The Washington, D.C., headquarters is a model of green office space renovation. (See Chapter 7.)

The Sierra Club

www.sierraclub.org The Sierra Club, along with the Natural Resources Defense Council, is one of the two of the largest environmental organizations in the United States, with 1.3 million members. Founded by John Muir in 1892, the Sierra Club is, perhaps, the most venerable of conservation organizations in this country. Its mission is to explore, enjoy, and protect the last wild places on Earth; to practice and promote responsible use of the Earth’s ecosystems and resources; and to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment. A list of past directors reads like a Who’s Who of the conservation movement in America: John Muir (1892–1914), Ansel Adams (1934– 1971), Joseph LeConte (1892–1940), David Brower (1952–1969), William O. Douglas (1898–1980), Wallace Stegner (1909–1993), and many more. One of the most aggressive and active of environmental groups, the Sierra Club lost its tax-exempt status in 1966 because of political activity (prohibited for nonprofits) opposing a proposed damming of a portion of the Grand Canyon. (The action worked; the dam project was cancelled.) It lists jobs on its Web site.

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

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www.nrdc.org The NRDC is one of the most active in championing environmental causes. Founded in 1970, it has been the most visible and vocal such organization in expressing concern over the environmental policies of the Bush administration. With 1.2 million members, it employs a staff of 300 scientists, attorneys, and support personnel. Its star-studded board of directors includes Robert Redford, Maya Lin, James Taylor, Bob Kerrey, and F. A. O. Schwartz, Jr. Robert Kennedy Jr. is a senior staff attorney. The NRDC has offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C.,

New York City (headquarters), and Beijing and lists job vacancies on its Web site. www.nature.org The Nature Conservancy, with a sustaining fund worth $1.4 billion and total assets approaching $5 billion, has the greatest financial resources of any environmental organization. The conservancy evolved from a small group of scientists, the Ecological Union, was incorporated in 1951, and now has one million members. Its mission is to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To these ends, the organization has protected over 117 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide. Operating in all fifty states and thirty other countries, the conservancy also sponsors 100 marine conservation projects. The organization favors a nonconfrontational approach that seeks partnerships with businesses, governments, and other NGOs. Although criticized by some in the environmental community for having too-close ties with business and what some perceive to be sweetheart land sales to board members and significant donors, the group has been rated by Harris polls as the “most trusted organization” and by another poll as one of the best charities “everyone’s heard of.” In 2005, the group received international publicity when an expedition to the Big Woods of Arkansas announced a possible sighting of an ivory-billed woodpecker, thought extinct since 1946. With offices throughout the United States and around the world, the conservancy employees well over 1,000 people. Its Web site lists jobs both by type and geographic area.

Friends of the Earth and Bluewater Network

www.foe.org www.bluewaternetwork.org A confederation with over one million members and chapters in seventy countries, Friends of the Earth (FOE) was founded by former Sierra Club president and activist David Brower in 1969 after leaving the Sierra Club becaue of a disagreement over opposition to nuclear power development. Its mission is to defend the environment and champion a healthy and just world. Priorities are

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set at their biannual international meeting. The current focus is on climate change, corporate accountability, genetically modified organisms (GMOs)—one project showed that genetically modified corn that had not been approved for human consumption was showing up in food products on supermarket shelves—forests, public finance policy, such as from the IMF and World Bank, and trade and its impact on the environment and sustainability. In 2005, FOE merged with Bluewater Network, a group whose mission is to stop environmental damage from vehicles and vessels, and to protect human health and the planet by reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Both FOE and Bluewater list jobs on their Web sites.

National Audubon Society

www.audubon.org Founded in 1905, the National Audubon Society has 550,000 members and is one of the oldest environmental organizations in the United States. Its mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity. While it is principally associated with birds, past campaigns have included whale protection and the eradication of DDT (spurred by long-time Audubon member Rachel Carson). The society has many chapters around the United States and sponsors a citizen bird count every December, an important barometer of ecosystem health. Jobs and internships are listed on the Web site.

Environmental Defense Fund

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www.edf.org The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is an organization that seeks to link science, economics, and law to protect the environmental rights of all people, including future generations. It began in 1967 as an outgrowth of the efforts by a small group of scientists on Long Island to ban DDT to protect ospreys and other birds of prey. EDF efforts over the years have included protecting whales, passing the Safe Drinking Water Act, phasing out CFCs and lead from gasoline, pushing McDonald’s to use biodegradable food containers, and addressing global warming. It has net assets approaching $100 million and a membership of over 500,000. EDF has regional offices around the United States and lists jobs on its Web site.

The Wilderness Society

www.wilderness.org The Wilderness Society (TWS), with over 200,000 members, was founded in 1935. Like the Sierra Club, the founding group included significant members of the pantheon of the American environmental and conservation movements, including Bob Marshall, Aldo Leopold, and Benton Mackaye. Their mission is succinct: to deliver to future generations an unspoiled legacy of wild places. The society was instrumental in the passage of the 1964 Wilderness Act. Indeed, the bulk of the legislation was written by Howard Zahniser, a former president of the society. This act, and subsequent work by TWS, has resulted in the protection of 105 million acres through wilderness designation. The organization maintains ten regional offices in addition to the Washington, D.C., headquarters. Jobs for all locations are listed on its Web site. www.ducks.org Hunting and fishing enthusiasts form the core of this and the following organization, both of substantial size. Established in 1937, Ducks Unlimited (DU) has more than 550,000 members in the United States. Committed to habitat conservation for waterfowl, DU has conserved more than 11.6 million acres of waterfowl habitat in North America. Known for its fundraising capabilities, DU holds over 4,000 grassroots events every year. It advertises jobs on its Web site.

Trout Unlimited

www.tu.org The mission of Trout Unlimited (TU) is to conserve, protect, and restore North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds. Founded in Michigan in 1959, TU now has 400 chapters and more than 150,000 members. TU lists jobs on its Web site. In addition to the larger organizations described here, consider the other nearly two million nonprofits. Even assuming that only one-third of those focus on environmentally related issues, you still have over 300,000 potential sources of green jobs. The following is a random sampling of just a few of the smaller U.S.

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environmental organizations. All of these, and many, many more in the environmental and conservation fields, require staff and volunteer support:

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Acterra (literally, “action” and “earth”): This San Francisco Bay Area group focuses on environmental education and stewardship (www.acterra.org). Boone and Crockett Club Foundation: Founded by Theodore Roosevelt and others in the late nineteenth century, this group focuses on hunting ethics (www.booneandcrockett.org). Climate Solutions: This Seattle-based group pursues practical and profitable solutions to global warming (www.climate solutions.org). Earth First!: This radical environmental group utilizes civil disobedience tactics, such as tree sitting, to protect various habitats (www.earthfirst.org). Food and Water Watch: A spin-off from the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, this organization advocates for clean water and sustainable, local, chemical-free, and humanely raised food (www.foodandwater.org). The Green Project: This group promotes environmental sustainability in post–Hurricane Katrina New Orleans by recycling building materials and running a warehouse for salvaged goods (www.thegreenproject.org). Izaak Walton League of America: This group was founded in 1922 to save outdoor America for future generations (www .isaakwaltonleague.org). League of Conservation Voters: This is a political action committee that, among other things, publishes an annual report card of the environmental voting records of all members of Congress (www.lcv.org). Mothers Organized to Stop Environmental Sin: Worth listing just for the name, this group was established to combat toxic pollution in Winona, Texas (13231 Wittmore Circle, Dallas, TX 75240). National Arbor Day Foundation: This group’s mission is to inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees (www.arbor day.org). 1Sky: Dedicated to aggregating a massive nationwide movement by communicating a positive vision and a coherent set of

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national policies that rise to the scale of the climate challenge we’re facing (www.1sky.org). Rainforest Action Network: RAN campaigns for the forests, their inhabitants, and the natural systems that sustain life. It has offices in San Francisco and Tokyo (www.ran.org). Save Our Wild Salmon: This organization is working to restore abundant, harvestable, wild salmon runs in the Columbia and Snake River Basins (www.wildsalmon.org). Tree People: This group focuses on planting trees, water quality, and environmental education in the Los Angeles area (www .treepeople.org). Voyageurs National Park Association: One of many nonprofits that promotes and supports national parks in the United States, this group is located in the Boundary Waters area on the Minnesota-Ontario border (www.voyageurs.org). Wilderness Volunteers: WV sponsors weeklong volunteer work programs on public lands (www.wildernessvolunteers.org). Wise Earth: Paul Hawken’s Web site with free listings of jobs, as well as an opportunity for prospective green employees and interns to make themselves known. You can search the site by area of interest, geographic location, type of organization, and other criteria (www.wiserearth.org).

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Chapter 9: Natural Resources Management > “When we try to pick out anything by itself we find it hitches to everything in the universe.” —John Muir

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erhaps the most obvious green employment is a job that puts you in the front lines, so to speak. Without question there has been progress in cleaning up, restoring, and protecting the environment, but populations continue to grow, and resources continue to be used and discarded. Hardly a day goes by without television news, online reports, radio broadcasts, and newspaper and journal articles announcing the ongoing perils to our planet. Air and water pollution, climate change, habitat destruction, species extinction, wetlands eradication—all of these, and more, are very real concerns that cry out for passionate, dedicated people working on solutions. Some estimates put the money spent worldwide on environmental protection at around $400 billion per year. That can fund a lot of jobs. While this chapter has been divided into several areas for practical purposes, in reality, environmental concerns can’t be so neatly pigeonholed. Scientists make new discoveries every day about the interconnectedness of Earth’s living things and natural processes, from algae in Antarctica to sea birds in the Arctic, from El Niño events in the Pacific to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, from greenhouse gases to hurricane frequency. Toxins that poison the air and foul the land and water end up in the food we eat and in our own bodies, too. Where once our concern may have been to merely use less, discard less, and pollute less, now we face the gargantuan task of not only stopping but reversing the damage, while at the same time turning a decidedly unsustainable way of life into

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a sustainable one. If you’re looking for lifetime employment, you’ve come to the right career. The jobs in these areas are similarly interwoven. While there are many opportunities for hydrologists, botanists, geographers, engineers, and others with scientific training, virtually any skill used in the working world can find a niche in an environmental field. Marketing, public relations, law, accounting, planning, software engineering, Web designing, teaching, writing, and social science specialties are all needed, whether the project concerns restoring habitats, finding ways to reduce the environmental impact of people, or coming up with new ideas for sustainable living. Monster Worldwide (www.monsterTrak.monster.com) notes that its data indicate a steady increase in environmental job postings since 2005. The opportunities are out there. Don’t limit your search because of a preconceived notion of what you think an environmental career entails. Make use of the many resources here and in the appendix, use your imagination, and find just the right fit for your training and interests. Since the 1970s, when the United States gradually awakened to a pollution legacy left by 150 years of essentially uncontrolled industrial growth, federal, state, and local governments have passed many laws and regulations. These have created millions of jobs as people figured out how to comply with the laws, officials enforced the regulations, and advocates argued for more or fewer laws while letting the public know what was going on. More people than ever are now aware of and interested in the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the soil we live on. The movement to clean up, preserve, and better regulate these essentials provides a necessary and rewarding job path. A logical first place to look is at federal agencies involved in environmental work, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Park Service (NPS), or U.S. Forest Service (part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture). Government agencies offer, by far, the largest potential source of all types of jobs in the country. A report published in 2007 by the Partnership for Public Service, Where the Jobs Are: Mission Critical Opportunities for America, estimates that there will be almost 200,000 federal job openings in the next two years (www.ourpublicservice.org). Not all of these are green jobs, of course, but from the EPA to the smallest

municipality there are many environmentally related jobs—the EPA alone employs almost 20,000 people. Each major agency has its own Web site (see the appendix for some resources), and virtually all of them give job guidance. Many of them also offer internships, which can be a good way to get your foot inside the green door. Beyond the big agencies, there’s an almost infinite list of Senate and House committees that address various environmental issues. Each of them hires researchers and other staff. A fairly comprehensive listing of approximately 125 such committees, while somewhat dated, can be found in Mike Fasulo and Jane Kinney’s book (listed in the bibliography). As just one recent example, in December 2007, the Congressional Research Service was advertising openings for thirty new section research managers “in response to the growing complexity of public policy issues facing the nation” in the areas of agriculture and food policy, renewable energy, natural resources, domestic and international environmental policy (air and land quality, toxic waste, climate change), and issues related to public lands, fish and wildlife, water resources, forestry, and aquatic ecosystems (www.loc.gov/crsinfo).

Air Quality —Kevin Danaher, Shannon Biggs, Jason Mark, Building the Green Economy

Concern about air quality isn’t new. In 1305, England’s King Edward I banned the burning of “sea coal” in London due to the intense smoke it created. (His efforts didn’t help much. During four days in 1952, a mixture of dense fog and coal smoke killed 4,000 Londoners.) In 1881, both Chicago and Cincinnati passed legislation in an attempt to control the air pollution in those cities. Air pollution in Donora, Pennsylvania, killed twenty in 1948. In 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO, www.who.org) reported that 70,000 people die in the United States each year from air pollution, almost double the number that die in traffic accidents. Poor air quality has been linked to asthma, cancer, and birth defects. The American Heart Association (www.americanheart. org) cites research that indicates people living in the most polluted U.S. cities could lose between 1.8 and 3.1 years of their life expectancy because of exposure. By some estimates, 90 percent of this

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“By some estimates, 64,000 people die prematurely every year due to the soot from power plants.”

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country’s population is exposed to unhealthy levels of gases, particles, or toxins in the air at least part of the year, and half of all Americans live in areas that have unsafe air pollution levels. The biggest sources include vehicles and power and industrial plants. Air quality is no longer approached as just a local problem. Scientists are concerned about the levels of greenhouse gases emitted all over the world, and their effects on the planet’s welfare. Other issues, such as indoor air pollutants and ozone depletion have kept air quality at the forefront of environmental topics. And while stricter regulations have cleaned our air considerably, much work remains to be done. The Clean Air Act In 1955, Congress passed an Air Pollution Control Act but left to the states most of the responsibility for enforcing it. It soon became obvious that air pollution didn’t recognize state boundaries. It was, in fact, a national problem (and, indeed, as we now know, a global one). The Federal Clean Air Act of 1970, and its subsequent amendments and extensions, make up the foundation of our current regulations. The act set primary standards to protect against adverse health effects and secondary standards to protect against damage to farm crops, vegetation, and buildings. It has been remarkably successful. As a dramatic example of what it has accomplished, consider six “criteria air pollutants” and what has happened with them between 1980 and 2006. (It’s interesting to note that the “dirty six” targeted here do not include carbon dioxide emissions, known to be a critical key to the future health of the planet.)

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> 14 percent decrease in particulate matter (standard initiated in 1999; data from 2000–2006) > 21 percent decrease in ozone > 41 percent decrease in nitrogen dioxide > 66 percent decrease in sulfur dioxide > 75 percent decrease in carbon monoxide > 96 percent decrease in lead (largely from phasing lead out of gasoline)

Federal and state governments employ nearly one million environmental workers. The EPA’s 4,000 State and Local Air Monitoring Stations (SLAMS) track national ambient air quality standards for the six criteria listed above. This effort in itself creates

Air Quality Sampler, Specialist, or Consultant

There are many opportunities for you in monitoring air quality, from public agencies to nonprofits to private consulting firms. Entry-level positions at a private firm might require you to inspect and diagnose the operation of HVAC systems, test the indoor air quality, monitor carbon dioxide levels, and evaluate ventilation rates against industry standards. Such firms will often train the right person, so you don’t necessarily need experience in the environmental field. Most of these companies like to see a bachelor’s degree, as well as a desire to learn, flexible attitude, ability to work on teams, and good communication and analytical skills. More advanced air quality specialist positions include conducting analyses to evaluate air quality impacts for sources of

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a large number of green jobs. In 2008, Maricopa County, Arizona, for example, will hire ninety-one new employees to help the county comply with the Clean Air Act particulate emission standard, at a cost of $11 million, increasing to $13 million in 2009. California has some of the worst air in the country. If you’ve seen the brown haze that hovers over San Jose or Los Angeles in the summer, you know that. But the state is also notable for lead> “Sustainability, ing the way in addressing the problem by adopting air emis- ensuring the future of life sions standards that are more stringent than federal ones. on earth, is an infinite This translates into a lot of air- game, the endless quality-related green jobs. The expressing of generosity Web sites for state and local on behalf of all.” agencies list jobs. The National Association of Clean Air Agen—Paul Hawken, Blessed Unrest cies (NACAA) represents air pollution control agencies in fifty-three states and territories and over 165 major metropolitan areas across the United States. Its Web site features current research reports, news, and projects (www.4cleanair.org). Job opportunities in air-quality-related work can also be found at www.environmentalexpert.com, and in late 2007 those jobs numbered 172 in seventytwo companies. That Web site also notes eight commercial sites offering training.

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pollutants, developing quantitative emissions estimates, preparing air permit applications, conducting modeling studies, writing regulatory and technical reports, working with government regulators, and perhaps training others and presenting at professional conferences. These jobs require several years’ experience with air compliance regulations, a knowledge of air quality issues and trends, and a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in chemical, environmental, or civil engineering or meteorology.

Greenhouse Gas Engineer/Scientist/Management

With the mounting concern over global warming, one fastgrowing area in air quality includes opportunities for greenhouse gas engineers and managers. According to the EPA, total greenhouse gas emissions rose 16 percent between 1995 and 2005, mostly carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel emissions. Greenhouse gas engineering and management positions require solid skills in technical analysis, database, auditing, task management, scenario planning, and writing. You would need to gather and analyze data; conduct calculations and inventories; write plans for greenhouse gas emissions reductions; as well as have a knowledge of carbon abatement and mitigation technologies, be familiar with the emerging regulations on greenhouse gas management, government greenhouse and climate change policy and industry programs, and have a knowledge of energy efficiency in the commercial building, mining, and industrial sectors. Again, the ability to work in teams is essential. For these positions, employers want to see a bachelor’s degree in a relevant science or engineering field and at last two years’ experience in energy management, air pollution inventories and permitting, and familiarity with online data management. Multinational corporations like URS (www.urscorp.com) provide greenhouse gas management services all around the world, including in the United States, England, Australia, and New Zealand. G REEN J OBS 154

Environmental Planner

This type of job can focus on any environmental specialty, and you’ll find some that are concerned with reducing air pollution with regard to petroleum use. By some estimates, transportation accounts for fully one-third of all global-warming pollution. For a job as an environmental planner specializing in air quality, you would no doubt be part of a multidisciplinary planning team and

interact with government, civic, and industry liaisons while working on transportation demand management, studying alternative transportation fuels and fuel-saving technologies, and monitoring air quality projects. Your tasks could include quantitative analysis, outreach to potential partners, newsletter publication, Web site content management, event planning, and the development of promotional and educational materials. In addition to the obvious interest in air-quality issues, you’d do well to have a degree in public administration, planning, or environmental studies from a four-year college or university, along with two years’ relevant experience. Similar to many of today’s jobs, creativity, attention to detail, multitasking, and good communication skills are a must.

Water Quality “Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: We are all in the same boat.”

Clean water is essential to all life. You, of course, are about 60 percent water. Looking at our blue planet from outer space, you wouldn’t think water scarcity would be a problem. Water covers over 70 percent of Earth’s surface, but it’s mostly salty and undrinkable. Only about 2 percent is fresh water. Of that, most (but less with each passing year) is locked in polar ice caps and glaciers. Another portion resides in underground aquifers and wells. Only about 0.036 percent of the planet’s water is found in rivers and lakes. Given fresh water’s relative scarcity, the ever-increasing need for it, and the shifts in its availability wrought by climate change—Los Angeles, for example, had its driest year on record in 2007, and the southeastern part of the country is still in the midst of a severe drought as of this writing—many experts predict that within the next fifty years this precious fluid will become a more valuable commodity than oil. The World Wildlife Fund (www.panda.org) estimates that by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population could be facing serious water-availability problems. And we seem to be as addicted to the use of water as we are to oil. The United States leads the world in per-capita water consumption, and we use almost seven times more today than we did in 1900, while one billion people around the globe lack access to potable water. One doesn’t want to begin

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to contemplate the conflicts that could arise over the distribution and use of this vital natural resource. Because water has seemed so limitless, we’ve been careless in our management of it for most of our country’s history. Wetlands were traditionally viewed as wastelands and used for landfills. The immense oceans seemed capable of absorbing the vast quantities of waste tossed into them. Factories and sewage plants spewed innumerable toxins into rivers and lakes with little concern for what was happening downstream. The result was that by the late 1960s, our nation’s water resources were in a deplorable state. In 1969, bacteria levels in the Hudson River were 170 times above the safe limit, and the pollutants on the surface of the Cuyahoga River near Cleveland, Ohio, burst into flames. The image of a body of water on fire proved a potent wake-up call to the state of America’s water supply. The Clean Water Act

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What we know today as the Clean Water Act had its origins in the Federal Water Pollution Control Amendments of 1972. By the time it was enacted, an estimated two-thirds of the country’s lakes, rivers, and coastal waters were unsafe for fishing or swimming. Amendments in 1977 formed the basis of our current clean water legislation.The essence of the Clean Water Act, which seeks to eliminate all sources of pollution into our waters, has two major parts. The first provides federal financial assistance for municipal sewage treatment plant construction, some $75 billion to date. The second sets regulatory requirements for discharge from industry and municipalities, so-called “point source pollution.” Unfortuntely, by the late 1980s, 50 percent of the remaining water pollution came from non–point-source pollution from storm water and runoff from agricultural fields, construction sites, and streets and highways. Amendments and subsequent legislation attempted to address this problem, but progress has been uneven. Also, the general nature of the Clean Water Act makes it more difficult to assess progress than the six specific pollutants targeted by the Clean Air Act.

In 2004, Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, noted that an EPA report revealed that the water in the United States had become dirtier in 2003 for the first time since the Clean

Water Resources Manager/Specialist

Jobs that ensure that the public has safe water to drink and that purified water is returned to rivers, streams, and oceans abound in

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Water Act was enacted. On balance, however, it’s clear that much progress has been made, and continues to be made, in cleaning up water resources. While over 40 percent of our rivers, lakes, and bays are still not safe enough for fishing and swimming, this represents a 25 percent improvement in the situation from 1972. Remember that interconnectedness mentioned at the beginning of this chapter? By some estimates, 80 percent of the pollutants that end up in the oceans originate on land. The UN Environment Programme estimates that there are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating on every square mile of ocean—three times more than in the 1960s. The carbon dioxide that spews out of our cars and into the air worsens climate change. Climate change raises sea levels, erodes shorelines, changes ocean currents, and affects fish migration. It alters the chemical makeup of the water and threatens plankton, the foundation of the ocean’s food chain. Warmer sea temperatures change storm patterns and increase storm ferocity. The warmer water—and melting ice—destroys habitat for polar bears, seals, and other wildlife. We could go on, but you get the idea. And the tug of war between water for people and water for wildlife is played out daily in places like the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California. There, what is called the most important estuary on the west coast of North and South America is in danger of ecological collapse due to the diversion of water for human use, to the detriment of longfin smelt, herring, salmon, and other species over the past decades. Added to that is the problem of warmer temperatures decreasing the snow pack in the Sierra Nevada, the source of the delta’s water. More than half of all Californians get their drinking water from the delta, and the water irrigates the Central Valley’s farms. Untangling water issues from those of air, land, or waste is a Gordian knot of mythic proportions, one not even Alexander the Great could undo. If you’re looking for challenging environmental work, there are hundreds of difficult—and vital—tasks in this field that call for vision, creativity, and leadership, not to mention diplomacy. Like jobs in air quality, these opportunities aren’t going away any time soon.

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federal and local governments, but it’s also an area of job growth in the private sector, where water is big business. Water is one commodity we will never be able to do without. As the Environmental Business Journal noted in 1997, “Where water flows, so does cash.” Back in 1996, private water contract operations exceeded $1 billion, with growth estimated at that time at 20 to 30 percent per year. In this field there’s an emphasis on master planning, watershed management, including land conservation, land use planning, agricultural engineering, toxicology assessments, mapmaking, hydraulic modeling, and designing distribution systems (pipelines, pump stations, reservoirs, and hydraulic structures), not to mention negotiation and public relations to explain the ever-increasing cost of this utility to the public. Employers will look for a bachelor’s degree in chemical, biological, civil, or environmental engineering, environmental studies, or hydrology, with postgraduate work growing more necessary as the facilities grow more complex. You’ll need to be conversant in the appropriate local, state, and federal regulations. Depending on the job, you might need a knowledge of water conservation, water pollution control, erosion and sediment control, natural resources, storm water management, a technical background in surface water, flood management, or water rights. Most states require certification. Familiarity with water and sewer analysis software, such as H2OMAP Water and H2OMAP Sewer, would be an asset in seeking some of these jobs. A national online water and wastewater career Web site can be found at www.waterjobsonline.com. It lists opportunities in the United States as well as overseas. Private firms, such as RBF Consulting in California, Arizona, and Nevada (www.rbf.com), post jobs for civil engineering and planning projects in water supply and distribution, hydrology, water quality, public works, and environmental planning. G REEN J OBS 158

Public Utilities Regulatory Analyst/Water Division

If your desire is to help shape the policies regulating water and other resources, perhaps working as an analyst in a public utilities commission is for you. Working for such an organization, particularly an innovative one, gives you the opportunity to help launch programs dealing with water use, climate change, consumer protection, and many other issues so important to the country’s

future. Many of California’s policy standards, in particular, influence national regulatory trends and federal policies. As an analyst, you’d work independently and in a team setting to analyze such things as the fiscal impact of proposed water and sewer operations; to evaluate, develop, and recommend alternatives on regulatory issues, and to consult with and advise management, staff, and other interested parties on those issues. Your duties may entail working with customer groups to recommend acceptable public policy options related to water and sewer utility regulation, including low-income assistance and water conservation. You may also have to prepare project status reports and briefing papers, and make presentations.

Reverse osmosis, a technology that has been around for decades, was recently spotlighted in Southern California because of the size of the project and the fact that it represents the first drinking water reuse project of its type in this country. In November 2007, Orange County, California, opened a $481 million groundwater replenishment system (www.gwrsystem.com) to supplement Southern California’s diminishing supply of potable water. The system uses reverse osmosis to process some seventy million gallons of municipal sewage daily. Orange County’s future water supplies are threatened by legal, environmental, and population disputes. Both rivers that supply the region, the Santa Ana and the Colorado, are in the midst of a five-year drought. Experts estimate that by 2016, surplus water supplies currently available from the Colorado will be eliminated, while Orange County’s population is expected to increase by half a million people. By 2020, California’s population will expand to equal that of Nevada, Montana, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, and Wyoming’s put together. The California Department of Water Resources predicts that by 2020, there will be statewide water shortages of two to six million acre-feet per year. (One acrefoot is enough water for two families of four for one year.) Orange County’s problems aren’t unique. Many other municipalities around the country and the world that see their potable water resources declining have been considering such a system. That spells job opportunities if you’re interested in the field of water management.

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Employers look for individuals with a bachelor’s or master’s degree in economics, finance, public policy, or other closely related field, or any degree plus a significant number of units of upper division coursework in these subjects. Depending on the employer, you may be required to pass a civil service exam as well.

Utility Worker/Trainee to Experienced

If you’re just starting out, there are opportunities for semiskilled workers in the maintenance and repair of water distribution and wastewater collection systems, including fire hydrants, main line valves, water service lines, water mains, meters and fittings, installation of new water services, system flushing, water quality sampling, flow testing, traffic control, and preventive maintenance. These jobs typically require a high school diploma or equivalent, a valid driver’s license, and some construction or maintenance experience. Wetlands

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A wetland is a place where shallow water covers the land either part of the year or all year round. They’re found all over the world and include every size and shape—as small as the pond in your back yard and as big as the Pantanal in South America, which is three times the size of Ireland. These vital, varied habitats teem with life, from microscopic plants to water-loving mammals; indeed, they are home to some of the richest biodiversity on the planet. Once regarded as useless and disease-ridden wasteland, wetlands were used as garbage dumps and filled in or drained for construction. In reality, they are critical not just for animal and plant life but for human life, too. Globally, between 300 and 400 million people live near and depend on wetlands. They provide humans with food and fuel, and they mitigate the effects of floods and storms. (Witness the devastation from Gulf Coast hurricanes in areas where wetlands have been destroyed.) Wetlands also work as giant water purifiers by filtering out sediments and contaminants. As the importance of these areas has become better understood, more people have gotten involved in their protection and restoration. There are many job opportunities in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors if wetlands monitoring, protection, or restoration is your interest. See this chapter and the appendix for some resources to help you in your search.

Higher-level utility workers perform skilled tasks in the above areas, as well as document the work performed and account for the materials and equipment used. You’ll report to a supervisor and may lead a team of two or three people. These positions require five years’ work-related experience in water distribution/treatment and wastewater/treatment fields, as well as some experience in a supervisory position. Certifications, in addition to a high school diploma or equivalent are required. Companies like American Water in New Jersey (www.amwater.com) actively recruit these workers. Studying, protecting, and managing wetlands are vital jobs for conserving biodiversity and maintaining the economic and social value of these areas. The World Wildlife Fund places the economic value of U.S. wetlands alone at $70 billion per year. Wetlands can’t survive without adequate supplies of water, so managing that supply is a top priority for many agencies. Think broadly when you search for wetlands-related jobs. Engineering firms like Tetra Tech EC, Inc., advertise jobs for wetland scientists and ecologists in conjunction with the consulting work they do on a range of projects that impact wetlands, such as a commuter rail line in Boston or development of land for retail or wind energy. Such jobs entail wetland delineation and assessment, permitting, and mitigation; plant community classification and inventory; habitat mapping; environmental impact analysis; land use and resource management planning; regulatory compliance; and wetland habitat restoration design and monitoring. You’ll need a master’s degree in wetland science, plant ecology, environmental biology, or related biological discipline; with a strong background in wetland evaluation methodologies, plant taxonomy and classification; and wetlands and plant community related laws, regulations, and policies. You may also need a good working knowledge of the Clean Water Act, the Rivers and Harbors Act, Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and knowledge of local and regional standards and guidelines. Some employers may also prefer that you have professional wetland scientist certification (www.wetlandcert.org) and have several years’ experience. While there is report writing and completing the requisite paperwork, these aren’t just desk jobs. If you like to be

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outdoors, too, much of this work involves collecting and analyzing samples and using GPS to map locations and boundaries.

Land Quality “The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt

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Land—soil—is a miracle of nature. It’s the epitome of what Paul Hawken and the Lovins call “natural capital.” It stores and recycles nutrients and water. It acts as a buffer between the atmosphere and aquatic ecosystems. We need good quality land for myriad uses: to grow crops, generate energy, mine resources, and support animal and plant habitats, and we also need it to build homes, industries, and transportation networks on. Historically, we’ve cultivated the same attitude toward land as toward water—often ignoring or abusing that which we can’t see, don’t understand, or perceive as unlimited or valueless. The first European settlers here found over two billion acres of forests, grasslands, deserts, shrublands, and wetlands. It was inconceivable to them, and to many generations after them, that such vastness could ever be filled. Yet fill it we have—or good portions of it, anyway—and we haven’t always been the best caretakers of this resource. Many human activities, like industry and agriculture and their byproducts, have the potential to harm land and soils. Once contaminated, soil can be extremely difficult to return to a healthy condition. Most people have heard of Love Canal, New York, where in the late 1970s illegally buried toxic chemicals started leaching into people’s homes and yards. The disaster prompted a state- and federally funded evacuation of the area, and raised suspicions about the prevalence of other such dumpsites. Decades of improper handling of waste and toxic materials have left over 1,300 federal Superfund sites. According to Scorecard.org, about eleven million people live within a mile of one of these sites. Today, over 80 percent of Americans live in cities and suburbs comprising sixty million acres of developed land. Between 1982 and 1997 alone, twenty-five million acres of forest and cropland were developed, and that development has continued apace into the twenty-first century. It has left a legacy known as “brownfields.” Drive through the older parts of virtually any city and you’ll see them: blighted urban landscapes littered with abandoned build-

ings, overgrown vacant lots filled with debris, disintegrating factories, broken glass, rusted metal, and soil polluted by heavy metals, chemicals, and oil. They’re relics of this country’s industrial past and stark witness to the decline in manufacturing and the population’s migration to the suburbs. While the manufacturing jobs are gone, the brownfields themselves represent a growing opportunity for green jobs. As more and more people move to cities and need more places to live and work, undeveloped areas, called “greenfields,” grow scarcer. There are over 10,000 people per square mile in New York City, and not many—if any—undeveloped parcels of land. By EPA estimates, there are 450,000 brownfields in the United States. As a result, developers and city planners are reclaiming these onceneglected areas, cleaning them up, revitalizing the neighborhoods, bolstering the local economy while increasing the local tax base, using existing infrastructure, and providing thousands of jobs in the process. It’s a win-win-win-win situation. A study by George Washington University found that redeveloping 1 acre of brownfield preserves from development 4.5 acres of greenfields, such as open spaces and farmland. In 1995, the EPA began the Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative to give financial and technical assistance to cities and organizations willing to take on this work. By providing grants for environmental assessment, cleanup, and job training, the agency wanted to “change the way people think about contaminated properties” and find economically viable ways to reuse the land. In November 2006, the EPA awarded a total of $2.34 million to governments and nonprofits in twelve communities through its Brownfields Job Training Grants. The program teaches environmental cleanup job skills to people in low-income areas near brownfield sites.

Brownfields Jobs

The experts agree that as soon as you finish one brownfield project, another is discovered. That’s not just a good thing for cities; it’s also good for job growth. In 2004, the head of Baltimore’s Brownfields Initiative said, “We’re not going to run out of projects any time soon,” and that was after the city had already restored

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over thirty tracts, creating over 3,000 jobs, and identified sixty more sites. He predicted that brownfield redevelopment investment in that city alone would grow to $100 million a year. As you might expect, these challenging projects draw upon a multitude of skills, training, and professions covering a wide range of human, technological, legal, and policy know-how. They require the cooperation and collaboration of the public; federal, state, and local governments; landowners, real estate brokers, and developers; planners; environmental assessment and cleanup firms; and, depending on the project, architects, builders, landscapers, horticulturalists, biologists . . . you get the idea. Many of the general environmental job resources in the appendix will lead you to jobs in brownfield work at all skill levels, including environmental remediation project managers investigating soil and groundwater contamination. These jobs often require a bachelor’s degree in civil, environmental, or chemical engineering, geology, chemistry, environmental science, or related field, knowledge of environmental cleanup regulations and methodologies, and several years’ experience in project management. The EPA’s Brownfields Job Training and Development program helps the people most affected by the brownfields—often minorities living in poverty—train for and find jobs in the environmental field, including those that emphasize innovative and alternative treatment techniques, such as bioremediation and solvent extraction. Between 1999 and 2002 alone, the program trained 1,740 people and helped two-thirds of the graduates find employment that used their new skills. In 2006 and 2007, job-training grants were awarded to Camden, Arkansas; Southern University at Shreveport, Louisiana; the University of Montana; Boston, Massachusetts; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, training nearly 300 people. Look at the Web site of the city or community you’d like to work in. Chances are it has a brownfield program and job training. For example, B’Green-Civic Works is Baltimore’s workforcebuilding initiative for these projects (www.civicworks.com). It offers environmental health and safety certifications, site assessment and sampling training, and classes on community redevelopment, ecology, remediation, as well as basic computer and writing skills. New York City has many brownfield projects planned, which you can find out about through its Web site (www.nyc.gov/brownfields).

Brownfields Success Stories

> Converting a 250,000 square-foot abandoned U.S. Steel plant in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, into a state-of-the-art wind-turbine manufacturing facility for Spanish firm Gamesa Wind, the number-two producer of wind turbines worldwide. Reusing the plant kept out of landfills the thousands of tons of waste that new construction would have generated. The project netted over 300 new skilled-labor manufacturing jobs and hundreds of construction jobs, and won the 2007 Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award from the Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers. > Transforming a petroleum- and chemical-tainted rail and trucking yard into the LEED platinum-certified headquarters of Heifer International, next door to the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Old warehouses on the site were crushed to make fill for the new building’s foundation. > Turning a former lead-contaminated paint store property into a public park and garden in Hartford, Connecticut. > Transforming a seventy-five acre PCB-contaminated brownfield into a Harley-Davidson dealership in Stamford, Connecticut. > Redeveloping a twenty-five-acre town dump into a green-designed commercial facility and wetlands in Cape Charles, Virginia. > Replacing a former gas station, auto repair shop, machine shop, and iron scrap yard with the $113 million headquarters of Consumers Energy in Jackson County, Michigan. > Cleaning up sixty brownfields, including restoring Assunpink Creek’s natural floodplain, in Trenton, New Jersey. > Returning tribal lands to traditional uses in north-central Montana by helping the Fort Belknap Tribes clean up remnants of mining, rail, and quarrying activities. > Removing the remnants of old textile mills and an ash dump to make way for a ballpark and sports arena in Lowell, Massachusetts, creating more than 450 full- and part-time jobs in the city’s poorest neighborhood. > Rehabilitating the lead-, silver-, and oil-polluted former site of a wire and cable company into the headquarters of a digital printing and marketing firm in Boston, Massachusetts.

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Over $250 million in EPA Brownfields Program funds have leveraged more than $6.5 billion in cleanup and redevelopment from the public and private sectors and created approximately 25,000 new jobs. Between 1995 and 2003, the program assessed over 4,300 properties and has spurred many local projects all over the country. Some brownfield success stories include the following:

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At the EPA’s Web site (www.epa.gov), search for “brownfields” and you’ll find lots of information. The Brownfields and Land Revitalization Technology Support Center (www.brown fieldstsc.org), run by the EPA, Argonne National Laboratory, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, provides one-stop shopping for all things brownfield. If you’re interested in where the projects are and who’s involved in them, news, events, publications, and more, this is the Web site for you. As of December 2007, the site mentions an upcoming “Green Remediation” technology bulletin. As you might expect, there are many companies and consultants specializing in this burgeoning field, and they all need employees of every skill and background. At EnvironmentalExpert.com, a search for “brownfield redevelopment” and “services and consulting” yields sixty-two pages of results, a good starting point for your job search. Don’t forget that the jobs created by brownfield projects aren’t limited to the remediation work itself. As just one example, in 2005, after the reopening of the site of the Boston project mentioned in the sidebar, two new restaurants and an apartment building opened nearby. New businesses and residents move into these revitalized areas, bringing green—in the form of dollars and jobs—with them.

Forests “I think that I shall never see/A poem lovely as a tree.” —Joyce Kilmer

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Forests are vitally important for ecological, economic, cultural, and aesthetic reasons. As essential reservoirs of biodiversity, they provide habitat for anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of the planet’s terrestrial species. Forests keep ecosystems in balance by absorbing tons of excess carbon dioxide, purifying the air and water as they regulate the hydrologic cycle, protecting watersheds, providing flood control, preventing drought and erosion, and buffering storm impacts. They are also a key to combating climate change because forests are essential for cooling the planet’s temperature. We literally can’t live without them. According to the World Resources Institute (www.wri.org), forests covering an area the size of Panama (about 28,000 square miles) were destroyed each year between 2000 and 2005. We’re losing about twenty-one to fifty soccer fields’ worth of tropical forests

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per minute. A report by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (www.millenniumassessment.org) says that fifty-four countries have lost 90 percent or more of their forest cover. While deforestation has slowed in Europe, North America, and China, it continues at a rapid pace in the tropical regions of South America, Africa, and Asia. In December 2007, the World Wildlife Fund said that “a vicious cycle of deforestation and climate change could wipe out or severely damage nearly 60 percent of the Amazon forest by 2030,” while releasing as much as 96.9 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. If you need another example of the interconnectedness referred to earlier, note that global warming could reduce rainfall in the Amazon by 20 percent, thereby reducing rainfall in other parts of the globe, including America’s grain belt. You don’t need to pack off to the Amazon to find meaningful forestry work, however. Issues and problems abound right here in the United States. One-third of our country is forested, but most of the old growth is gone. Replanted forests lack the biodiversity of the originals. Acid rain from air pollutants can devastate forest ecosystems. Climate change upsets the delicate balance to which forests have adapted over eons. Recent research shows that fire suppression through the 1990s has resulted in dense forests that are more susceptible to severe wildfires. In November 2007, Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell testified to the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming that wildfires have dramatically increased in frequency and intensity since 1990. But perhaps the greatest threat to our forests, according to many experts, comes from invasive species. Some 400 pests and dozens of pathogens have hitched rides on imported goods and plants and the wood in packing crates. They have devastated flowering dogwood, eastern and western white pines, Fraser fir, American elm, chestnut, poplar, aspen, maple, oak, ash, beech, birch, and sugar maple trees. The woolly adelgid, a bug from Asia, is wreaking havoc on the eastern hemlocks in the eastern United States. Richard Preston writes in The New Yorker (December 10, 2007), “Invasive species of microbes, plants, and animals are changing ecosystems in a biological upheaval that may affect almost everything that lives.” He goes on to note that the cause of that upheaval is . . . us. Climate change could be helping the invasives spread, pushing native species to extinction, and making room for more nonnatives.

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As a professional working in the forestry field, you can be part of the solution. A burgeoning future in forestry-related jobs doesn’t seem to lie in the federal sector, however, as allocations do not seem to be keeping pace with the growing need. In December 2007, the Web site of the Forest Service listed 184 permanent job > “In some areas, openings, but only a portion of those Earth Day is were targeting people with forestry celebrated by backgrounds and training. Other federal employers of forplanting trees. Of esters include the U.S. Department course, they are all of the Interior, Bureau of Land cut down again at Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Christmas, but it’s the Service. Local governments and thought that counts.” agencies, private firms, and nonprofits are good sources for jobs that —A. Whitney Brown range from trainee to experienced. Remember that forestry jobs don’t all require forestry degrees. Biologists, entomologists, meteorologists, lawyers, public administrators, and others work in and for forests, too.

Forest Policy Analyst/Investigator/Intern

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If your interest lies in forests, your background in science, and your talents include law and research, places like the Washington Forest Law Center (www.wflc.org) or American Forests (www. americanforests.org) need you. These jobs give you the chance to make far-reaching changes in the way forests are managed and preserved. If you’re just starting out, organizations like the above look for interns to attend congressional hearings, report to community partners, act as a liaison between the organization and public, set up databases, update publications and Web pages, and participate in strategy development. Besides good communication skills, these internships require that you have completed study in (although not necessarily hold a degree in) environmental studies, forestry, political science, or sociology. At the more senior levels, as an investigator and policy analyst, you’d help prevent environmentally harmful forest practices while working to reform a state’s laws and regulations. Part of this

job would involve investigating legal cases, policies, and deceptive forest “green certification” systems; evaluating forestry regulations and ways to improve them; and reviewing conservation plans, government laws and regulations, environmental impact statements, and recovery plans. You might also testify at public meetings and hearings and work with expert witnesses and scientists to prepare testimony and technical position papers. Another component of the job could have you in the field conducting landscape analyses to determine the environmental impact of forest practices. Such work would require familiarity with forestry, forest management issues, and forest regulatory policies; green-certification systems; wildlife science and policies; as well as excellent research and writing abilities. A degree in forestry or forest resources management would be a plus, but other training in science and research would apply as well. Several years’ experience and a background in policy coordination and acting as a liaison with governments are required. The fact that you’re interested in forestry at all probably indicates that you’d prefer spending most of your working day outdoors, and you’ll find plenty of jobs that let you do just that. City parks and recreation departments employ planters, climbers, and pruners to work on urban trees. New York City alone plans to plant some 220,000 trees by 2017. This type of work is varied and can include inspecting trees for diseases and pests, like the Asian longhorned beetle. You’ll climb, prune, brace, cut, and fell trees and large shrubs, operate chippers and other equipment, and prepare composting sites. Often, the ability to identify tree species and a few months’ experience in this type of work are the only prerequisites—those and a good degree of physical agility. Local agencies, nonprofits, and consulting firms hire people to inventory trees, inspect them for pests and pathogens, and map at-risk trees. Global Forest Watch (www.globalforestwatch.org) is one organization that uses geographic information systems (GIS) to gather data on the world’s remaining primary forests, logging activities, and protected areas and to produce maps and databases to track deforestation, forest fragmentation, and threats to forests. They also make this information and imagery available on the Internet.

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Managing such a project would require you to have a degree in environmental management, conservation biology, landscape ecology, or related field, with study in GIS applications for conservation. Skills would include map design and production and familiarity with forest change indicators, remote sensing technologies, and interactive mapping technologies. Project managers would need expertise in such things as forest development plans and strategies, assessing carbon budget and climate mitigation potential of forests, forest policy and legislation, feasibility studies, and knowledge of logging and wood processing. Needed are an advanced degree in forestry, agricultural sciences, natural resources management, or a related field, or professional experience in forestry, as well as several years’ experience.

Fish and Wildlife “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” —Native American proverb

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If you love animals, you might want to make them the focus of your green career. For some people, the greenest of all possible jobs is one that follows Mark Trail or Smokey Bear into the great outdoors. There are thousands of global, national, and local organizations working to protect animals the world over. You’ll find many of the larger nonprofits listed in Chapter 8, and other organizations in the resources in the appendix. A National Park Service or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service job could be ideal for you; however, budget cuts in these agencies are common in the ebb and flow of the political tide, and that could prove frustrating if your values clash with those of the administration in office. Currently, the funding of national parks, fish and wildlife management, and related fields has decreased significantly due to the low priority given these areas by the Bush administration. But jobs in the biggest governmental agencies are only one portion of the federal, state, and local government market for green jobs. Together, these three areas of government offer, by far, the largest source of jobs in the country (not all of them green, of course). Each major federal and state agency has its own Web site (listed in the appendix), and virtually all of them have job listings and give guidelines for pursuing employment. Many of them also offer training and internships, which can be a good way to get started.

Loss of Biodiversity “Destroying species is like tearing pages out of an unread book, written in a language humans hardly know how to read, about the place where they live.”

Of concern to many, if not all, of the above-mentioned groups is species extinction. The loss of biodiversity should concern us all. Scientists say there may be as many as fifty million species on Earth. They have classified about 1.7 million of them. Some say that species extinction due to habitat loss, pollution, and other consequences of human activity is happening at 1,000 times the natural rate, but the actual rate may be much higher. Many species go extinct before we even know they exist. Researchers discover new species all the time, but they can’t work fast enough. Expeditions to the Galapagos Islands, one of the most intensely studied places on Earth, find previously unknown species every time they go there. Just in December 2007, scientists in Kenya announced the discovery of a new species of cobra, an event that “reinforces the obvious,” said Dr. Richard Leakey, chairman of WildlifeDirect, “that there have to be many other unreported species, but hundreds are being lost as their habitats disappear under mismanagement of our planet.” Habitat loss is the main threat to 85 percent of the species on the World Conservation Union’s “Red List” of endangered species (www.iucnredlist.org). Sorry to keep harking back to that interconnectedness mentioned earlier, but there’s no way around it. Everything we do has consequences for the environment. Climate change, as we’ve noted, affects our air, water, and land. When those change, habitats change. When habitats change, it can have devastating effects on the animals that live in them. Cutting down a forest to build homes for people or to make paper packaging for products destroys habitat for untold millions of living things. Yes, trees can be replanted, but the complexity of that old-growth forest—and the diversity of the creatures in it—can never be recovered. It will be a tragic day, indeed, if the only “wild” animals left are the ones in zoological parks and nature preserves. Why should we care? There are many reasons, some of them monetary. For instance, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service estimated that in 2001 wildlife watching generated $85 billion in

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—Holmes Rolston III, University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Colorado State University

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economic benefits to the country. We should care because in many cases we still don’t understand what the loss of a particular species means to its ecosystem—or to us. We should care because we are continually finding remarkable new uses for seemingly inconsequential organisms. For example, the emerging field of phytoremediation uses plants that thrive in contaminated soils to extract and remove pollutants like cadmium and zinc. We should care because all species represent an irreplaceable reservoir of genetic material that is not only unique but potentially beneficial to humans. Penicillin from fungus, cancer-fighting drugs from the Pacific yew tree (long considered a weed), possible treatments for Parkinson’s from pit viper venom—none of these would have been possible had the species been eradicated. We’ll never know what we’ve lost with the species that are already gone, but we can do everything in our power to slow and stop the human-caused destruction of species right now and in the future. Such is worthy work for anyone seeking a green career.

Wildlife Jobs

As with many other endeavors touched upon in this volume, there is plenty of work to go around because the problems are so huge. Every sort of skill at every level of expertise can find a green niche working with wildlife. You can plant vegetation to restore wildlife habitats, like that of the gorilla in the Congo; rescue otters, birds, and other wildlife affected by oil spills; work as a veterinarian in a captive breeding program, such as the ones that rescued the California condor and the whooping crane from oblivion; track species migrations; work as a park ranger, aquarium keeper, wildlife technician, or field biologist; manage an endangered species as a species coordinator—the list is practically endless.

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Endangered Species Pick your favorite species and go to work. There are plenty to go around! The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service compiles and maintains the endangered species list, which can be found at www.fws.gov/ endangered. The World Conservation Union’s “Red List” of endangered species can be found at www.iucnredlist.org.

With the advent of the World Wide Web, there are many opportunities opening online to help save species. Dr. Richard Leakey founded WildlifeDirect.com to use the Internet, particularly blogging, to “connect and empower like-minded people,” namely conservationists who are working in often isolated, frequently dangerous circumstances, and other interested parties around the world. Its staff includes an online editor and other staff to support bloggers as well as to keep the public and donors apprised of their activities on behalf of endangered species. Even if your background isn’t in conservation ecology, you can still do many meaningful jobs related to wildlife. Wildlife in Crisis, Inc. (www.wildlifeincrisis.org), advertises for online organizers who are tech savvy, good communicators, and adept networkers to promote its campaigns, recruit new activists through such sites as MySpace and Facebook, and motivate people to take part. While a bachelor’s degree is preferred, you can get such jobs with several years’ relevant experience as a grassroots or online organizer.

Waste Management “Civilization is being poisoned by its own waste products.”

There is no doubt about it. America is a throwaway nation. There are lots of things for which leading the world is a good thing, but being first in energy consumption and waste production isn’t cause for celebration. According to the EPA, we threw away 251 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2006—an increase of 5.3 million tons since 2005—including packaging, food scraps, furniture, tires, refrigerators, carpeting, toothbrushes, computers, paper, you name it—about 4.6 pounds per person per day (over 1,600 pounds per person per year). And that 251 million tons is just 2 percent of all the waste generated in this country every year. MSW doesn’t include industrial waste (10 percent), mining and oil waste (70 percent), or agricultural waste (15 percent).

Recycling Jobs

There has certainly been progress on some fronts, but for every step forward in one area there are two steps back in another. While garbage generation increased, total recycling also increased, from 32.1 percent to 32.5 percent. Plastic bottles, especially those with

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single servings of water, have increased fivefold in the past fifteen years—to five billion per year, but we recycle fewer than 25 percent of them. One study found that recycling of all beverage containers had actually gone down in recent years. Computers, cell phones, and other electronic discards are now the fastest-growing source of waste, totaling 2.6 million tons in 2005, but only 12.5 percent of them were recycled that year. While recycling itself has more than tripled since 1980, the number of curbside recycling programs nationwide decreased from 8,875 in 2002 to 8,660 in 2006. Talking Trash You’ve surely read the startling analogies about our wasteful ways. Our country’s annual output of garbage would fill a convoy of refuse trucks long enough to wrap around our planet six times and extend halfway to the moon (that’s a total of about 264,000 miles). Here are the four largest sources of municipal solid waste in 2006: > > > >

34 percent paper and paperboard (85.2 million tons) 13 percent yard trimmings (32.4 million tons) 12.4 percent plastics (31.3 million tons) 11.6 percent food scraps (29.2 million tons)

In 1965, the federal government began to address the garbage problem with the Solid Waste Disposal Act. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) in 1976 broadened and strengthened the act, and attempted to regulate waste “from cradle to grave” by encouraging recycling and extending whistleblower protection to individuals who reported violations. Subsequent additions to the act regulated hazardous waste and protected water supplies from underground gas and oil storage tanks.

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Recycling is a no-brainer (as described in the sidebar)—and it’s full of green jobs. It’s a $238 billion industry employing over one million people who collect, sort, transport, and turn these reusable materials into new products. From carpets to clothes, bottles to bags, and paper towels to toilet paper—and even homes—you can now find them made from recycled materials. (See Chapter 10 and the appendix for more on products made from recycled materials.) Impressive new technologies have eliminated the need to handseparate glass, paper, plastic, and other items, making use of what’s

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called “single stream” collection. While consumers still have to still do some of the work, there are now machines that use magnets and spectroscopy to sort most items. San Francisco (69 percent recycling rate) provides its citizens with three bins: one for paper, glass, plastics, and metal; one for food and yard waste; and one for > “We buy a landfill and nonrecyclable materials. That wastebasket and city has also been in the forefront of the take it home in “pay as you throw” approach. It offers a $5 discount from the standard $22 monthly a plastic bag. collection fee if residents make do with Then we take the a smaller bin for the nonrecyclable items wastebasket out destined for the landfill. But only about 20 percent of America pays based on the of the bag and amount discarded, leading Fortune maga- put the bag in the zine writer Marc Gunther to observe, “No wastebasket.” wonder we are an effluent society.” What happens in San Francisco is —Lily Tomlin a model of what can, and should, occur in the rest of the country. Norcal Waste Systems (www.norcalwaste.com), which manages the area’s waste, operates out of a 200,000 square-foot, $38 million facility that employees 155 people. They process some 750 tons of trash every day, selling wastepaper, plastic, steel, tin, and other recyclable materials to global markets. By volume, waste paper to China, as Marc Gunther points out, is our country’s number-one export. Norcal also has developed innovative and remunerative ways to process waste. Food scraps and yard waste are ground up and cured for three months. The nutrient-rich result, called Four Course Compost, is then sold to California vineyards and other customers. Other waste processors have found profits in recycling. New England-based Casella Waste Systems (www.casella.com) began in the 1970s as a traditional fleet of garbage trucks, picking up trash and taking it to landfills. Casella now operates a facility in Ontario County, New York, that not only recycles but also generates power from landfill gas. The company further intends to use waste heat to grow hydroponic tomatoes and, like Norcal, produce compost to be used on golf courses and other areas. Recycling now accounts for 20 percent of the profits of Casella’s $550 millionper-year business. 175

Recycling has also entered the elite of Fortune 500 companies. Wal-Mart, Nike, Toyota, and Xerox are just some of the many businesses that have set a goal of zero waste, a form of biomimicry that would see industry produce, consume, and recycle with nothing being lost in the process. Wal-Mart now measures its vendors on nine factors related to packaging. Their goal is to reduce by 5 percent the plastic, cardboard, and other materials that wrap its products, which it estimates will save the company and its suppliers about $11 billion over five years. Benefits of Recycling There are many, many reasons to recycle. But you need to close the loop, too, and buy recycled products. That’s the only way to ensure that more companies will make products from recycled and recyclable materials. Here are just some of the benefits of recycling:

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> Conserves energy and natural resources: Recycling one ton of paper saves the energy equivalent of 185 gallons of gasoline. Recycling eighty-two million tons of MSW saves the equivalent of more than ten billion gallons of gas. Need a reason to recycle those aluminum soda cans? The mining and production of aluminum uses 2 percent of all the electricity used in the world. > Provides feedstock for key domestic industries: Wal-Mart now sells, for fifteen to twenty-five cents a pound, the plastic clothes hangers it formerly paid others to carry away. Their 3,900 U.S. stores generate about a billion hangers a year, and the Tennessee company that buys them recycles the hangers into pellets of resin that can then be turned into virtually any form of plastic. > Reduces air and water pollution: With a 99 percent recovery rate, lead-acid batteries were one of the most recovered products in 2006, keeping these dangerous toxins out of landfills and preventing them from leaching into soil and groundwater. > Reduces greenhouse gas emissions: In 2006, by recycling nearly seven million tons of mixed metals (including aluminum and steel), we eliminated nearly 6.5 million metric tons of carbon equivalent greenhouse gas emissions. That’s like taking five million cars off the road for a year. Imagine the benefits that could be achieved with even higher recycling rates.

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Hewlett-Packard and Dell are leading the way in the recycling of computers and other e-waste. While neither yet makes a direct profit from these programs, the indirect benefit derives from enhanced reputation and customer satisfaction. As part of their recycling efforts, both companies have redesigned their computers to make them more suitable for recycling. This accepting of responsibility by manufacturers to make products that are easily recycled is an established concept among European manufacturers and catching on in the United States. (See Chapter 10 for information about the EPEAT certification program.) Recycling companies need every level of worker, from drivers and mechanics to transfer-station attendants, accountants, landfill managers, and information services personnel. They also need to fill more specialized positions, such as environmental compliance coordinators and recycling facility auditors and managers. Recycling coordinators, called “the front lines of the recycling battle” by a policy associate at the National Recycling Coalition (www.nrcrecycle.org), have the potential to influence the recycling program for an entire city or region. Working for a government, private firm, or nonprofit, these recycling evangelists need a familiarity with national regulations, local ordinances, contract management, as well as the thinking-onyour-feet ability to handle any of the myriad issues that inevitably arise. You might be called upon to draft policies and legislation, too. Most employers will want to see a bachelor’s degree, although not necessarily in an environmental field. More important would be communication skills, tact, and other good people skills, along with project management experience. Other up-and-coming recycling-related jobs for innovative types will involve working for those progressive companies that are looking for new uses for recycled materials, such as insulation from recycled blue jeans or paper, or turning old tires into cushioning for sporting fields. Unfortunately, the Jobs Through Recycling Program started by the EPA in 1999 ceased operation in 2004. JTR was started to foster recycling market development through grants. Its Web site still exists, however, and has information on the state recycling initiatives that were funded by the grants (www.epa.gov/jtr). The National Recycling Coalition is a good reference point for finding those businesses most committed to recycling. The Web site of

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Recycle America has a job section related to the 100 recycling plants it operates in the United States and Canada (www.recycle america.com). The Web site of Recycling Today magazine (www .recyclingtoday.com) has industry news, events, and lots of ads and information about companies in this industry.

Integrated Solid Waste Management “We live in an environment whose principal product is garbage.” —Russell Baker

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In your grandparents’ day, waste management meant loading up the back of the station wagon with broken furniture, outgrown toys, and old newspapers and driving them to the local dump, or burning trash in a backyard heap. In this country, today’s approach to garbage couldn’t be more different. Populations continue to grow, landfills fill up, and the space available for them diminishes. While it seems as though we’re on the verge of being engulfed by our own garbage, there are encouraging signs that sensible heads will prevail. Managing waste is big business—by some accounts, a $50 billion industry in this country—and every state, city, town, or crossroads community needs it. Environmental visionaries see the next industrial revolution as a sustainable one. The best way to get rid of waste is to not generate it in the first place, as well as find the best way to reduce, reuse, and recycle each material thrown away, through practices called integrated solid waste management (ISWM). ISWM encompasses waste prevention, recycling, composting, and disposal, and it considers how to do all of them while protecting human health and the environment. Such a program looks at the needs of the local community and combines the most appropriate waste management combination for that place. These activities require people to develop a plan that works for a particular community, including strategies for “source reduction,” ways to keep waste from being generated in the first place; finance, construct, and operate facilities, such as landfills, recycling plants, composting sites, or incinerators; coordinate the collection and transporting of the waste; and then recycle, compost, combust, or otherwise dispose of it properly. This trend is creating green jobs. You’ve heard the expression, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”? ISWM is a great example of that old axiom.

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Tightening environmental regulations and other factors have consolidated waste management into several huge firms, like employee-owned Norcal in San Francisco; Waste Management (www.wm.com), which operates 413 collection operations, 370 transfer stations, 283 active landfills, 17 waste-to-energy plants, 131 recycling plants, 95 landfill gas projects, and 6 power production plants; and Allied Waste (www.disposal.com), which in 2007 operates 300 collection companies, 164 transfer stations, 169 active landfills, and 53 recycling facilities in thirty-seven states and Puerto Rico. Other countries are developing ISWM programs, too. Brazil created a nonprofit to increase public awareness of recycling and other solid waste issues through publications, outreach efforts, and training (www.cempre.org.br). It isn’t hard to visualize the snowballing, positive effect that the increased greening of waste management could have on the country. As with many of the other challenges described in this book, garbage isn’t going to go away. There will always be opportunities for workers to collect the waste and manage the various facilities, but experts see the future of ISWM in more specialized fields, such as designing landfills and incinerators, designing and manufacturing sophisticated waste processing equipment, or consulting with communities to help them with their wastemanagement programs. There are degree programs in integrated waste management that include courses in sanitary landfill design, recycling, hazardous waste, composting, waste-to-energy incineration, and regulatory issues, but such a degree is not a prerequisite for much of the work in ISWM. For example, WERC is a consortium including New Mexico State University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and others that focuses on environmental training. Courses include the legal aspects of environmental and natural resource management, risk assessment, and the transportation of hazardous materials (www.werc.net). If your background is in civil, electrical, mechanical, or environmental engineering, chemistry, toxicology, hydrology, or earth sciences, marketing, or finance, the list of green opportunities is only limited by your imagination. The EPA’s WasteWise program (www.epa.gov/wastewise) is a free, voluntary effort that seeks to help businesses and communities design waste-reduction programs and provides technical assistance

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and information for setting up and maintaining such programs. It sponsors an annual conference, and the program proceedings from that conference would be one good place for you to find potential employers with active waste-reduction efforts. Waste Age magazine has a job site on its Web site (www.wasteage.com). The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) has an online job site and also offers certification in seven areas of waste management and multiple training opportunities (www.swana.org).

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Chapter 10: Green Goods and Services > “The future is . . . telling us very loudly that we will have to change the way we live in this country.” —James Kunstler, The Long Emergency

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t sounds like an oxymoron: Buy stuff and save the planet. Rampant consumerism is certainly one cause of the global situation in which we find ourselves today. Our demand for more, bigger, better, faster, and cheaper goods, without concern for the ramifications, has caused us to consume ever-increasing amounts of energy and generate ever-larger mountains of waste. Lower prices on everything from clothing to dishwashers to electronics have caused a purchasing explosion over the past two decades. We buy nearly twice as many clothes per capita as we did in 1991, and more than double the furniture than in 2000. The manufacture, transport, use, and disposal of all those goods affect our environment. In the face of depleted resources, climate change, species extinction, and population growth, the global stakes are too high to continue with consumerism as usual. Yet telling Americans to stop shopping is as productive as yelling Don’t open that door! at the screen to a hapless teenager in a horror movie. They’re going to do it anyway. And we all need food to eat, a roof over our heads, and clothes to wear. (Whether each of us needs more than one car, several televisions, and three homes is another matter.) The question is, can we have these things without wrecking the environment or living like ascetics? Some people say we can, albeit with profound adjustments toward the green end of the spectrum. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, each of this country’s nearly 119,000,000 households spent more than $21,000—

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about $2.5 billion—on food, transportation, apparel, services, and “other” in 2006. All of those categories have green alternatives. Even shifting a fraction of that spending toward eco-friendly choices would result in a meaningful increase in green products and, consequently, green jobs.

It’s Hip to Be Green “Consumers have embraced living green.” —Alex Williams, New York Times

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According to one presentation at Co-op America’s 2007 Green Business Conference in San Francisco, 50 percent of women want mass retailers to carry more green goods; 43 percent of Americans think they will be “extremely green” in five years; and three-quarters of consumers think their purchases have a significant impact on society. Business owners are taking note of this new green driving force made up of LOHAS adherents (lifestyles of health and sustainability) because it’s hard to ignore the millions of dollars they pump into the economy every year. Green and sustainable are today’s advertising catchwords. Every sort of product and service carries those labels now. You don’t have to look far to find furniture and flooring made from reclaimed wood or environmentally managed forests; dinnerware and countertops made from recycled glass; clothes and fabrics made of organic and sustainably grown materials; eco-friendly cleaning products and pesticides; energy-saving appliances, electronics, and light bulbs; fuel-efficient vehicles; environmentally friendly vacation tours; organic and locally grown foods; even fine jewelry made from recycled gold. You’ll see all of these and more in catalogs, magazines, Web sites, television ads, and newspapers. Visit Home Depot’s Eco Options Web site (www.homedepot.com/ecooptions) and you can search for 2,500 green products while monitoring the calculators that tally the energy and water saved and carbon dioxide emissions kept out of the atmosphere with every product sold. Wal-Mart’s Web site contains green products in six categories, from baby products to appliances to bed linens, and tracks purchases of eco-friendly products through its Live Better Index. Many activists criticize the very idea that buying stuff, however eco-friendly, is the solution to the problem. At best, they say, these practices are “light green.” Advertisers who put the fate of the planet into the hands of consumers are, first and foremost,

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aiming to sell products. Called a “false promise” by Paul Hawken, “eco-narcissism” by the editor of OnEarth, “green posturing” and “woefully insufficient” by Alex Steffen, and the “Cosmo-tizing” of the movement by the founder of the environmental blog Grist. org, the concept of buying green, they say, may give the public the impression that there is a quick and painless solution to what is already shaping up to be a catastrophic problem. You don’t have to change your lifestyle; just work at a recycled plas> “Sentiment without action tic computer monitor, sip an organically grown latte, is the ruin of the soul.” and everything’s fine. It’s —Edward Abbey not that easy. As Alex Williams writes in the New York Times ( July 1, 2007), “It’s not enough to build a vacation home of recycled lumber; the real way to reduce one’s carbon footprint is to only own one home.” As gloom-and-doom as these messages sound, however, all of these activists offer the same words of hope: If enough people act together for change, change will come. If enough corporations— including the worst offenders—change their ways, they can keep tons of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere, toxins out of our soil and water, and significantly reduce the quantity of garbage in the waste stream, and save resources. One study found that about thirty-five million Americans regularly purchase products that make claims to being Earth friendly. (Let’s assume for the sake of argument that those products really are Earth friendly.) Multiply that number by two or five, and we might be on to something. Steffen and others call this—the act of many people leveraging their purchasing power—“strategic consumption.” We can’t buy our way out of our environmental woes, as some would have us think, but we can help address smarter—greener— choices when we make those purchases that all of us inevitably make. If you buy green, buy local. Demand that stores stock green, organic, and sustainable products, and hold businesses accountable for establishing and living by green policies. When you encourage your family, coworkers, and friends to make similar choices, you help create the demand for green products and policies. Money talks, and consumers hold the purse strings. If that $2.5 billion spent annually on goods and services goes to green 183

alternatives, then that creates demand. So, as contradictory as it sounds, conscientious, green, “strategic” consumption can be one component of the solution. And someone will have to dream up, design, build, market, and distribute the green product alternatives that don’t yet exist. That someone could be you. Green Electronics The Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) aims to be for electronics what LEED is to building standards and Energy Star is to appliances. Launched in 2006 by the Green Electronics Council in Portland, Oregon, and adopted at the annual International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment, this voluntary standard was created by a group of manufacturers, environmentalists, and purchasers, and is funded by the EPA. It includes bronze, silver, and gold categories judged on fifty-one criteria. At least 95 percent of electronics purchases for federal agencies must now be EPEAT registered products, and states like California are including EPEAT language in their requests for proposals (www.greenelectronicscouncil.org).

The sorts of jobs that design, manufacture, market, and sell green products are not much different from those for non-green products. The difference is in the mindset, values, and desire to render sustainable all of the goods and services that Americans want and show little sign of living without. The jobs in some of these market sectors below are just a small sampling of what is out there. Use the green-screening mechanisms and other resources throughout this volume for some specific companies and general sites that will help you target your job search. Here are a few more:

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Bay Area Green Business Program certifies businesses in the nine Bay Area counties that are operating in an environmentally friendly way. This and other local organizations that list green businesses in your area are good places to look for green employers (www.greenbiz.com).

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Co-op America’s National Green Pages bills itself as the “nation’s only directory of screened and approved green businesses.” Available in print and online, it lists nearly 3,000 businesses in dozens of categories and provides

a valuable resource for job hunters looking for green employers (www.greenpages.org). Co-op America’s Green Business Conference brings together leaders in the green business world and owners of businesses who are either already operating in environmentally friendly ways or looking to start doing so, or do better. The conference would be an excellent resource for any job seeker researching eco-friendly companies (www.coopamerica.org).

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EPIC: The Sustainable Living Expo, Vancouver, British Columbia, is geared to the general public and designed to be of interest to people who already consider themselves environmentally savvy, as well as those looking for information and knowledge to make more informed choices (www.epicvancouver.com).

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LOHAS has a database of companies on its Web site geared to reaching consumers who live lifestyles of health and sustainability. These companies would be good starting points for green job seekers (www.lohas.com).

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Made-By, a Netherlands-based company, puts an identifying blue tag on clothes made by its affiliates. Type in the code number on the tag and you can trace the trail of the clothes to find out where they were made and by whom (www.made-by.nl).

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Redefining Progress Organization is devoted to shifting public policy to achieve a sustainable economy, a healthy environment, and a just society. Take the online quiz and see what your ecological footprint is. You may find out that if everyone lived like you, we’d need five planets! (www.redefiningprogress.org)

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Sustainable Travel International, Boulder, Colorado, has an eco-directory on its Web site. Geared to helping travelers plan their trips, it’s also a wealth of information about the businesses that provide green travel services worldwide (www.sustainabletravelinternational.org).

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Responsible Shopper, another Co-op America site, focuses on giving the prospective shopper, or employee, factual information about the social and environmental policies of over 100 of the largest companies in the United States (www.responsibleshopper.org). 185

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Green Goods and Sustainable Businesses “Don’t just be the change, mass-produce it.” —Alex Steffen

Anyone looking for a green job would do well to investigate opportunities at companies that have been publicly recognized for their sustainable practices and environmental friendliness. SustainableBusiness.com annually selects its SB20, the top twenty innovative, publicly traded companies that it considers sustainability leaders. These companies offer products and services as varied as athletic wear and wind turbines, electronic equipment and organic foods, but they share a common goal: leading the way toward an environmentally sustainable society. The following list comprises the businesses selected in 2007, along with some representative jobs that companies such as these post on their Web sites:

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Best Water Technology, Vienna, Austria (www.bwt-group .com): BWT is a worldwide water conditioning and purification products company with 2,200 employees in eighteen countries. Its U.S. office is in New Britain, Connecticut (www.bwtusa.com). Canon, Lake Success, New York (www.canon.com): Canon has a number of environmental initiatives, including a global recycling program for ink cartridges, creating products that are increasingly friendly to the environment, and taking action to reduce energy use, conserve resources, and eliminate hazardous substances in the procurement of raw materials, parts, and commercially available products. Canon Development Americas (CDA) in Irvine, California, performs research and creates software solutions for Canon products. CDA posts job openings on its Web site (www. cda.canon.com). Comverge, New Jersey, Georgia, California, Pennsylvania (www.comverge.com): This company has over 500 U.S. utility clients and 4.5 million devices installed. Its “smart megawatts” technology is used across the nation, and its “pay-for-performance” programs reduce emissions and increase reliability, among other benefits. One type of job found at alternative energy companies like Comverge is that of marketing manager. In this position, you’d work on energy efficiency and conservation marketing programs directed at electric utility customers. Skills required include good writing to simplify research into pithy, on-target planning briefs,

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provocative thinking, and translating ideas into actionable marketing plans. You’d conduct demographic research using MapInfo marketing databases, assess marketing activities, and optimize marketing effectiveness. Employers look for a strong knowledge of Microsoft Access and charting software like Microsoft Excel, and experience in creating graphical presentations in Excel and PowerPoint. They’ll want you to have a bachelor’s degree in marketing or communications, with five years of relevant experience or an equivalent combination of education or experience. Experience with clean energy initiatives, real-time pricing, and demand management preferred. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Denver, Colorado (www.chipotle .com): This chain’s philosophy is “food with integrity.” The company feels that it can always do better in terms of the food it buys—better tasting, coming from better sources, better for the environment, better for the animals, and better for the farmers who raise the animals and grow the produce. Hallmarks of this philosophy include unprocessed, seasonal, family-farmed, sustainable, nutritious, naturally raised, added-hormone-free, organic, and artisanal foods. If your background and interests are in the liberal arts, don’t overlook restaurants as sources of green employment. Besides the food preparation and other jobs you’d expect in a restaurant, Chipotle advertises for a culture, diversity, and language program specialist. This person works with managers and crew to enable cross-cultural understanding and respect; plans, organizes, and conducts English language training and Spanish classes; prepares related reports that demonstrate the value of the classes to Chipotle; conducts meetings, including new employee orientation; and provides an understanding of the culture and diversity of the organization that fosters a positive attitude among employees and toward customers. You’d need a four-year bachelor’s degree or equivalent education and experience, as well as fluency in English and Spanish. First Solar, Inc., Phoenix, Arizona (www.firstsolar.com): See Chapter 5 for jobs in the solar power industry. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Waterbury, Vermont (www.greenmountaincoffee.com): Green Mountain integrates its values and business operations, allocating 5 percent of pre-tax earnings to social and environmental causes. You can download its report on social responsibility policy and practices from its Web site.

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Companies like this hire human resources directors who plan, direct, and supervise all activities relating to the administration and maintenance of employee benefit programs, making sure practices and policies are in full compliance with applicable laws and regulations. You’d also develop a long-range benefits strategy and vision, manage vendors and relationships with consultants, attorneys, and brokers; develop communication and education programs to keep employees aware of programs; promote proactive solutions in HR administration; and maintain and expand knowledge of existing and proposed laws (both federal and state) and regulations affecting management of payroll, benefits, and other HR areas. This job requires a bachelor’s degree in finance, human resources, or a related field, plus five years’ experience. CBP, CCP, or SPHR certification preferred. Good verbal, interpersonal, analytical, teambuilding, and administrative skills are a must. Groupe Danone, Paris, France (www.danone.com): In America, the Dannon Company, Inc., sells and produces fresh dairy products and bottled water. Groupe Danone’s sustainability principles and policies can be found on its Web site in such documents as “Fundamental Social Principles,” “Charter for the Environment,” “Food Nutrition and Health Charter,” and “Groupe Danone Groundwater Resources Protection Policy.” Such companies need sales managers to strengthen relationships with the company’s retail trade partners, work with the field-based senior category managers to facilitate sharing of best practices across the business units; work with corporate sales management, business unit directors, and field category managers to identify opportunities to pursue, set priorities, and establish a process for achieving these objectives; prepare presentations; lead corporate analyses; and manage vendor relationships. Applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree in business administration or related field, with a master’s desirable; and have four to six years’ category management experience with consumer product goods; experience presenting to retail customers and at sales meetings; two years’ staff management experience; strategic skills; flexibility, and experience in various sales software, like Apollo/ProSpace and Spectra. Herman Miller, Zeeland, Michigan (www.hermanmiller.com): Herman Miller designs office furniture and environments for homes and businesses. One of its core values is contributing to a better world in the form of environmental advocacy, volunteering,

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and contributing to nonprofit groups, in other words, “acting as a good corporate citizen.” It started its formal environmental programs and environmental quality action teams in the late 1980s. Dealers who carry Herman Miller furniture advertise for interior designers to create design concepts, drawings, specifications, and floor plans to customers’ furniture-systems needs. For some senior positions, you’ll need at least four years of commercial design experience. Familiarity with the product line and other major lines is preferred. You must be organized, detail-oriented, comfortable working in a team environment with minimum supervision, and able to handle multiple responsibilities with conflicting priorities. Excellent time management, communication, and computer skills, including experience using AutoCAD, are required. You’ll also need a two-year or bachelor’s degree in interior design or the equivalent experience. If you’re just deciding on a career, check out www.interiordesignschools.org for a comprehensive list of the schools offering interior design degrees, organized by state. Interface, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia (www.interfaceinc.com): Interface produces sustainable carpeting and flooring and has seventeen manufacturing locations on four continents. This company’s system of industrial production decreases its costs and “dramatically reduces the burdens placed upon living systems.” Land Securities, London, England (www.landsecurities.com): This company owns and manages commercial properties and provide property services to more than 2,500 private and public sector clients. This type of company hires asset managers who work as part of a team that may comprise an asset manager, estate manager(s), building surveyor, technical service manager, and service charge manager, to provide comprehensive, professional property and asset management to a portfolio of properties. Your role would include providing a strategic overview for the operation and management of the buildings, understanding and managing the profit and loss for each building, as well as providing a responsive, proactive service to tenants and internal management teams and working with agents, consultants, suppliers, and contractors. This London-based job requires that you be a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS). NIKE, Inc., Beaverton, Oregon (www.nike.com): Over 30,000 people all over the world work for this sportswear and

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equipment company. Nike plans to sustainably produce all of its clothing and equipment by 2020. You can read about their sustainable design principles and other aspects of their corporate responsibility at www.nikeresponsibility.com. Clothing companies like Nike advertise for senior footwear designers to create innovative designs for footwear products and create a line from concept to reality. You’d develop seasonal creative strategies and clearly position the company’s performance and design leadership in order to ensure that creative strategies and products inspire key consumers and lead the business forward. You’d also communicate creative strategies, product concepts, and consumer insights to internal and external audiences; finalize tech packages and proactively follow the execution of all product details, including construction, color, form, style, detail, fit performance, and cost/value requirements; and review all samples and clearly communicate the changes required. You would also serve as a consumer expert for internal design teams and apply insights from a consumer perspective into all product designs and strategies. You’d also ensure product fit and performance criteria, manufacturability, cost/margins, merchandising, aesthetic finish, and meeting product creation timelines for key financial and statement models. Employers want to see a bachelor’s degree in industrial design or product design, several years’ footwear design experience, proficiency in Macintosh design software applications, good presentation skills, and knowledge and experience in manufacturing processes, rapid prototyping, and 3D model-making processes. See www.universities.com for lists of schools offering bachelor’s degrees in industrial design. Novozymes, Copenhagen, Denmark (www.novozymes.com): See Chapter 5 for jobs in the biofuel industry. Ormat Technologies, Reno, Nevada (www.ormat.com): See Chapter 5 for jobs in the geothermal industry. Precious Woods, Geneva, Switzerland (www.preciouswoods. com): The business model of this company is based on economic, social, and ecological sustainability. It demonstrates that the sustainable use of tropical forests, combined with timber processing operations, provides ecological and social benefits. In Brazil, low-impact forestry practices strictly adhering to the criteria of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) ensure the long-term preservation of potentially endangered existing forests.

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In Central America, the reforestation of degraded and abandoned pastureland leads to the reestablishment of forest ecosystems. These activities also offer opportunities for employment in economically disadvantaged regions, giving local populations an incentive to conserve forests rather than destroy them. Companies like this hire commercial sales managers, seasoned professional salespeople with a sincere commitment and passion for environmental issues and products. What makes these sales jobs different from those at non-green companies is that you must represent the company’s commitment to environmental issues in word and deed; stay abreast of new developments in the green building marketplace; read, attend workshops, and network with green organizations and other green companies. Besides excellent people and communication skills, you must be a high-energy selfstarter, able to work well in stressful situations as well as work as a member of a team. Employers like to see a bachelor’s degree and some sales training, with several years of commercial sales management experience, with LEED training a plus. Renewable Energy Corp., Oslo, Norway (www.recgroup. com): See Chapter 5 for jobs in the solar industry. Royal Philips Electronics (worldwide; www.philips.com): Philips produces a wide range of consumer, business, and medical electronics, lighting, and other products. Philips Design includes several hundred people in twelve locations worldwide, from Amsterdam to Seattle to Taipei, with expertise across a wide range of products, including automobiles, fashion, lighting, medical, retail, and consumer electronics. If your interests include research, medicine, and interacting with people, companies like Philips hire researchers for their health-care product lines. You’d use research methodologies that go beyond ordinary consumer needs, product-preference insights, and end-users to include other stakeholders, such as doctors, nurses, patients, and administrators. These professionals design, plan, and conduct research projects, including ethnographic observation, workbook assignments, workflow studies, workplace visits, home visits, and interviews. They study people in different contexts to derive insights to support business or design processes; analyze research data; translate insights and recontextualize them into communication tools, such as workflow reports, to support product design. You’d work closely

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with international experts in relevant fields of expertise. Employers look for a master’s degree in sociology, social anthropology, ethnography, or consumer research, and five to ten years’ relevant, practical experience in researching people and users, some medical or health-care research experience, and an affinity for trends and cultural research. Schmack Biogas, Germany (www.schmack-biogas.com): See Chapter 5 for jobs in this industry. Vestas, Copenhagen, Denmark (www.vestas.com): See Chapter 5 for jobs in the wind power industry. Whole Foods Market, Austin, Texas (www.wholefoodsmarket .com): The mission of this food store is to offer the highest quality, least-processed, most flavorful and naturally preserved foods: “We believe companies, like individuals, must assume their share of responsibility as tenants of the Earth.” Whole Foods has many stores across the country, with openings on their bakery, seafood, produce, meat, and grocery retail teams. These jobs include setting and maintaining attractive displays, keeping cases and shelves clean and well stocked, properly maintaining all equipment, and ensuring a positive company image by providing courteous, friendly, and efficient customer service to customers and team members. Employers want to see people who can work well in teams, have a passion for natural foods, have good communication skills, and possess some customer service experience. Often these jobs require that you be able to lift a minimum weight. Google, Inc., Mountain View, CA (www.google.com): See Chapter 5 for information about Google’s renewable energy initiatives. Google.org is the Web site for this company’s philanthropic endeavors. One surprising job opening here is for an animal health expert. You need to be a dynamic individual with significant practical experience, in addition to a research background, to work within a fast-paced organization for global public health efforts, taking a holistic view toward human, animal, and environmental health with a focus on emerging infectious diseases. The animal health expert provides primary content expertise to the team and plays a key role in determining team investments and grants, and in shaping programs and projects. For this job you’d need an advanced degree (DVM preferred), at least ten years of animal health experience; preferably including at least five years’ experience

in animal health (veterinarian) with experience in epidemiology, surveillance systems (detection, validation, early warning), wildlife health, and/or livestock production systems. Sound knowledge of international protocols and national implementation strategies are an asset. Excellent judgment, flexibility, and a passion to bring the strengths of the company to the convergence of human, animal, and environmental health are a must. Also required is a deep understanding of developing world context, with residential work experience in developing countries of five or more years strongly preferred.

How Do You Know a Product Is Really Green?

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As noted in Chapter 2, with no standardized definitions, green and sustainable can mean whatever you want them to mean. In 2007, one study found varying definitions of sustainability among the 1,600 American consumers > “You can’t shop your surveyed. Only those who already way to sustainability.” pegged themselves as green consumers identified the term as —Alex Steffen, Executive related to the environment. This Director, Worldchanging.com should prompt green businesses to clarify for the public the environmental impact of their products. It also, as mentioned earlier, should caution you, the job seeker, to research the green claims of any business you plan to work for. One way to check a company’s green credentials is to look for certification by independent organizations. Also, consider the big picture. That organically grown, fair-trade box of raspberries may have been flown to your town from halfway around the world on a gigantic greenhouse-gas-spewing plane. A hybrid Lexus SUV gets fewer miles per gallon than many models of conventional gas-powered cars. Is the $4.5 million, 10,000 square-foot luxury home recently built in Colorado and touted as “environmentally friendly” really green? What should you do in the summer: Buy carbon offsets for your overseas vacation, plan your trip through an eco-friendly travel agency, or take your vacation in your local community? There are no simple answers. Make no mistake; even without agreement on the definitions of green or sustainable, more and more consumers are basing their 193

purchasing decisions on the green hue of a product or service— and the business behind it. One index of this change is the increase in membership in Co-op America, a nonprofit whose mission is to “harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.” Between 2006 and 2007, its membership grew from 70,000 to 100,000. The businesses listed in the group’s National Green Pages (www.greenpages.org) increased from 2,500 to 3,500. In order to be included, these businesses must pass rigorous screening to determine their commitment to social and environmental responsibility and the significant action they take in terms of that commitment. These large and small companies, from A Happy Planet (an outlet for organic fiber home furnishings) to Z Works Design/Build (a sustainable buildings design and construction firm) encompass virtually every sort of product and service and constitute good prospects for leads in your search for green jobs. Their green credentials have been established, most are growing due to the rapidly accelerating greening of the marketplace, and many are hiring.

Green Designers and Marketers

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While product design and marketing have been around since humans started making and selling stuff, designing and marketing sustainably produced, environmentally friendly products is a much newer field. Big businesses with lots of buying power, like WalMart, Target, and Home Depot, are pressing suppliers for greener products to fill consumer demand. And someone has to design all of those new green chairs, clothes, lamps, computers, cars, carpets, and myriad other things we need and want. Design and business schools are rapidly adding courses and degree programs to train workers in these disciplines. If drawing, design, and 3D modeling are your forte, this might just be the green opportunity for you. Product and industrial design programs are adding courses like “Principles of Sustainable Design,” to teach students how to use life-cycle assessments and other tools to determine and reduce a product’s environmental impact from creation to disposal. Green marketers help clients develop concepts for new products with less environmental impact and strategies for reaching green consumers.

Look for the Green Label

> Carbon Zero Project certifies businesses that are taking a proactive stance toward reducing their carbon emissions (http:// carbonproject.org). > CCOF, California Certified Organic Farmers, certifies organic foods and businesses in the state (www.ccof.org). > EcoLogo Program certifies a wide variety of consumer products (www.ecologo.org). > EnergyStar and Design for the Environment (DfE) are the EPA’s labels on energy-efficient appliances and other products (www.energystar.gov). > EPEAT is the Green Electronics Council’s certification for electronics (www.greenelectronicscouncil.org). > FTF, the Fair Trade Federation, certifies a wide range of products from businesses committed to fair trade (www.fairtrade federation.org). > Forest Stewardship Council-US certifies sustainably logged paper and wood products (www.fscus.org). > Green-e Certification is for renewable energy (www.green-e.org). > GREENGUARD, Greenguard Environmental Institute, certifies indoor air quality in buildings (www.greenguard.org). > Greenpeace lists fourteen lumber and wood certification programs on its Web site, and sells the Guide to Greener Electronics (2007), which ranks electronics companies based on their take-back policies (www.greenpeace.org). > Greenseal certifies cleaners, paints, and other products (www .greenseal.org). > LEED certification identifies new and retrofitted green buildings (www.usgbc.org). > MOFGA Certification Services, LLC, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners provides certification of organic growers (www.mofga.org). > MOSA Certification, Midwest Organic Services Association, Inc., certifies other organic service providers (www.mosa organic.org). > National Green Pages, Co-op America, certifies the environmental friendliness of the businesses listed (www.greenpages.org).

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Many organizations now certify the environmental friendliness of products and services, as well as the greenness of buildings and businesses. There are organizations that certify organic foods and farms in virtually every state and country. A few are listed here. Look for these and other logos as you search for green employment:

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Look for the Green Label—continued > National Organic Program provides the USDA’s organic food standards (www.ams.usda.gov). > OCIA Certification, Organic Crop Improvement Association, provides certification to certain organic growers (www.ocia.org). > OCTO Certification, Oregon (Tilth) certifies organic growers and operations (www.tilth.org). > PCO, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, is a state organic certification (www.paorganic.org). > SCS, Scientific Certification Systems, certifies a broad range of consumer products (www.sccertified.com).

J. Ottman Consulting, Inc., is one firm that specializes in green marketing and teaches workshops on green design and marketing. Ottman is the creator of the Design:Green initiative, sponsored by the EPA and endorsed by IDSA, which shows businesses the way to greener products, new business models, and green marketing strategies that are sustainable, innovative, and profitable (www.green marketing.com). Training in green product design and marketing is available from many institutions, including The Rhode Island School of Design (www.risd.edu) and the Center for Sustainable Design of the Stuart Graduate School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago (www.clfm.iit.edu), to name but two.

Green Food and Drink

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According to some estimates, almost two-thirds of Americans bought some organic foods and beverages in 2005, despite higher prices. Over the past decade, annual U.S. sales of organic foods and beverages have grown more than 15 percent per year and now represent 3 percent of food sales in this country. Wal-Mart describes this category as one of the fastest growing of all the food it sells. Global sales of organic food products amount to $36 billion. Governments are supporting this trend. In 2007, Illinois passed major legislation (the Illinois Food, Farm and Jobs Act of 2007) to encourage the production, processing, and distribution of local and organic food. The bill fosters increased access to fresh produce in “food deserts,” areas without supermarkets, in order to revitalize rural and urban communities by creating a broad range of new jobs. Advocates encourage other states to replicate this bill.

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Agroecology.org (for all things agroecology)

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Alternative Farming Systems Information Center (a very informative Web site by the USDA; afsic.nal.usda.gov)

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Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Systems, University of California-Santa Cruz (www.casfs.ucsc.edu)

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Center for Ecological Living and Learning, Evergreen State College, Washington (www.evergreen.edu)

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Clemson University, South Carolina (training available in organic farming systems; www.clemson.edu)

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College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (www.aces.uluc.edu)

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Emerson College, East Sussex, England, offers courses in biodynamic organic agriculture (www.biodynamics.org.uk)

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Heifer International (the world hunger organization based in Little Rock, Arkansas, with agroecology information on its Web site; www.heifer.org)

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International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM, the worldwide umbrella organization for the organic movement, uniting more than 750 member organizations in 108 countries; www.ifoam.org)

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Buying locally grown and produced foods can be just as important—if not more so—than eating organic. Anuradha Mittal of the Oakland Institute points out in Building the Green Economy (2007) that if each person in California spent another $85 annually to buy food produced within the state, it would put $1.38 billion into the state’s economy and create nearly 6,000 new jobs. This burgeoning green sector can be a fruitful place to look for green jobs. If you’re looking to get into this growing field, “agroecology” is the word to look for. The term, coined in the 1970s, refers to the science of applying ecological concepts and principles to the design, development, and management of sustainable farming. For job listings in sustainable living and farming, look at www.back doorjobs.com. There are many, many colleges, universities, and other organizations around the world offering information, training, certificates, and degrees in agroecology. Just a few are listed here:

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The New Farm (Rodale Institute’s online training program helps farmers switch to organic—includes classifieds and job openings; www.newfarm.org)

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Organic Consumers Association, Finland, Michigan (Web site includes a large database of organic and green purveyors of products and services worldwide, a good place to search for green employers; www.organicconsumers.org)

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Organic-Europe (Web site provides a wealth of information, including “Organic e-prints,” an international, openaccess archive for papers relating to research in organic agriculture; www.organic-europe.net)

Organic Farm Certification Specialist

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If you want to work in the organic food or agroecology area but don’t want to do the actual farming, this job might be for you. These specialists review and process farmer and/or producer client applications and file for compliance with the USDA National Organic Standards Program and other international programs. They ensure that the certification quality system is implemented, among other tasks. You need to have a knowledge of organic production practices and farming systems and have the ability to work independently and on a team with other professionals. Also required are customer service skills and the ability to manage data. Previous organic inspection experience is preferred; however, applicants with suitable qualifications and aptitude can be trained. You’ll need one or more years’ education, training, or work experience in sustainable or conventional agriculture or food processing, with a working knowledge of organic and conventional farming systems. Bilingual in English and Spanish is strongly desired. Employers look for a two-year, undergraduate, or graduate degree in agriculture, natural resources, environmental science, food science, or a related field. Other relevant experience includes postharvest handling and environmental assessment. Many of these jobs are part-time. The Independent Organic Inspectors Association in Broadus, Montana, trains certification specialists and provides networking opportunities and information on its Web site (www.ioia.net). Organizations that post these jobs include the California Certified Organic Farmers in Santa Cruz (www.ccof. org) and other certifying agencies (listed on page 195).

Green Globetrotting “If tourism were a country, it would have the second largest economy, surpassed only by the United States.” —“Fact Sheet: Global Ecotourism,” The International Ecotourism Society

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Coral reefs are suffering damage or destruction because of tourism in 90 of the 109 countries where they occur.

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Cruise ships in the Caribbean produce over 70,000 tons of waste annually.

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An average eighteen-hole golf course uses 525,000 gallons of water every day.

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According to the Bluewater Network, the number of people taking vacations at sea has increased by 47 percent in the last five years (www.bluewaternetwork.org).

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In 1950, there were twenty-five million tourist arrivals worldwide; by 2020, that number is expected to be 1.56 billion.

That’s a lot of feet treading on fragile ecosystems, many tons of carbon emissions, and a staggering amount of waste generated. How can we visit the planet’s most beautiful and culturally important places without destroying them in the process? The answer, some might say, is to stay home. Another answer is to take fewer, longer trips. Yet another answer includes some terms that didn’t exist a couple decades ago: ecotourism, geo-tourism, pro-poor

Green G o ods a nd S erv i ces

According to The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), travel and tourism make up the biggest business sector in the world economy, responsible for over 230 million jobs and over 10 percent of worldwide GDP. In this country, travel and tourism totaled about $6.5 trillion in 2006; worldwide tourism is expected to be a $13.2 trillion industry by 2017. In four out of five countries, tourism is one of the top five “export” earners, and the leading export for one-third of the poorest countries. Over the last decade, tourism has been the only large sector of international trade in services where poor countries have consistently posted a surplus—one of the few economic sectors that may be able to guide some developing countries to higher prosperity. All of that bodes well for job prospects. Now consider these facts:

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tourism, responsible tourism, and sustainable tourism. All of them spell new green job opportunities for you.

Green Tourism

Ecotourism has grown 20 to 34 percent per year since the 1990s, and in 2004 it was growing three times faster than the tourism industry as a whole. By about 2010, sustainable tourism could be a $475.6 billion per year market. Eco-resorts and hotels and nature tourism are growing at a rate of 20 percent per year. Surveys find the following:

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42 percent of German tourists think environmentally friendly accommodation is particularly important.

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70 percent of U.S. and Australian tourists would pay up to $150 more for a two-week stay in a hotel with a “responsible environmental attitude.”

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90 percent of British tourists consider it part of a hotel’s responsibility to actively protect the environment and support local communities.

Green travelers are opting for green hotels that reduce electricity expenses by using a key-card system that prohibits guests from leaving the lights and television on when they leave the room; installing low-flow showers and toilets; using solar panels and low-emission paints and carpets, and reducing heating and cooling costs with energy efficient windows. And most now encourage guests to reuse linens and towels rather than have them changed and washed every day. One Napa Valley hotel includes kiosks with touch screens guests can access to track how much water and electricity the hotel uses. From Nepal to the Philippines, Sweden to Australia, as more and more travelers decide to minimize their impact on the regions they visit, sustainable, green tourism will offer steady job growth. As you might expect, there are many online resources to help you in your search for a green job in the travel industry. Some are listed here: Ecoclub.com members have access to information on worldwide vacancies (jobs, internships, and consultancies) in the fields of

Carbon Offsets Airlines, hotels, and many other companies now offer carbon offsets to travelers. The programs let buyers choose from among several carbon-negating activities, such as planting trees in the rain forest or expanding wind farms. The carbon calculator for air travel determines the average quantity of greenhouse gases emitted per passenger. For a short domestic flight (1,430 miles), approximately 0.64 metric tons are discharged. On long-distance international flight (6,900 miles), approximately 2.75 metric tons are discharged. It costs about $15.25 to offset each metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent. There are many carbon offset programs, including TerraPass (www.terrapass.com), Carbonfund.org, the Carbon Zero Project (http://carbonproject.org), and Sustainable Travel International (www.my-climate.org).

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ecotourism, responsible tourism, sustainable tourism, community tourism, adventure travel, wildlife conservation, park management, environmental management, and international development, with over 250 vacancies open at any time, many of which not found anywhere else. Global Exchange, San Francisco, California, offers Reality Tours, which provide North Americans a true understanding of a country’s internal dynamics through socially responsible travel (www.globalexchange.org). HCareers.com is an online employment resource for people seeking jobs in the hospitality industry. Not specifically geared to green businesses, you would be well advised to research the “greenness” of potential employers through other search engines and then look here for job openings (www.hcareers.com). Lonely Planet’s book Code Green lists nearly 100 eco-friendly trips. You can find tips for green travel on its Web site, also a resource for locating green businesses in this industry (www.lonely planet.com). Planeta.com provides resources for travelers and locals who share a vision of eco-friendly, people-friendly, place-friendly travel. The Web site includes a job link (www.planeta.com). Responsibletravel.com has a large online directory of ecofriendly tours and operators, a good way to locate green businesses in the travel and tourism industry (www.responsibletravel.com).

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Travel Counselor

If you love people and travel, and you’d like to introduce others to the world through ecotourism, you could thrive as a travel counselor or agent for a green travel agency. Employers want to see outgoing, self-motivated individuals with good telephone sales, customer service, organizational, and communication skills, who enjoy helping people make their plans for socially conscious travel. You’d need at least two years’ experience in sales or customer service. Employers look for applicants with a passion for global social and/or environmental issues and an understanding of the public’s need for socially conscious travel education. Good computer skills, including research and word processing, are a must. The people who hold these jobs have all types of backgrounds and educational training, including languages, education, sociology, multidisciplinary social science, environmental studies, social work, law, international affairs, psychology, and business. The American Society of Travel Agents is the world’s largest association of travel professionals. It offers training and publications, news and legislative updates, and a job board on its Web site (www.asta.org). (Note that the employers are not necessarily green ones.) You can find links to agencies providing ecotours and other green travel services through Co-op America’s Travel-Links (www.coopamerica.org).

Green Jobs Are Red Hot “We may not need any more cathedrals, but we do need cathedral thinkers, people who can think beyond their own lifetimes.” —Charles Handy

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There is a huge revolution underway in the job market; that much is clear. “We’re beyond the fad point,” says Jack Geibig, director of the Center for Clean Products at the University of Tennessee. A 2007 survey by MonsterTRAK found that 80 percent of the college graduates surveyed were interested in finding a job that has a positive impact on the earth, and 92 percent would choose to work for an environmentally friendly company. The workforce of tomorrow is an increasingly green one, and companies that want to attract the best and the brightest are going to have to prove their eco-friendliness with deeds and not just words. Other surveys have shown that employees at firms with defined corporate responsibility programs (CRP) are more content with management and stay at their company longer. Obviously, good CR means good PR and good HR, too.

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And it isn’t always easy for employers to fill these new jobs that are being created—they require a special combination of talents and interests that aren’t that common yet. Today, you can’t just be a lawyer > “The greening or a marketer or a product designer; you need to be a lawyer, marketer, of business isn’t a or product designer conversant in bubble . . . there’s no environmental issues, green building, turning back.” product certification, and a host of other sustainability topics. Job seek—Joel Makower ers who combine these qualities are going to win the positions over their more conventionally trained peers. No one is naïve enough (hopefully) to believe that buying fluorescent light bulbs or driving a hybrid car in and of itself is enough to combat the grave threats that face our planet today. But they are steps, and many such steps are ones that virtually anyone can do. Multiply those small, incremental steps by thousands—or millions—and they become the foundation of a much larger movement. In a speech to the Co-op America Business Conference in 2005, John Abrams noted, “In just the first 4,000 days after the World Wide Web was born, the people of the world built some half a trillion Web pages readily available to the public. . . . If we can do that, we can do anything. . . . So, the question . . . is, if we can do anything, what will we do?” You have more power than you think you do. There’s a Chinese proverb that goes something like this: “Man stands for a long time with mouth open before roast duck flies in.” You can wait for the perfect solution to come and find you, or you can be proactive and help to find a solution. Yes, choose sustainable, green products and services when you have a choice, but also work to make sure that those choices exist, hold companies accountable for their green claims, and actively help to transform manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, cities, and how we power our daily activities. Don’t just buy green stuff; live green and work green, too. Be the builder who constructs green homes; the industrial designer who creates energy-efficient, closed-loop, recyclable products; the investment banker who pours money into socially just and environmentally friendly enterprises; and the innovator finds answers to questions we have yet to form. Strive to live what some call a “oneplanet lifestyle,” because, like it or not, we’re all in this together. 203

Bibliography Abrams, John, “The Company We Keep: Reinventing Small Business for People, Community, and Place,” Presentation at Co-op America Green Business Conference, 2005. “Aegean Region Is Becoming Turkey’s Geothermal Center,” Turkish Daily News, February 6, 2006. Anderson, Ray C., Mid-Course Correction: Toward A Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model. (Atlanta: Peregrinzilla Press, 1998.) Inspired by Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce, this is the story of Anderson’s commitment to transform his petrochemical-based carpet company into a fully sustainable enterprise. Ausenda, Fabio, ed., Green Volunteers: The World Guide to Voluntary Work in Nature Conservation, 5th ed. (New York: Universe Publishing, 2005.) This is a directory of worldwide opportunities for conservation volunteer work. Baetke, James, “Green-Collar Jobs Are Mushrooming,” Erie TimesNews, November 11, 2007. Baker, David R., “Energy Efficiency Back in Spotlight: Record High Fuel Prices Force U.S. to Revisit Politically Touchy Issue,” San Francisco Chronicle (October 6, 2005). Belli, Brita, “Welcome to Green-Collar America,” E/The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Berry, Thomas, The Great Work: Our Way Into The Future. (New York: Bell Tower, 1999.) Thomas sees our society emerging into a new geologic era, which he calls the Ecozoic. Bezdek, Roger, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency: Economic Drivers for the 21st Century, American Solar Energy Society, 2007. Bezdek is the principal investigator for Management Information Services, Inc. Biggs, Shannon, “Harnessing the Wind,” Earth Island Journal, Autumn 2007. Boldt, Laurence G., Zen and the Art of Making a Living. New York: Compass, 1999. Boschert, Sherry, Plug-In Hybrids: The Cars That Will Recharge America. (Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2006.) Bowman, Lee, “Wind Power Industry Soars to New Heights,” Scripps Howard News Service, October 2, 2007. Brand, Stewart, The Clock of the Long Now. (New York: Basic Books, 204 1999.)

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Brockman, Kacia and Clark Brockman, “Pushing the Limits of Green Building,” Solar Today, November/December 2007. Brown, Lester. Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2001.) Chang, Richard S., “L.A. Auto Show: Is Volkswagen Dreaming Green?” New York Times, November 14, 2007. Community Jobs In The Green Economy. (Apollo Alliance/Urban Habitat, 2007.) This excellent report focuses on green jobs in renewable energy, alternative cars and fuels, and high-performance buildings and infrastructure. Copies may be obtained by e-mailing [email protected]. Coniff, Richard, “Who’s Fueling Whom?” Smithsonian Magazine, November 2007. Daily, Gretchen and Katherine Ellison. The New Economy of Nature: The Quest to Make Conservation Profitable. (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2002.) This is one of a growing number of books stressing the compatibility of conservation and profitability. Danaher, Kevin, Sharon Biggs, and Jason Mark, Building the Green Economy: Success Stories From the Grass Roots. (Sausalito, CA: Polipoint Press, 2007.) Davidson, Paul, “Getting Gold Out of Green,” USAToday, April 18, 2007. De Leña, Dixon, in Dawson Church, ed., “Authentic Power,” in Einstein’s Business: Engaging Soul, Imagination and Excellence in the Workplace. (Fulton, CA: Elite Books, 2007.) DelVecchio, Rick, “Big Lawrence Berkeley Lab Biofuel Project Boosts Bay Area Research Status,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 27, 2007. Dictionary of Sustainable Management. Developed by the Presidio School of Management (www.sustainabilitydictionary.com). Dirksen, Kirsten, “Rise of the Green Collar Worker (I).” Fair Companies Sustainable News, August 23, 2007 (www.faircompanies.com). This and the sequel cited below are two of the best summaries of the current green jobs revolution. ___________, “Green Collar (II): Where Jobs Are.” Fair Companies Sustainable News, September 7, 2007. Douglas, Willam O. A Wilderness Bill of Rights. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1965.) Doyle, Alison. The About.com Guide to Job Searching: Tools and Tactics to Help You Get the Job You Want. (Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2006.) Drake, Alan, “Stop Ignoring Rail, America,” EV World, July 10, 2007. Durning, Alan Thein, Green-Collar Jobs: Working in the New Northwest. Northwest Environment Watch, 1999. This is a brief treatment of the transition to some greener economies of five former timber towns in the Northwest. “Eco-Friendly Product Claims Often Misleading,” Morning Edition, National Public Radio, December 1, 2007. 205

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Ehrlich, Paul R. The Population Bomb. (New York: Ballantine Books, 1968.) English, Michael, “A Brighter Future in Brownfields,” Baltimore Sun, January 25, 2004. Environmental Careers Organization. The Complete Guide to Environmental Careers in the 21st Century. (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1999.) ___________. The Eco Guide to Careers That Make a Difference. (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2004.) Environmental Protection Agency, “Draft Report on the Environment,” 2003 (www.epa.gov). ___________, “Solid Waste Management: A Local Challenge with Global Impacts,” 2002. Evans, Dave, Cool Green Stuff. (New York: Clarkson Potter Publishers, 2007.) Esty, Daniel C. and Andrew S. Winston. Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.) Fasulo, Mike, and Jane Kinney. Careers For Environmental Types & Others Who Respect the Earth, 2d. ed. (Chicago: VGM Career Books, 2002.) Fleischmann, Daniel, “An Assessment of Geothermal Resource Development Needs in the Western United States,” Geothermal Energy Association Report prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy, January 2007. Fried, Rona, “Sustainable Business Leaders of 2007,” Solar Today, November/December 2007. Friedman, David and Marshall Goldberg, Creating Jobs, Saving Energy, and Protecting the Environment: An Analysis of the Potential Benefits of Investing in Efficient Cars and Trucks, Union of Concerned Scientists, (2007; www.ucsusa.org). “Fuels for the Future,” Co-op America Quarterly, Summer 2007. Gangi, Jennifer, “Fuel Cell Industry: Careers for the Non-Technical Jobseeker,” Fuel Cells 2000 (2004; www.fuelcells.org). Garrett, Jerry, “Showing Off the Power of Going Green,” New York Times, September 16, 2007. Goodall, Jane, Reason For Hope: A Spiritual Journey. (New York: Warner Books, 1999.) This is an expression of hope for the ecological future by one of the giants of the movement. Gore, Al, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emerging of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It. (New York: Rodale Press, 2006.) This is the companion volume to the documentary that has probably had more impact on the environmental movement of any item since Silent Spring. “Green Jobs Seek Entry-Level Workers,” Morning Edition, National Public Radio, December 17, 2007. 2 0 6 “Greening Transportation Policy,” Co-op America Quarterly, Fall 2004.

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Gunther, Marc, “The Green Machine,” Fortune, July 31, 2006. Hastings, Michael, “The Gas Misers,” Newsweek, September 6, 2004. Hawken, Paul. The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability. (New York: Harper, 1993.) This is one of the first calls for sustainability by a titan of American business. Hawken, Paul, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution. (Boston, New York, and London: Little, Brown, 1999.) This is a major catalyst for the current green revolution. Hawken, Paul, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. (New York: Viking Penguin, 2007.) This is a detailing of the current green movement. Henderson, Hazel, and Simran Sethi, Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy. (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2007.) This is a companion piece to the public television program of the same name. Henderson, Michael, Finding True North: Discover Your Values, Enrich Your Life. (HarperBusiness, 2004.) Hine, Thomas, I Want That! (New York: Harper Perennial, 2003.) Honan, Michael, “Silicon Valley Cleans Up,” Wired, September 24, 2007. “Hybrid Sales Boosted by Midwest Boom,” MSNBC.com, September 17, 2007. Inslee, Jay and Bracken Hendricks. Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy. (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2007.) This volume points out the tremendous green job potential of wind, solar, and other forms of alternative energy. Kang, Alice H. and Roderick B. Diaz, “Bus Rapid Transit: An Integrated and Flexible Package of Service” (www.apta.com). Karlenzig, Warren, “Top U.S. Cities for Cleantech Incubation Clusters” (www.sustainlane.us). Kammen, Daniel M., Kamal Kapadia, and Matthias Fripp, “Putting Renewable to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate?” University of California at Berkeley, 2004 (corrected in 2006.) This is a very bullish report on the future of green energy jobs. Kasser, Tim, The High Price of Materialism. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.) Kenworthy, Tom, “Where Bein’ Green Pays Off,” USAToday blogs, October 3, 2007. Kerry, John, and Teresa Heinz Kerry. This Movement on Earth: Today’s New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future. (New York: Public Affairs Press, 2007.) Knauer, Kelly, ed., “Global Warming,” Time special issue, 2007. Kolbert, Elizabeth, “Running on Fumes: Does the ‘Car of the Future’ Have a Future?,” New Yorker, November 5, 2007. Kopytoff, Verne, “Google to Spend Hundreds of Millions on Developing Renewable Energy,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 28, 2007. 207

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Krauss, Clifford, “Ethanol’s Boom Stalling As Glut Depresses Price,” New York Times, September 30, 2007. Kunstler, James, The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century. (New York: Grove Press, 2006.) Lashinsky, Adam, “The Jolly Green Bubble,” Fortune, April 11, 2007. Llewellyn, A. Bronwyn, and Robin Holt, The Everything® Career Tests Book. (Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2007.) Lowry, Jessica, “Drought, Wildfire, and Climate Connections: Research in the Forests of the Western U.S.,” Intermountain West Climate Summary, September 2007. Lubowski, Ruben N., Marlow Vesterby, Shawn Buchotz, Alba Baez, and Michael J. Roberts, “Major Land Uses in the United States, 2002,” Economic Information Bulletin EIB-14, May 2006 (www.ers.usda.gov). McDermon, Daniel, “L.A Auto Show: How Green Is My Valley?” New York Times, November 14, 2007. McDonough, William, and Michael Braungart. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. (New York: North Point Press, 2002.) McDonough is one of the leaders of the green building movement. McGinn, Daniel, “The Power of the Sun,” Newsweek, October 1, 2007. McKibben, Bill, “Carbon’s New Math,” National Geographic, October 2007. ___________, The Comforting Whirlwind: God, Job, and the Scale of Creation. (Cambridge, MA: Cowley, 2005.) ___________, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. (New York: Time Books, 2007.) McKie, Robin, “U.K. Leads a Wave Power Revolution,” The Observer, March 21, 2004. Makower, Joel, “EPEAT: The New Green Computing Standard,” Worldchanging.com, May 21, 2006. Montana, Cate, “The Greening of Corporate America: Savvy PR or Earth’s Salvation?” Global Intelligencer, January 2007. Naughton, Keith, “Going the Extra Mileage,” Newsweek, December 5, 2005. ___________, “The Shape of Things to Come,” Newsweek, January 16, 2006. Nelder, Chris, “A New Day Dawns for Solar,” Energy and Capital, March 16, 2007 (www.energyandcapital.com). Netzley, Patricia D., Environmental Literature. (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1999.) Odell, Anne Moore, “Consumers Demand Companies Walk Their Green Talk,” November 20, 2007 (www.socialfunds.com). ___________, “Working for the Earth: Green Companies and Green Jobs Attract Employees,” October 9, 2007 (www.socialfunds.com). Orr, David, Ecological Literary: Education and the Transition to a PostModern World. (New York, SUNY Press, 1992.) 208

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Partnership for Public Service, “Where the Jobs Are: Mission Critical Opportunities for America,” 2007 (www.ourpublicservice.org). ___________, Design On The Edge: The Making of a High-Performance Building. (Boston: MIT Press, 2006.) This is the story of the coming into being of the Adam Joseph Lewis Center at Oberlin College, the first major green building to be constructed on a U.S. college campus. Peck, Steven, et al. Greenbacks From Green Roofs: Forging A New Industry in Canada, 1999. (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.) This is a brief treatment of the multiple economic potentials of green roofs. Pernick, Ron and Clint Wilder, The Clean Tech Revolution: The Next Big Growth and Investment Opportunity. (New York: Harper Collins, 2007.) The title says it all. Phillips, Greg, Soul Search Before You Job Search: Bridging the Gap Between Purpose and Practicality. (Studio City, CA: Clariscope Press, 2006.) Pollin, Robert, and Heidi Garrett-Peltier, “How to Create More Jobs,” Foreign Policy in Focus, October 12, 2007 (www.fpl.org). Preston, Richard, “A Death in the Forest: Can the Trees of the Great Smoky Mountains Be Saved?” The New Yorker, December 10, 2007. “Public Transportation Ridership Continues to Climb in 2007,” Transit News, American Public Transportation Association, October 4, 2007. “Public Transportation Use Substantially Reduces Greenhouse Gases, According to New Study,” Transit News, American Public Transportation Association, September 26, 2007. Puentes, Robert, “The Role of Transit in Sustaining an Economically Competitive Region,” The Brookings Institution, February 9, 2004 (www.brookings.edu). Ramstack, Tom, “U.S. Warms to Earth’s ‘Untapped Potential,’” Washington Times, October 22, 2007. “Researchers Find ‘Egg-cellent’ Way to Power Cars,” Newsweek, October 2, 2007. Rich, Sarah, “What Assures Consumers on Climate Change?” Worldchanging.com, June 24, 2007. Robertson, Ross, “A Brighter Shade of Green,” What Is Enlightenment, October-December 2007. Roddick, Anita, Business as Usual. (London: The Bath Press, 2000.) This is the story of the CEO of a leading green business, The Body Shop. Romm, Joseph J., The Hype About Hydrogen: Fact and Fiction in the Race to Save the Climate. (New York: Island Press, 2005.) Royte, Elizabeth, Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash. (Boston: Back Bay Books, 2006.) Science Applications International Corporation, Public Transportation’s Contribution to U.S. Greenhouse Gas Reduction, 2007. Shaheen, Susan A., Ph.D., and Adam P. Cohen, J., “Worldwide Carsharing Growth: An International Comparison,” 2006 (www.carsharing .net). 209

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Shaheen, Susan A., Ph.D., Adam P. Cohen, and J. Darius Roberts, “Carsharing in North America: Market Growth, Current Developments and Future Potential,” November 15, 2005 (www.carsharing.net). Shellenberger, Michael and Ted Nordhaus, “The Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming Politics in a Post-Environmental World,” www.thebreakthrough.org. Shiva, Vandana, Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace. (Cambridge, MA; South End Press, 2005.) Simons, Craig, “The High Road,” Newsweek, September 6, 2004. Slater, Grant, “Texas Start-up Says It Has Batteries Beat,” USA Today, September 4, 2007. Stecher, Nicolas, “‘Blimp’ Your Ride with Hydrogen,” Wired, September 19, 2006. Steffen, Alex, “Buying into the Green Movement,” Worldchanging.com, July 1, 2007. ___________, “Privatizing Responsibility: The Times on Green Consumerism,” Worldchanging.com, July 1, 2007. ___________, Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2006.) Sterling, Bruce, “The Manifesto of January 3, 2000” (2000; www.Viridian Design.org). Stone, Michael K. and Zenobia Barlow, eds., Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World. (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 2005.) This anthology of impressive essays is related to the educational aspects of the environmental movement. Szczurek, Theresa M., Ph.D., Pursuit of Passionate Purpose. (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005.) “Taming Traffic in London,” Environmental Defense (2007; www.environmentaldefense.org). “Tech Firms Tap into the ‘Green’ Movement,” July 3, 2007 (www.silicon valley.com). Trask, Crissy, It’s Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2006.) Udall, Stewart L., The Quiet Crisis. (New York, Chicago, and San Francisco: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963.) Union of Concerned Scientists, “Creating Jobs, Saving Energy, and Protecting the Environment,” 2007 Update (www.ucsusa.org). U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “Why Save Endangered Species?” July 2005. Walker, Cameron, “Charged for Change,” Alaska Airlines Magazine, November 2007. Weiler, Nicholas W., Your Soul at Work: Five Steps to a More Fulfilling Career and Life. (Mahwah, NJ: HiddenSpring, 2001.) Williams, Alex, “Buying into the Green Movement,” New York Times, July 1, 2007. 210

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Wingfield, Brian, “For Job Market, Going Green Means Growth,” July 3, 2007 (www.forbes.com). Woodruff, Tracey J., et al, “Public Health Implications of 1990 Air Toxics Concentrations across the United States,” Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 106, No. 5 (May 1998). World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Business Realities and Opportunities, August 2007 (www .wbcsd.org). Vaitheeswaran, Vijay V. and Iain Carson. Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future. (New York: Twelve Books, 2007.) Wackerman, Mathis, and W.E. Rees, Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on Earth. (British Columbia: New Society Publishers, 1996.) “Wind Power Today,” U.S. Department of Energy, May 2007. Wynn, Gerard, “Clean Technology Bigger Than Internet: Software Guru,” Reuters, May 15, 2007. Young, Eric, “Businesses Struggle to Hire for Green Jobs,” San Francisco Business Times, July 6, 2007. Zakaria, Fareed, “A Way Out of Our Oil Addiction: Energy’s Future: Amory Lovins Tells How We Can Leave the Age of Gas Pumps Profitably and Painlessly,” Newsweek, August 6, 2007.

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Appendix Listed below are some online guides to green jobs, divided into three sections: general job-hunting sites; sites related to green jobs generally; and sites focused on a specific area (such as green energy, green building, etc.). General Job Hunting

These sites are abundant and we have listed only a sampling. Use their search engines by entering appropriate areas of interest, such as green building, or wind or solar energy, to target your job hunt. www.careerbuilder.com www.hotjobs.yahoo.com www.indeed.com www.jobs.aol.com

www.jobmonkey.com www.monster.com www.simplyhired.com

See also: Alison Doyle, The About.com Guide to Job Searching: Tools and Tactics to Help You Get The Job You Want (Avon, Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2006), and A. Bronwyn Llewellyn and Robin Holt, The Everything® Career Tests Book (Avon, Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2007). General Guides to Green Jobs

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www.blueegg.com: A media company devoted to sustainable living. www.bsr.org: Business for Social Responsibility has a job site. www.coopamerica.org: Co-op America’s National Green Pages constitute a bible of resources on green companies, any one of which is a potential green employer. www.ecoemploy.com: A well organized and comprehensive site, it offers tips on resume writing. It is one of the top two or three out there. www.ecojobs.com: A subscription service that lists jobs, degree programs, and internships. www.envirolink.org: A nonprofit online clearinghouse that “links” worldwide environmental organizations, it was started in 1991 by a college freshman and is run principally by volunteers. Both Time and Newsweek tout it as one of the best listings of environmental organizations available on the Web. www.environmentalcareer.com: The Environmental Career Center was founded in 1980 and began its Web site in 1995. It is very comprehensive, one of the best out there. www.environmentaljobs.com: Jobs in renewable energy, advocacy and policy, environmental engineering, and much more. 212

Chapter 4: What Green Means for Education and Training

www.beyondgreypinstripes.org: Beyond Grey Pinstripes www.endowmentinstitute.org/sustainability: College Sustainability Report Card

Appendi x

www.envjobs.com: An alliance of three recruiting organizations representing the South, Midwest, and Mountain West. www.enviroyellowpages.com: Difficult site to use, it seems to have a rather loose interpretation of what constitutes environmentalism. Some of the companies listed seem to fit in the greenwashing category. www.epa.gov/enviroed.com: An EPA site that lists resources for fellowships, grants, management studies, and educator training. www.environmentaljobs.com: An international database of green jobs. www.greenengineeringjobs.com: Covers engineering jobs relative to all sectors of the green world: energy, transportation, building, etc. www.greenindustryjobs.com: Part of the “Big Time Jobs” network operated by Inventive Marketing, LLC. www.greenbusiness.net: Founded in 2003, it is a listserve that you join for $12 per year. www.greenbiz.com: An online newsletter that has an excellent green jobs link. See also the 2005 “Good Green Jobs: A No-Nonsense Guide to Environmental Jobs and Careers.” www.greenbiz.ca.gov: The Bay Area Green Business Program is a partnership of environmental agencies, professional associations, waste management agencies, utilities, and a concerned public in the San Francisco Bay area that recognizes and assists businesses operating in an environmentally friendly manner. Its listing of green businesses is one place to look for potential employers in the region. www.monstertrak.monster.com/greencareers: MonsterTrak is an excellent Web site with advice on job hunting and resume writing, as well as up-to-date links to news in the various green industries. www.newscientistjobs.com: An international site, one of the categories focuses on green jobs. www.onepercentfortheplanet.org: An alliance of green-conscious businesses that donate at least 1 percent of their annual sales to environmental causes. Any of them would be prospective green employers. www.sustainablebusiness.com: This Web site lists “dream green jobs,” and they also publish an annual list of the twenty top sustainable stocks. www.sustainableindustries.com: An online newsletter for “green business leaders,” it lists green jobs. www.treehugger.com: Green job board link on this Web site. www.wiserearth.org: This outgrowth of Paul Hawken’s 2007 book, Blessed Unrest, is a very comprehensive listing of NGOs committed to environmental causes. It offers listings of green jobs. www.wiserbusiness.org: Another Hawken site, it listed 200 jobs as of October 2007.

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www.aashe.org: Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education www.sonoma.edu: Sonoma State University www.dominican.edu/greenmba: Dominican University of California www.antiochne.edu: Antioch University New England www.presidioMBA.org: Presidio School of Management www.the-bac.edu/green: Boston Architectural College www.worldwidelearn.com: World Wide Learn, “The world’s premier online directory of education” www.oberlin.edu/envs: Oberlin College www.warren-wilson.edu: Warren Wilson College www.tufts.edu: Tufts University www.cmu.edu: Carnegie Mellon University www.berea.edu: Berea College www.duke.edu: Duke University www.middlebury.edu: Middlebury College www.psu.edu: Penn State University www.gsb.stanford.edu: Graduate School of Business, Stanford University www.bus.umich.edu: Ross School of Business, University of Michigan www.americanprogress.org: Center for American Progress, Harvard Kennedy School of Business www.bgiedu.org: Bainbridge Island Graduate Institute Chapter 5: Green Energy

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www.abet.org: Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology www.aceee.org: American Council for Energy Efficient Economy www.acumentrics.com: Acumentrics, Westwood, Massachusetts www.aeecenter.org: Association of Energy Engineers www.aerotek.com: Aerotek, Burbank, California www.ag1source.com: Ethanol production-related jobs www.airtricity.com: Airtricity, Inc., U.S. Headquarters in Chicago, Illinois www.alternitywindpower.com: Alternity Wind Power www.amyrisbiotech.com: Amyris Biotechnologies, Emeryville, California www.apexsolarinc.com: Apex Solar, Sacramento, California www.ars.usda.gov: Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s scientific research agency www.asee.org: American Society for Engineering Education www.ases.org: American Solar Energy Society www.asfuels.com: Agri-Source Fuels, Dade County, Florida www.ashrae.org: American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and AirConditioning Engineers www.asme.org: American Society of Mechanical Engineers www.awea.org: American Wind Energy Association has a job board. www.awg.org: Association for Women Geoscientists www.ballard.com: Ballard Power Systems, Burnaby, BC 2 1 4 www.bera1.org: Biomass Energy Research Association, Washington, D.C.

Appendi x

www.biodieselmagazine.com: Biodiesel Magazine www.biodieselnow.com: Biodiesel Now www.biodiesel.org: National Biodiesel Board, Jefferson City, Missouri www.bioenergycenter.org: U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Science Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee www.bioenergywiki.net: Bioenergy Wiki www.boeing.com: Boeing, Chicago, Illinois www.bp.com: BP Alternative Energy North America, Inc. www.calpine.com: Calpine, San Jose, California www.ceto.com: CETO wave power site, SeaPower Pacific Pty Ltd., West Perth, Australia www.csisolar.com: Canadian Solar, Inc. www.clipperwind.com: Clipper Windpower, Headquarters, Carpinteria, California; Manufacturing, Cedar Rapids, Iowa www.consumerenergycenter.org/erprebate/database/index.html: Database of renewable energy retailers in California www.cope.gatech.edu: Center for Organic Photonics, Georgia Institute of Technology www.cted.wa.gov/site/526/default.aspx: This is an excellent, comprehensive directory produced by the State of Washington Energy Policy Division listing Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient Companies in that state. www.cwsenergy.com: Chesapeake Wind and Solar www.dlr.de/en: German Aerospace Center www.doe.gov: The U.S. Department of Energy www.dow.com: Dow Chemical, Midland, Michigan http://ec.europa.eu: Ocean Energy, European Commission www.ebw-expo.com: Energy from Biomass and Waste Expo www.e85fuel.com: National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition www1.eere.energy.gov/windlandhydro: Department of Energy’s Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program http://eecs.oregonstate.edu/wesrf: Wallace Energy Systems & Renewables Facility, Oregon State University www1.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/gpw: Department of Energy’s GeoPowering the West Program www.eesi.org: Environmental and Energy Study Institute, Washington, D.C. www.eia.doe.gov: Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy www.energosolar.com: EnergoSolar, Geneva, Switzerland www.energy.ca.gov/development/oceanenergy: Ocean Energy, California Energy Commission www.energy.wsu.edu: Washington State University’s Energy Program www.energyocean.com: Web site with information on upcoming ocean energy conferences 215

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www.energyplanet.info/ocean_energy: EnergyPlanet has links to marine energy information www.environmental-expert.com: Covers many areas, including energy and renewables. www.epia.org: European Photovoltaic Industries Association, the world’s largest industry association devoted to the solar electricity market, promotes PVs at the national, European, and worldwide levels. www.epri.com: Electric Power Research Institute www.esolar.com: eSolar, Pasadena, California www.ethanol.org: American Coalition for Ethanol www.ethanolrfa.org: Renewable Fuels Association http://ec/europa.eu: Ocean Energy Systems, European Commission www.ewea.org: European Wind Energy Association www.findsolar.com: On FindSolar you can search by company name or city to find solar products and services and the companies providing them. www.firstsolar.com: First Solar, Phoenix, Arizona www.forasenergy.com: EnXco, part of EDF Energie Nouvelle, a Parisbased firm (www.edf-en.com), operates wind farms in California and the Midwest www.fplgroup.com: FPL Group, Inc., Miami, Florida www.freeflow69.com: FreeFlow69, Cornwall, U.K. www.frontierassoc.net: Austin, Texas consulting firm specializing in energy efficiency www.fsec.ucf.edu: Solar Energy Center, University of Central Florida www.fuelcells.org: Fuel Cells 2000 provides links to companies and job sites in the fuel cell industry. www.fuelcellsmarket.com: Extensive job listings related to the fuel cell industry www.fuelcelltoday.com: Fuel Cell Today, a London-based online daily news service about the fuel cell industry; it also lists jobs www.ge.com: General Electric, Fairfield Connecticut www.geo-energy.org: Geothermal Energy Association www.geoexchange.org: Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium www.geology.com: A resource for all things geology, including jobs www.globalbioenergy.org: Global Bioenergy Partnership www.globalsmartenergy.com and www.smartgridnews.com: Global Smart Energy, including the Smart Grid Newsletter www.globalsources.com: Lists over a thousand worldwide manufacturers of solar panels, window films, and other components related to solar technology www.greenengineeringjobs.com: A broad-based site but includes a lot of green energy related jobs www.greenfuelonline.com: GreenFuel Technologies Corp, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2 1 6 www.greenjobs.com: Focuses on renewable energy jobs, worldwide

Appendi x

www.greenlineenergy.com: Greenline Energy, San Marcos, California www.greenraysolar.com: GreenRay, Inc., Westford, Massachusetts www.gridwise.org: GridWise Alliance www.grosolar.com: groSolar, White River Junction, Vermont http://gspp.berkeley.edu: Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California-Berkeley www.gwec.net: Global Wind Energy Council www.heliovolt.net: Heliovolt, Austin, Texas www.iadc.org: International Association of Drilling Contractors www.ibew.org: International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers www.independentpowersystems.net: Independent Power Systems, Boulder, Colorado, and Bozeman, Montana www.isp-central.com: Institute for Sustainable Power provides standards for renewable energy and energy efficiency workers with five levels of certification, and the training for same. www.juwi.de: Juwi International, Mainz, Germany www.konarka.com: Konarka, Lowell, Massachusetts www.k-state.edu: Kansas State University www.ls9.com: LS9, Inc., San Carlos, California www.luxresearchinc.com: Lux Research, Inc., an independent research and advisory firm providing strategic advice and ongoing intelligence for emerging technologies www.mascoma.com: Mascoma Corporation, Cambridge, Massachusetts www.magenn.com: Magenn Power, Inc. www.makani.com: Makani Power, Alameda, California www.maxwell.com: Maxwell Technologies, San Diego, California www.miasole.com: Miasolé, Santa Clara, California www.mortenson.com: Mortenson Construction, Minneapolis, Minnesota www.mtimicrofuelcells.com: MTI Micro, Albany, New York www.nabcep.org: North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners http://www7.nationalacademies.org/cwsem: Committee on Women in Science and Engineering www.nationalwind.org: National Wind Coordinating Committee www.ncga.com: National Corn Growers Association, Washington, D.C. www.nfcrc.uci.edu: National Fuel Cell Research Center, University of California-Irvine www.nesea.org: Northeast Sustainable Energy Association www.ndenergy.com: NanoDynamics Energy, Inc., Buffalo, New York www.noaa.gov: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration www.nrel.gov: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado www.nabcep.org: North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners www.oceanenergycoucil.com: Ocean Energy Council 217

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www.oceanpowertechnologies: Ocean Power Technologies, Inc., Pennington, New Jersey www.oit.edu: Oregon Institute of Technology www.orbitekinc.com: Orbitek, Inc., Tulsa, Oklahoma eecs.oregonstate.edu/wesrf: Wallace Energy Systems and Renewables Facility, Oregon State University http://osu.okstate.edu: Oklahoma State University www.pelamiswave.com: Pelamis Wave Power Ltd., Scotland www.plugpower.com: Plug Power, Inc, Sidney, Ohio and Gallatin, Tennessee www.pnl.gov: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory www.powertomorrow.com: Cromwell Environmental, Kansas City, Missouri www.pvexpo.jp: Web site for the first International Photovoltaic Power Generation Expo in Tokyo www.rand.org: Rand Corporation www.recsolar.com: REC Solar, San Luis Obispo, California www.renewableenergy.com: Daily Access newsletter covers all renewable energy technologies and maintains an active job listing. www.renewable-energy-world.com: Renewable Energy World has upto-date information as well as e-newsletters and job listings from around the world. www.sandia.gov: Sandia National Laboratories http://sio.ucsd.edu: Scripps Institution of Oceanography www.solarbuzz.com: Weekly newsletter with worldwide coverage www.solarelectricpower.org: Solar Electric Power Association www.solartoday.org: Solar Today magazine www.solar2008.org: Web site for the ASES Solar 2008 conference in San Diego, California www.solarworksca.com: Solar Works, Sonoma County, California www.stanford.edu: Precourt Institute on Energy Efficiency, Stanford University www.sunlightandpower.com: Sun Light & Power Company, Berkeley, California www.sunpowercorp.com: SunPower Corporation, San Jose, California www.sustainablebiodieselalliance.org: Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance www.thinkenergygroup.com: Think Energy Group has battery industryrelated jobs www.ucsusa.org: Union of Concerned Scientists www.unitedsoybean.org: United Soybean Board www.unr.edu: University of Nevada-Reno www.usfcc.com: U.S. Fuel Cell Council www.ussec.us: United States Sustainable Energy Corp. www.utoledo.edu/as/cmse: University of Toledo’s Center for Materials Science and Engineering conducts research on photovoltaics and other renewable energy technologies 218

www.verenium.com: Verenium, Cambridge, Massachusetts www.vt.edu: Virginia Tech www.wavebob.com: Wavebob Ltd., County Kildare, Ireland www.wavedragon.net: Wave Dragon, Copenhagen, Denmark www.wave.oregonstate.edu: O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory at Oregon State University www.wheatworld.org: National Association of Wheat Growers, Washington, D.C. www.windpower.org: Danish Wind Energy Association www.windturbinetechnicians.com: Wind Turbine Technician Staffing www.wsu.edu: Washington State University www.wwindea.org: World Wind Energy Association www.youtube.com/group/oceanenergy: See videos of marine energy installations at work www.amtrak.com: Amtrak www.anl.gov: Argonne National Laboratory, DuPage County, Illinois www.apta.com: American Public Transit Association www.attstraining.com: Automotive Technician Training Center, Mahopac, New York www.avianation.com: Avianation Web site with many jobs in the worldwide aviation industry www.bls.gov: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics www.boeing.com: Boeing Company, Chicago, Illinois www.brookings.edu: Brookings Institution www.business.com: Web site has links to mass transit construction companies www.calcars.org: California Cars Initiative, a nonprofit based in Palo Alto that is working to promote 100+ miles per gallon hybrid electric vehicles www.cantrak.com: Cantrak, rail construction firm in Canada www.carsharing.net: Nonprofit site with information and links to global carsharing market www.challengex.org: Challenge-X Competition: the Eco-CAR Challenge Web site www.chevy.com/electriccar: Chevrolet’s Web site links to this section on its plug-in concept car, the Volt. www.chrsyler.com: Chrysler’s corporate Web site www.earthtech.com: Earth Tech specializes in public and private infrastructure projects www.embarq.wri.org: Embarq, the World Resources Institute’s Center for Sustainable Transport www.flytheroad.com: Venture Vehicles www.ford.com: Ford Motor Company www.fpf.org: Foreign Policy in Focus

Appendi x

Chapter 6: Green Transportation

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www.fuelcelltoday: Fuel Cell Today provides market-based intelligence on this industry www.ge.com: General Electric www.globalinsight.com: Global Insight, purveyor of economic, financial, and political coverage of countries, regions, and industries, including transportation www.gobrt.org: Bus Rapid Transit Policy Center www.go4construction.com: Go 4 Construction Supply Chain Web site features jobs with railroads and other forms of mass transit www.gm.com: General Motors’ home page www.hheng.com: H&H Engineering Construction, railroad construction www.honda.com: Honda Motor Company www.invers.com: INVERS Mobility Solutions www.itsrailroadrubber.com: International Track Systems, Inc., New Castle, Pennsylvania www.lusciousgarage.com: Luscious Garage, San Francisco, specializes in hybrids www.magna.com: Magna International, Inc. designs and manufactures automotive systems www.metavera.com: Metavera Solutions www.mobility.ch: Mobility CarSharing, Lucerne, Switzerland www.ncees.org: National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying www.newflyer.com: New Flyer Industries www.nrel.gov: National Renewable Energy Lab www.oregontransit.com: Oregon Transit Association www.parsons.com: Parsons Transportation Group www.pbworld.com: PB (Parsons Brinckerhoff, New York) infrastructure development and operations around the world www.planning.org/aicp: American Institute of Certified Planners www.pluginpartners.org: Plug-in Partners tells how you can participate in getting more of these vehicles on the road. The Web site links to lots of information. www.rpi.edu: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute www.railnj.com: Railroad Construction Company of South Jersey, Inc. www.railcorp.com: Job postings for the railroad industry www.railroaddata.com: Links to over 5,000 railroad-related Web sites www.railserve.com: Rail Serve has links to many employment opportunities of every kind. www.railwayeducationalbureau.com: Railway Educational Bureau offers training, workshops, and publications on employment in the railroad industry. 2 2 0 www.railwaypeople.com: Job and training opportunities in the UK

www.sae.org: The Society of Automobile Engineers Web site has information on training and conferences, publications, and links to other resources. www.syncromatics.com: Syncromatics, designs and operates public transit tracking systems www.theaircar.com: Site for French engineer Guy Negre’s concept car www.team-fate.net: University of California-Davis team site Challenge-X competition www.toyota.com: Toyota’s home page www.transportation.anl.gov: Argonne National Laboratory’s research papers presented at the Electric Vehicle Symposium 23, December 2007 www.transportationcrossing.com: Transportation Crossing is a subscription-based job site www.trb.org: Transportation Research Board http:vehicledesignsummit.org: Vehicle Design Summit, Massachusetts Institute of Technology www.worldwatch.org: Worldwatch Institute www.xpresstech.com: Express Technologies, Wexford, Pennsylvania, transportation software www.x-prize.org: X Prize Foundation www.zapworld.com: Zap Motors, Santa Rosa, California, makes electric cars, micro-cars, and other alternative vehicles www.zipcar.com: Zipcar Carsharing, Cambridge, Massachusetts Chapter 7: Green Building

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www.aerotek.com: Aerotek Energy Services, engineering job site www.aia.org: American Institute of Architects www.aamanet.org: American Architectural Manufacturing Association www.architecture2030.org: Coalition of architects committed to reducing building related carbon greenhouse emissions www.archtest.com: Architectural Testing, Inc. www.ashrae.org: American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and AirConditioning Engineers www.asid.org: American Society of Interior Designers www.asla.org: American Society of Landscape Architects www.bsr-vt.org: Vermont Builds Greener www.buildinggreen.com: Independent publishing company featuring sustainable design www.builditgreen.org: Build it Green, Berkeley California www.buildsagreen.org: Build San Antonio Green, Texas www.builtgreen.org: Built Green, Denver, Colorado www.calacademy.org: California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco www.c40cities.org: C40 Cities group www.clintonfoundation.org: William J. Clinton Foundation, includes 221 information on the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI)

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www.cookplusfox.com: Cook + Fox Architects, New York www.earthadvantage.com: Earth Advantage, nonprofit green building program in Oregon www.earthcrafthouse.com: EarthCraft House, Atlanta, Georgia www.ecwenviromental.com: ECW Environmental Group LLC www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/building_america: U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America Program www.efficientwindows.org: Efficient Windows Collaborative www.eltgreenroofs.com: Elevated Landscape Technologies, Brantford, Ontario www.epa.gov/greenbuilding www.fosterandpartners.com: Foster + Partners, London-based architectural firm www.frontierassoc.net: Green Affordable Housing Coalition, San Francisco, California www.gbci.org: Green Building Certification Institute www.gerealestate.com: GE Real Estate www.ghne.org: Green Homes NorthEast, Boston, Massachusetts www.globalgreen.org: The U.S. affiliate of Mikhail Gorbachev’s Green Cross International. Much of the focus of the U.S. portion is on green building. www.greenbuildexpo.org: Greenbuild 2007, sponsored by USGBC, hosted the first national Living Building Competition www.greenbuildingblocks.com: Resources, guidelines, etc. for green building and remodeling www.greenbuildingpages.com: Products, services, links for building green www.greenbuiltmichigan.org: Green Built, Inc., Lansing, Michigan www.greenengineer.com: The Green Engineer, Concord, Massachusetts www.greenhomeguide.org: USGBC’s Web site for green home building www.green-rated.org: Portland Green Rated, Oregon www.greenroof.co.uk: Blackdown Horticultural Consultants, Somerset, England www.greenroofs.com: Green roofs trade/news media organization www.greenroofs.org: Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, Canada-based industry organization www.greenshape.com: GreenShape LLC, Washington, D.C. www.green2green.org: Web site featuring links to green building products www.hawaiibuiltgreen.com: Hawaii Built Green, Honolulu http://holycrossproject.globalgreen.org: Global Green USA’s project in New Orleans www6.homedepot.com/ecooptions: Home Depot’s Web site for sustainable products includes calculators that show you how many products have been sold and resources saved. http://hortweb.cas.psu.edu/research/greenroofcenter: Center for Green Roof Research, Penn State University 222

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www.hydrotechusa.com: American Hydrotech, Inc., Chicago roofing company with offices worldwide www.kchba.org/buildgreenkc: Build Green Program, Kansas City, Missouri www.mcdonoughpartners.com: William McDonough & Partners, Charlottesville, Virginia www.megacitiesproject.org: The Mega-Cities Project www.morphosis.net: Morphosis, architectural firm, Santa Monica, California www.nadca.com: National Air Duct Cleaners Association www.nahb.org: National Association of Home Builders www.natex.org: North American Technician Excellence, Inc. www.oikos.com: Web site about sustainable design and construction www.oregonstate.edu: Oregon State University-Corvallis has a Green Roof Technology Project www.pathnet.org: Partnership for Advanced Housing Technology www.pepperconstruction.com: Pepper Construction Group, LLC, green construction firm in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Texas www.planning.org: American Planning Association www.planyc2030.org: New York City’s sustainability plan www.regreenprogram: REGREEN Program www.rses.org: Refrigeration Services Engineers Society www.roofmeadow.com: Roofscapes, Inc., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania www.saic.com: SAIC www.scusolar.org: Web site of Santa Clara University’s Third Place winner of 2007 Solar Decathlon www.solardecathlon.de: Web site of Technische Universität Darmstadt, First Place winner of 2007 Solar Decathlon www.solardecathlon.org: The Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition www.solarteam.org: Web site of the University of Maryland’s Second Place team in the 2007 Solar Decathlon www.ssbx.org: Sustainable South Bronx, New York www.sustainabledesignguide.umn.edu: Sustainable Design, Hennepin County, Minnesota www.sustainablespaces.com: Sustainable Spaces, San Francisco, California www.sustainhv.org: Sustainable Hudson Valley, New York www.tectaamerica.com: Tecta America, roofing company www.thinkenergygroup.com: Think Energy Group, engineering job site www.trcsolutions.com: TRC Companies, Inc. www.usgbc.org: U.S. Green Building Council, creator of the LEED certification, also sponsors annual Greenbuild International Conference and Expo (www.greenbuildexpo.org) www.wbcsd.org: World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Geneva, Switzerland www.worldgbc.org: World Green Building Council, Toronto www.xhllc.com: XtremeHomes, builder of green, prefabricated modular homes 223

Chapter 8: Green Organizations and NGOs

www.acterra.org: Acterra www.arborday.org: National Arbor Day Foundation www.audubon.org: National Audubon Society www.bluewaternetwork.org: Bluewater Network www.climatesolutions.org: Climate Solutions www.ducks.org: Ducks Unlimited www.earthfirst.org: Earth First! www.edf.org: Environmental Defense Fund www.goodandwater.org: Food and Water Watch www.foe.org: Friends of the Earth www.greenproject.org: The Green Project www.izaakwaltonleague.org: The Izaak Walton League www.lcv.org: The League of Conservation Voters www.nature.org: The Nature Conservancy www.nrdc.org: Natural Resources Defense Council www.1sky.org: 1Sky www.panda.org: World Wildlife Fund (also wwp.org) www.ran.org: Rainforest Action Network www.sierraclub.org: The Sierra Club www.treepeople.org: Tree People www.tu.org: Trout Unlimited www.voyageurs.org: Voyageurs National Park Association www.wilderness.org: The Wilderness Society www.wildernessvolunteers.org: Wilderness Volunteers www.wildsalmon.org: Save Our Wild Salmon www.wiseearth.org: Wise Earth Chapter 9: Natural Resources Management

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www.acre-resources.co.uk: Lists air, water, and soil quality jobs in the U.K. www.allen-york.com: A comprehensive recruitment agency that covers all sectors of natural resource management www.americanforests.org: American Forests, nonprofit that works to protect and restore forests www.americanheart.org: American Heart Association www.amwater.com: American Water, New Jersey www.appalachianarborists.com: Appalachian Arborists, ethical tree services company in Asheville, North Carolina www.aqmd.gov: South Coast AQMD, the air pollution control agency for Los Angeles and surrounding counties www.baaqmd.gov: Bay Area Air Quality Management District for San Francisco Bay Area www.blainetech.com: Blaine Tech Services, Inc. is a California-based company specializing in groundwater testing, surface water and soil sampling, and other services. 2 2 4 www.blm.gov: Bureau of Land Management

Appendi x

www.brownfieldstsc.org: The Brownfields and Land Revitalization Technology Support Center is run by the EPA, Argonne National Laboratory, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers www.canadian-forests.com: Canadian Forests Web site includes job postings www.casella.com: Casella Waste Systems, Rutland, Vermont and the Northeast www.cempre.org.br: Brazilian Business Commitment for Recycling nonprofit www.civicworks.com: B’Green-Civic Works, the workforce-building initiative for brownfield projects in Baltimore, Maryland www.cpuc.ca.gov: California Public Utilities Commission www.ehso.com: Environment, Health and Safety Online, a Web site of all of the U.S. government’s environmental Web sites www.disposal.com: Allied Waste www.doi.gov: U.S. Department of the Interior www.earthworks-jobs.com: Web site lists jobs in forestry, agriculture, agronomy, and natural resources management around the world www.environmental-expert.com: Lists jobs for all aspects of natural resource management, including brownfield specialists www.environmentamerica.org: Environment America, a federation of 24 state-based, citizen-funded environmental advocacy organizations www.epa.gov: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency www.epa.gov/jtr: Web site of EPA’s now-defunct Jobs Through Recycling Program still has useful information www.epa.gov/wastewise: EPA’s WasteWise program www.epa.gov.swerosps/bf: Information about the EPA’s Brownfields programs www.foresters.org: Global Association of Online Foresters Web site has job openings for positions around the world www.forestryusa.com: Private Web site on forests and forestry with links to government, industry, association, NGO, education, and other related Web sites; includes job listings www.4cleanair.org: National Association of Clean Air Agencies www.fs.fed.us: USDA Forest Service Web site www.fws.gov: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service www.globalforestwatch.org: Global Forest Watch www.golder.com: Jobs in air, water, and soil quality www.gwrsystem.com: Groundwater Replenishment System, Orange County, California www.iucnredlist.org: World Conservation Union’s “Red List” of endangered species. http://jobs.forestry.uga.edu: Job postings at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, including forestry, water and soil resources, fisheries, and wildlife 225

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www.jfnew.com: JFNew: provides natural resources and ecological consulting in the Midwest www.johnsongroupinc.com: The Johnson Group, Inc. recruits workers for environmental jobs www.land-force.com: A Web site for “land-based” jobs, lists positions in forestry and arboriculture in the U.K. www.loc.gov/crsinfo: Congressional Research Service, the public policy research arm of the U.S. Congress www.millenniumassessment.org: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment www.monstertrak.monster.com: Monster Worldwide www.natlarb.com: Tree Care Industry Association www.norcalwaste.com: Norcal Waste Systems, San Francisco, California www.nps.gov: National Park Service www.nrc-recycle.org: National Recycling Coalition www.nyc.gov/brownfields: New York City’s brownfields programs www.ourpublicservice.org: Partnership for Public Service www.panda.org: World Wildlife Fund www.recycleamerica.com: Recycle America operates 100 recycling plants in the United States and Canada www.recyclingtoday.com: Recycling Today magazine’s Web site has industry news, events, and lots of ads and information about companies in this industry www.resource-recycling.com: Publishes monthly Resource Recycling and several other magazines related to the recycling world; hosts an active job site www.rbf.com: RBF Consulting, civil engineering and planning www.sca-enviro.com: SCA Environmental, Inc. offers services in the fields of environmental science, occupational health and safety, engineering, and laboratory analyses. www.scorecard.org: Scorecard, The Pollution Information Site www.swana.org: The nonprofit Solid Waste Association of North America hosts a job site and publishes a monthly magazine. www.tetratech.com: Tetra Tech EC, Inc. is an engineering and technical services consulting firm with projects worldwide www.urscorp.com: URS, a multinational greenhouse gas management services company www.wasteage.com: Waste Age magazine has an active job site relative to waste management jobs www.waterjobsonline.com: National online water and wastewater career Web site www.werc.net: WERC: A Consortium for Environmental Education and Technology Development at New Mexico State University www.wetlandcert.org: Society of Wetland Scientists certification program www.wetlands.org: Wetlands International is the only global NGO dedicated to the conservation and wise use of wetlands. 2 2 6 www.wflc.org: Washington Forest Law Center

www.who.org: World Health Organization www.wildlifedirect.com: WildlifeDirect connects conservation workers in the field with interested parties online www.wildlifeincrisis.org: Wildlife in Crisis, Inc., wildlife preservation and land conservation www.wm.com: Waste Management www.woodwardcurran.com: Woodward & Curran is an East Coastbased company that provides clients with services in air quality, hydrogeology, remediation, sustainability, and other areas. www.wri.org: World Resources Institute Chapter 10: Green Goods and Services

Appendi x

www.aces.uluc.edu: College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign afsic.nal.usda.gov: Alternative Farming Systems Information Center, USDA www.agroecology.org: Web site full of information on agroecology www.ams.usda.gov: National Organic Program, USDA www.asta.org: The American Society of Travel Agents www.backdoorjobs.com: Job listings in sustainable living and farming www.biodynamics.org.uk: Biodynamic Organic Agriculture training, Emerson College, East Sussex, England www.bluewaternetwork.org: Bluewater Network, a division of Friends of the Earth, works to stop environmental damage from vessels and vehicles www.bwt-group.com: Best Water Technology, Vienna, Austria www.canon.com: Canon, Lake Success, New York www.carbonfund.org: Sells carbon offsets http://carbonproject.org: The Carbon Zero Project www.casfs.ucsc.edu: Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Systems, University of California-Santa Cruz www.ccof.org: California Certified Organic Farmers www.chipotle.com: Chipotle Mexican Grill, Denver, Colorado www.clemson.edu: Clemson University www.clfm.iit.edu: Stuart Graduate School of Business, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago www.comverge.com: Comverge, New Jersey, Georgia, California, Pennsylvania www.coopamerica.org: Co-op America www.danone.com: Groupe Danone, Paris, France www.ecoclub.com: Information for members about worldwide job, internship, and consultancy vacancies in the ecotourism field www.ecologo.org: EcoLogo certifies consumer product www.energystar.gov: Energy Star www.epicvancouver.com: The Sustainable Living Expo, Vancouver, Brit227 ish Columbia

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www.evergreen.edu: Center for Ecological Living and Learning, Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington www.fairtradefederation.org: Fair Trade Federation www.firstsolar.com: First Solar, Inc., Phoenix, Arizona www.fscus.org: Forest Stewardship Council-U.S. www.globalexchange.org: Global Exchange, San Francisco, California offers Reality Tours www.greenbiz.ca.gov: Links to businesses in California’s San Francisco Bay area’s nine counties that operate in an environmentally friendly way www.green-e.org: Green-e certification for renewable energy www.greenelectronicscouncil.org: Green Electronics Council certifies electronics with its EPEAT program www.greenguard.org: Greenguard Environmental Institute www.greenmarketing.com: J.Ottman Consulting, Inc. www.greenpages.org: National Green Pages www.greenpeace.org: Greenpeace www.greenseal.org: Greenseal certifies paints, cleaners, and other products www.globalcitizencenter.org: Global Citizen Center www.globalexchange.org: Global Exchange, San Francisco, California, offers Reality Tours www.google.com: Google, Inc., Mountain View, California www.greenmountaincoffee.com: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Waterbury, Vermont www.greenpages.org: Co-op America’s National Green Pages www.grist.org: Environmental news and commentary Web site www.hcareers.com: Online employment resource for hospitality industry www.heifer.org: Heifer International, Little Rock, Arkansas www.hermanmiller.com: Herman Miller, Zeeland, Michigan www6.homedepot.com/ecooptions: Home Depot’s Web site for sustainable products www.interfaceinc.com: Interface, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia www.ioia.net: Independent Organic Inspectors Association, Broadus, Montana www.ifoam.org: International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements www.landsecurities.com: Land Securities, London, England www.lohas.com: Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability www.lonelyplanet.com: Lonely Planet publishes ecotourism tips in Code Green www.made-by.nl: Netherlands-based clothing company traces lifecycle of clothing www.mofga.org: Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners www.mosaorganic.org: Midwest Organic Services Association, Inc. www.my-climate.org: Sustainable Travel International offers carbon offsets through various retailers 228

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www.newfarm.org: The New Farm is Rodale Institute’s online training program designed to help farmers make the switch to organic www.nike.com: NIKE, Inc., Beaverton, Oregon www.novozymes.com: Novozymes, Copenhagen, Denmark www.organic.aber.ac.uk: Organic Centre, Wales www.organicconsumers.org: Organic Consumers Association, Finland, Michigan www.organic-europe.net: Organic Europe has lots of information and research about organic agriculture around the world on its Web site www.ormat.com: Ormat Technologies, Reno, Nevada www.onearth.org: OnEarth Magazine, NRDC www.paorganic.org: Pennsylvania Certified Organic www.philips.com: Royal Philips Electronics (worldwide) www.planeta.com: Resources for travelers plus job link www.preciouswoods.com: Precious Woods, Geneva, Switzerland www.recgroup.com: Renewable Energy Corp., Oslo, Norway www.redefiningprogress.org: Devoted to shifting public policy to achieve a sustainable economy, a healthy environment, and a just society. www.responsibleshopper.org: A Co-op America site with information on social and environmental policies of over 100 of the largest U.S. companies www.responsibletravel.com: Online directory of eco-friendly tours and operators www.risd.edu: The Rhode Island School of Design www.sccertified.com: Scientific Certification Systems www.schmack-biogas.com: Schmack Biogas, Germany www.sustainabletravel.org: Source of knowledge about innovative travel industry practices www.terrapass.com: TerraPass sells carbon offsets www.universities.com: Information on colleges and universities offering B.A.s in industrial design www.usgbc.org: USGBC Web site has information on its LEED certification of green buildings www.vestas.com: Vestas, Copenhagen, Denmark www.wholefoodsmarket.com: Whole Foods Market, Austin, Texas www.worldchanging.com: Web site is devoted to sustainability issues, from climate change to transportation, to consumer goods.

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Index Abbey, Edward, 12 Affordable housing, 132–33 Agricultural Research Service (ARS), 76 Agroecology, 196–97 Airline industry, 111–12 Air quality management, 151–55 Algae, 79, 81 Alternative energy. See Energy American Coalition for Ethanol, 77–78 American Planning Association, 122 American Wind Energy Association, 64–65 Apollo Alliance, 7, 130 Architects, 124 Austin, Texas, 24, 25, 100, 119 Australia, 84 Automobiles fuel consumption by, 95–98 future of, 98–100 manufacturing of, 102–3 Automobile sales and marketing, 103–4 Automotive engineers, 100–102 Aviation designer, 112 Batteries, 89, 93–94 Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), 100, 106 Belgrade Charter, 12–13 Best Water Technology, 186 Biodiesel, 79–80 Biodiversity, 171–72 Bioenergy process engineer, 82 Bioenergy Wiki, 76 Biomass Energy Research Association, 76 Biomass industry development coordinator, 80–81 Biomass power, 73–82 Branson, Richard, 111–12 Brazil, 77, 79 Brownfields, 162–66 Brunei, 54 Building science engineers, 125 Business, greening of, 5–8, 19–20 Bus rapid transit (BRTs), 110

230

C40 Cities, 24–25, 118, 121, 130 California, 7, 24, 53, 153, 159 Canon, 186 Carbon offsets, 201 Carsharing jobs, 105 Carson, Rachel, 11 Cellulosic ethanol, 78–79 Challenge-X, 101

China, 63, 97, 121 Chipotle Mexican Grill, 187 Cities brownfield redevelopment in, 162–66 green building in, 117–19 mass transit in, 96, 105–11 Clean Air Act, 12, 152 Clean energy technologies, 21, 22, 24–25, 49. See also Energy Clean Water Act, 156 Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), 24, 118, 121, 131–32, 132–33 Code Green (Lonely Planet), 201 College programs, 39–43 Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), 21 Companies checking green credentials of, 193–94 green, 5, 186–93 Company culture, 31 Computer programmers, 111 Comverge, 186–87 Conservation, 10–11 Construction industry, 39–40, 113. See also Green building Consumers, demand for green products by, 5, 182–84 Co-op America, 184–85, 194 Cooper, James Fenimore, 9–10 Cooper, Susan Fenimore, 4, 10 Corn-based ethanol, 77 Corporate responsibility, 202 Current power, 87 Denmark, 63, 85 DOE. See U.S. Department of Energy Douglas, William O., 12 Ducks Unlimited, 145 Earth Day, 12 Earth Summit, 13 Ecoclub.com, 200 Eco-friendly products, 181–98 EcoRail, 109 Ecotourism, 198–202 Education, 39–43, 57–58 Ehrlich, Paul R., 12 Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), 184 Electronics, 184 Electronics engineers, 88 Endangered species, 172

Energy batteries, 89, 93–94 biomass, 73–82 challenges of alternative, 48–49 fossil fuels, 47–48, 73–74, 95–97 fuel cells, 89–93 geothermal, 67–73 marine, 82–89 opportunities in, 49–52 smart, 94 solar, 52–59 wind, 59–67 Energy/conservation audit engineers, 125 Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Workforce Development Amendment, 24 Energy from Biomass and Waste Expo, 76 Energy Independence and Security Act, 51 Energy Information Administration (EIA), 70 Energy modelers, 125 Energyocean.com, 83 EnergyPlanet, 83 Environmental activism, 11–13 Environmental Defense Fund, 144 Environmental engineers, 41 Environmental issues growing concern for, 3–6 as key business issue, 19–20 Environmental movement growth of, 17–18 history of, 9–15 Environmental planners, 154–55 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 12, 150–51, 164, 165, 166, 179–80 Ethanol, 7, 75, 77–79 Europe geothermal power in, 68 green building in, 120–21 marine power in, 84–85 mass transit in, 107 solar power in, 54–56 wind power in, 62–63 Federal agencies, 150–51 Federal government. See Government First Solar, Inc., 187 Fish and wildlife management, 170–73 Food, organic, 196–98 Forests, 166–70 Fossil fuels, 4, 47–48, 73–74, 95–97 FreeFlow69, 86–87 Friedman, Thomas, 6, 23 Friends of the Earth and Bluewater Network, 143–44 Fuel cells, 89–93 Fuel Cells 2000, 89 Fuel-cell technician/engineer, 92–93 Fuel Cell Today, 89 Fuel-efficiency standards, 98

Gates, Bill, 8, 29 GeoPowering the West, 71 Geothermal Energy Association (GEA), 70, 71 Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium, 71 Geothermal power, 67–73 Germany, 55–56, 63, 120, 134–35 Global Bioenergy Partnership, 76 Global Exchange, 200 Global Smart Energy, 89 Global warming, 3, 23, 48, 74, 96, 167 Google, Inc., 192–93 Gore, Al, 4, 14, 48 Government response of, to green issues, 6–7, 23–25, 23–25 support for alternative transportation by, 97 support for renewable energy by, 51, 53–54 Green building, 113–39 advantages of, 115–17 affordable housing, 132–33 in cities, 117–19 defining, 114 job opportunities in, 121–25, 133–34, 137–38 overseas, 120–21 remodeling and retrofitting, 129–32 residential, 126–29 roofs, 134–39 Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI), 125 Green certifications, 115, 195 Green economy, 8, 17–23 Green Energy Education Act, 23 Green enterprise zones, 24 Greenhouse gas engineers/managers, 154 Green industries, 22, 49. See also specific industries Green jobs. See also Job opportunities creation of, 7 defined, 17–18 education and training for, 39–43 finding, 32–38 future of, 38 government promotion of, 23–24 growth of, 6–8, 20–23, 202–3 reasons for deciding on, 27–32 Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, 187–88 Green products, 181–98 Green roofs, 134–39 GridWise Alliance, 89 GridWise Inititiave, 94 Groupe Danone, 188 Habitat loss, 171 Hastings, Nebraska, 7 Hawken, Paul, 9, 10, 13–14 HCareers.com, 200–201

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Heat mining, 70 Herman Miller, 188–89 Higher education, 39–43 Home building, 126–29 Horticulturalists, 138 HVAC engineers/technicians, 125, 134 Hybrid vehicles, 98–100 Hydraulic engineers, 88 Hydrogen, 90–92

Marketing, 194, 196 Marsh, George Perkins, 10 Mass transit, 96, 105–11 Mechanical engineers, 56–58, 87–88 Mechanics, 104–5 Micro-green fuels Million Solar Roofs, 24, 53 Muir, John, 11 Municipal solid waste (MSW), 173

Iceland, 68 Inconvenient Truth, An (Gore), 4 India, 97, 121 Integrated solid waste management (ISWM), 178–80 Interface, Inc., 189 International Biofuels Forum, 76 Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), 40 Investment, in renewable energy, 55 Israel, 54

Nanotechnology, 93 National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG), 82 National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA), 153 National Audubon Society, 11, 130, 144 National Biodiesel Board, 80 National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, 78 National Fuel Cell Research Center, 89 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 83 National Parks Service Act, 11 National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 90 National Wind Coordinating Committee, 65 National Wind Technology Center, 65 Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), 130, 142–43 Natural resources management, 149–80 air quality, 151–55 fish and wildlife, 170–73 job opportunities in, 149–80 land quality, 162–70 waste management, 173–80 water quality, 155–62 Nature Conservancy, 143 Networking, 36 New Zealand, 68, 84, 85 NIKE, Inc, 189–90 Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 9, 141–47 North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners, 65 Norway, 86 Novozymes, 190

Japan, 54 Job opportunities in agroecology, 196–98 in airline industry, 112 in auto industry, 98–105 in biomass power, 76–77, 80–82 in ecotourism, 198–202 in fuel-cell sector, 91–93 in geothermal power, 70–73 in goods and services, 184–98 in green building, 121–25, 133–34, 137–38 in marine power, 87–89 in natural resources management, 149–80 with NGOs, 141–47 in public transit, 107–11 in renewable energy, 49–52 in solar power, 56–59 in transportation, 97–98 in ultracapacitor development, 94 in wind power, 63–67 Job satisfaction, 27–28 Job search, 32–38 Kaizen, 37–38 Kyoto Summit, 13

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Land planning jobs, 122–23 Land quality management, 162–70 Land Securities, 189 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), 25, 115, 123, 124–27 Leopold, Aldo, 11 Lithium-ion batteries, 93 Low-carbon technologies, 8 Man and Nature (Marsh), 10 Marine power, 82–89

Ocean Energy Council, 83 O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory, 83 Oil consumption, 4, 47–48, 73–74, 95–97 Organic food, 196–98 Ormat Technologies, 190 Orr, David, 4, 41 Outsourcing, 22, 23 Philippines, 68 Pinchot, Gifford, 10–11 Planeta.com, 201 Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), 99–100

Polymer exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, 91 Precious Woods, 190–91 Product design and marketing, 194, 196 Project architects, 124 Public opinion, on environmental issues, 3–6 Public transit, 96, 105–11 Public utilities regulatory analysts, 158–60

Tidal power, 49, 86–87 Toledo, Ohio, 58 Tourism, 198–202 Training, 39–43, 57–58, 71, 72, 104–5 Transportation, 95–112 Transportation engineers, 107–8 Transportation Research Board, 110 Travel counselors, 201–2 Trout Unlimited, 145

Rail infrastructure, 106–7 Recycling, 3, 173–78 Regional planners, 107–8 REGREEN Program, 131 Remodeling and retrofitting, 128 Renewable energy. See Energy Renewable Energy Corp., 191 Residential technical specialists, 133 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), 174 Responsibletravel.com, 201 Reverse osmosis, 159 Roofs, green, 134–39 Royal Phillips Electronics, 191–92

Ultracapacitor jobs, 94 Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), 96 United States alternative energy production in, 56, 60–61, 68, 77, 90–91 energy consumption in, 47, 74, 95 Urban planning jobs, 107–8, 122–23 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), 7, 55, 69, 75, 82, 90, 128 U.S. Fuel Cell Council, 90 U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), 113, 115, 122, 125, 128, 131 Utility workers, 160–61

Technical field specialists, 133 Technology Pathways Partnerships (TPP), 55 Think Energy Group, 90 Thoreau, Henry David, 10

Values, 29–32 Vehicle Design Summit, 101 Vestas, 192 Virgin Atlantic, 111–12 Wallace Energy Systems, 84 Washington, D.C., 7 Waste management, 173–80 Water quality management, 155–62 Water resources manager/specialist, 157–58 Wave power, 82–85 Wetlands, 160 Wetlands ecologists/scientists, 161–62 Whole Foods Market, 192 Wilderness, 9–10 Wilderness Act, 12 Wilderness Society, 145 Wildlife jobs, 172–73 Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program, 65 Wind farm technicians, 65–66 Window installers/reglazers, 134 Wind power, 49, 59–67 Wind resource analysts, 66–67 Wind turbine manufacturing, 67 World Commission on the Environment and Development, 13 World Wildlife Fund (WWF), 141–42, 155, 161 World Wind Energy Association, 65 X Prize Foundation, 101, 103–4

index

Sand County Almanac (Leopold), 11 Sandia National Laboratories, 65 San Francisco, 25, 68, 75, 100, 118, 175 Schmack Biogas, 192 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 84 Seattle, 25 Self-promotion, 36–37 Service technicians, 104–5 Sierra Club, 11, 142 Silent Spring (Carson), 11–13 Skyscrapers, 119 Smart energy, 94 Society of Automotive Engineers, 102 Solar Decathlon Competition, 128 Solar engineers, 56–58 Solar installer, 58–59 Solar power, 24, 49, 52–59 Solid Waste Disposal Act, 174 Spaceship Earth, 12 Spain, 63 State and Local Air Monitoring Stations (SLAMS), 152–53 State initiatives, 7 Stegner, Wallace, 12 Success, defining, 28–29 Sustainability, 17, 40, 182, 193–94 Sustainability analysts, 123 Sustainable building. See Green building Sustainable design, 194

233

About the Authors A. Bronwyn Llewellyn, M.A., is a veteran writer and editor who has written several books and museum exhibitions on technology, natural history, climate change, green design and architecture, and the environment. She is the editor of The Healing Touch of Horses and the author of The Everything® Career Tests Book. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. James P. Hendrix, Ph.D., has spent most of his career as an educator, at both the university and secondary levels. He presently works part time as a fly-fishing guide, educational consultant, and lecturer on the Lewis and Clark expedition. He has published numerous articles and book reviews and is a long-standing advocate of environmentalism and sustainability. When not fly-fishing or backpacking in Colorado, he lives in the mountains of western North Carolina. K. C. Golden, M.A., is policy director for Climate Solutions, a research and advocacy organization pioneering practical and profitable solutions to global warming. Before this, he served as a special assistant to the mayor of Seattle for clean energy and climate protection initiatives. Golden was a Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he received a master’s degree in public policy. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two teenagers and is an insatiable river enthusiast.

234

How Green Is Your Paycheck? You’re interested in going green and, lucky for you, the opportunities for environmentally skilled workers are skyrocketing. Green Jobs will help you to find a job you like—and that’ll make the world a better place. This one-of-a-kind handbook shows you how to:

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A. Bronwyn Llewellyn, M.A., is a veteran writer and editor who has written several books and museum exhibitions on technology, natural history, climate change, green design and architecture, and the environment. She is the editor of The Healing Touch of Horses and the author of The Everything® Career Tests Book. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. James P. Hendrix, Ph.D., has spent most of his career as an educator, at both the university and secondary levels. He presently works part time as a fly-fishing guide, educational consultant, and lecturer on the Lewis and Clark expedition. He has published numerous articles and book reviews and is a long-standing advocate of environmentalism and sustainability. When not backpacking in Colorado, he lives in the mountains of western North Carolina. K. C. Golden, M.A., is policy director for Climate Solutions, a research and advocacy organization pioneering practical and profitable solutions to global warming. Before this, he served as a special assistant to the mayor of Seattle for clean energy and climate protection initiatives. Golden was a Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he received a master’s degree in public policy. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two teenagers and is an insatiable river enthusiast.

$12.95 (CAN $14.50) ISBN-13: 978-1-59869-872-5 ISBN-10: 1-59869-872-9

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