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The Green Economy - The New Wild West
In the last few years, as conversations about the Green Economy
have increased, so has the interest of people in what careers
might evolve. Carol McClelland, founder of Green
Career Central and author of several books including Green
Careers for Dummies, recently shared some insights with
Career Vision about how to frame this broad subject. McClelland
and her organization work to stay on top of this enormous,
amorphous, emerging new way of thinking and how it is reshaping
our economy. In her words, it is the new Wild West of the
career world, with frontiers to explore and opportunities
to create.
To set the stage, some basic terminology and understanding are helpful.
Green Economy refers to any economic activity that improves the environment
in some way. This is not a new market segment, but one that is being integrated
at various levels in all industries or economic sectors. For example, it is a
part of housing, transportation, agriculture, or energy. It isn't a separate category
or industry.
Green Jobs, by extension, are those jobs that improve the environment
in some way. They can be differentiated by having a direct or indirect impact.
Most of these require new knowledge or skills, and ways of looking at our environment
and resources. This new knowledge is in addition to the industry knowledge that
supports the field you are in or plan to work in.
So what does environmental improvement mean?
McClelland breaks down this new way of thinking about it four
ways. These improvements are increasingly being measured and
analyzed by people and organizations.
1. Emission Reduction (renewable energy, less energy, less
pollution)
2. Waste Reduction (recycle, reuse waste, decrease hazardous
waste, create power from waste)
3. Water Conservation (conserve, recycle, reuse, desalinize)
4. Restoration of Nature (conserve, protect and restore natural
resources and ecosystems)
The most progressive organizations employ a strategy called
the Triple Bottom Line. This approach is used to evaluate
an organization's (or individual's) impact on profit, planet,
and people. The evolving Science of Sustainability
field is developing standardized measurements and suggestions
to improve our business processes and lifestyles to ensure
minimum negative impact and improve long term positive impact
on our environments. Clean
Tech refers to the investment strategies
used to support the sustainably improved products and services
across the different industries.
Where and what are green jobs?
After publishing Green Careers for Dummies, McClelland
developed a map
of the Green Economy that provides more specific descriptions
of the Green Industries. For further reference, note the numbers
in the center circle of the pie map, which refer to the chapters
in her book that discuss the related industries. (Article continues below the map)
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If you look at this map as a clock, about 75% of the anticipated
job growth will be in Direct Jobs shown in the sectors beginning
at 9 o'clock and display clockwise to the 6 o'clock mark.
This outer ring includes "Nature", "Infrastructure" and Tangibles".
A smaller percentage of job growth will be in the sector labeled
"Intangibles", from 6 o'clock back to 9 o'clock. As you dig
deeper into this map, you will see that these jobs are more
likely to evolve as the industries expand and mature. Right
now, the demand is low because everything is new and unfolding.
The next layer in the map provides a broad description of
the industry category: Natural Environment, Power, IT,
Built Environment, Manufacturing Cycle and Creating
Demand. These are finally reduced to more specific industries:
Environmental Science, Natural Resource Management, Smart
Grid, Information Technology, Building, and Transportation.
The Manufacturing Cycle is broken out with more specificity
(such as Extracting Raw Materials through Waste), with arrows
depicting the interconnectivity of the process flow. This
segment outlines the emerging cradle-to-grave strategy. A
click on each pie segment on the interactive map
on the Green Career Central website enables you to drill down
to more specific information related to the "greening" of
each industry.
This excellent resource allows you to create a mental map
of a complex and evolutionary movement that will become a
part of the full economy. It shows how one can enter the Green
Economy from different points, and that people already have
some of the industry know-how. The importance of planning
is deciding what new skills and knowledge you need to incorporate
to enter the emerging green development in their industry.
Be patient, and keep an eye on the trends. The Green Economy
is in its infancy and will take some time to unfold.
For students, it is helpful to investigate the industries
that are included in the broader categories to be aware of
all your options. These industry segments address the emerging
"green technologies" within the categories. From this point
it is easier to identify college majors and colleges to prepare
for your future.
The Green Economy is not black and white. As you investigate
the map, notice that these sectors overlap and some are interconnected.
Like explorers charting new frontiers, the paths and requirements
are not clearly marked. Early movers will blaze their own
trails. The benefit of a new territory is that it offers tremendous
opportunity for innovation and invention. And, as with all
experimentation, it carries the risk of limited success and
competition. When considering Green Careers, think of your
experience, skills, and education as tools in a toolkit. You
will use all the tools, and will need to add more as your
industry continues to evolve and grow. The Green Economy is
becoming the new way of life.
To keep an eye on trends, check out these sites:
GreenBiz
Greentech Media
Earth2Tech
Green Economy Post
© Copyright 2010, Career Vision. Article may be reprinted
with permission.
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