Great post from Triple Pundit on the emerging career opportunities in the carbon market(s). The best part is the following advice:

You don’t have to come in pretending that you know everything.

I completely agree, and I think that applies to any green collar job. We’re all still figuring this stuff out, so trying to pretend you know more than you do is pointless. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be reading like crazy and trying to figure out this space as much as possible. Get that Google Reader subscription going!

Obviously the web has completely changed the way job searches are done. Gone are the days of circling ads in the local paper. But so much information on the web comes with a downside: it’s really hard to manage it all. You have to check the job boards, specific company websites, blogs, news, etc. every day. Plus, what if you’re interested in a company and eventually want a job there, but they aren’t hiring? Are you going to check their site every day for years?

Fortunately, there’s an amazing solution that I don’t think enough people are taking advantage of. It’s called Really Simple Syndication, or RSS. In short, RSS is a feed that pushes content (new blog posts, changes to websites) out onto the web. If you have a feed reader, like Google Reader or NetVibes or NetNewsWire, you can pull lots of feeds together in one place and read them the same as you would your emails. RSS is used a lot in the blog world so that one doesn’t have to visit 15 blogs multiple times per day, it’s just all in one place.

So why is this useful for job searches? Within the last few months, a few companies and job boards have started to include RSS feeds for their job posts. You can tell if this is available by looking for the little orange box in the corner of the url bar. There’s one for this blog (which I encourage you to sign up for!). Check out Patagonia or Green Dream Jobs as examples.

Even better, you can now create RSS feeds even for companies and boards that don’t publish their own! A new service called Feedity lets you choose a page and create your own feed. I’ve tested this out and it works pretty well with most simple sites. Check out this sample feed I created for Munimae. If you have set up a Google Reader account, clicking the link should prompt you if you want to add it to your subscriptions.

Play around with feeds a bit and I guarantee you’ll be impressed at how powerful they can be for a job search. Note also that feeds can be really helpful in getting up to speed on green business or other specific topics. Newspapers, magazines, and blogs all have RSS feeds.

Good luck!

Interested in a green collar career, but worried that you don’t have the experience? There’s a way to start building some expertise in your current position.

Many companies and organizations are becoming concerned about their environmental footprint as more and more attention is paid to climate change. Unfortunately, most of them either don’t know where to start or don’t have the resources to do anything about it.

In my experience working with small and medium sized companies, the best approach is to designate one or more “green team” staff to start doing the research and figuring out where to start. If you want to build some green collar skills, just volunteer to be that person. Whether you are an accountant or a graphic designer, there’s an opportunity to do what us environmental consultants do every day. Tell everyone in your office that you’d be willing to help. Chances are that when the time comes to assign some people, you’ll get the call.

The best place to start is the GHG Protocol, which outlines a comprehensive system for doing a GHG inventory.

This is older, but I just came across it while doing some research for a new project. The Environmental Leader provides a list of the Top 100 cleantech companies (as of September anyways).

There are some familiar names on here, such as Tesla Motors and Solar City. But also some new ones, such as GridPoint, named the overall winner. The list breaks each company into categories, which makes me think I should split up the “cleantech” subject I’ve been using in my sector and subject breakdown.  I was particularly surprised at how many waste management companies are out there. Seems like an underserved area.

Three very cool maps to share that I’ve come across recently:

1. 3tiergroup’s wind power siting tool based on Google maps, which shows average wind speeds globally, and can be adjusted based on the height of the turbine.

2. I’ve pointed out NREL’s excellent collection of renewable energy maps before, but this is a whole new level. The US Atlas of Renewable Resources is a dynamic map that has several energy source layers, including solar, wind, and biomass. The map also provides information on transportation, streets, and elevations. Very cool.

3. The excellent blog Earth2Tech put together a map of 101 cleantech startups in the US. This is a great way to visualize where the development is happening.

This is a couple of weeks old, but still worth noting: The SF Chronicle lays out some interesting interesting news, there aren’t enough qualified people to fill all the green collar jobs in California.

Already, the state lacks enough solar panel installers to keep up with demand, and electrical utilities trying to expand their use of renewable power have a hard time finding qualified workers, said panelists at the Advancing the New Energy Economy summit in San Francisco.

If you’re interested in green collar work, California is the place to be, particularly the Bay Area.

Thanks to Paul for the link.

I’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed at fighting a one man battle over the definition of “green collar”. It’s gotten me a little sidetracked from the main purpose of this blog, actually. But I suppose it’s an interesting academic exercise.

Fortunately, a couple of new sources have come to my rescue.  First, an editor at Merriam Webster. In a Washington Post article from last week, Tom Pitoniak explains his understanding of the term:

“Blue- and white-collar are polarizing terms,” says Pitoniak. “This is different. You’ve sort of got light-green and blue-green-collar jobs. Sure, there’s work where physical labor is involved, but a lot of jobs don’t involve wielding a shovel. You’ve also got scientific and scholarly jobs which are typically considered white-collar. I think the term ‘green-collar’ is very distinct.”

He even uses my “blue-green” buzzword modification!

Next, the new Journal blog Environmental Capital has already tackled this head on, with a post about the popularity of the buzzword in Washington, and a second one today with more on definitions. I’m glad these guys are on the case.

The Wall Street Journal is my favorite newspaper, even for news coverage beyond the markets. That may change now that the Rupert Murdoch empire has taken over and the brilliant reporting staff begins to defect to more upstanding publications.

One positive development is the Journal’s announcement of a new blog focused on business and the environment: Environmental Capital. This will be at the top of my reading list, and I recommend it for anyone with an economics or finance interest. Witness today’s post on how the Fed rate cut will affect renewable energy stocks:

As we saw earlier this month, oil’s tiny flutters heavily affect investor sentiment on renewable-energy stocks. When oil fell below $90 and kept retreating, solar stocks took a beating, supposedly on the theory that cheaper oil reduces demand for clean-energy alternatives. (Cheaper, in this case, being clearly relative.) By that logic, keeping oil north of $90 ought to give fresh legs to solar, wind, and other clean-energy players.

I’ve been frustrated with the lack of broader analysis of renewable energy trends (for example, much of the discussion at popular blog Seeking Alpha seems to be random individuals pumping specific stocks). The context and insight provided by the Journal on more mainstream topics has always impressed me, and I’m looking forward to this green focus.

Sarah writes: “Hi! I was reading your blog and I am definitely interested in a green collar career. Any advice for entry level mechanical engineers?”

Part of me wishes I had majored in engineering in college. There are major opportunities for engineers in the green collar space these days. Two big ones come to mind:

1. Working for a renewable energy developer or a green technology startup. Engineers are in huge demand now in this sector, with all of the funding pouring into new ventures. The expertise in Silicon Valley in recent years has been on the software side, and now a lot of these companies need people with mechanical or electrical skill sets. Plus, this sector is shaping up to be this decade’s tech boom. I haven’t found any job boards that focus on greentech specifically, so you’ll have to research specific companies. Check out Akeena Solar, Borrego Solar, Tioga Energy, as examples. A good way to find lists of companies is through industry associations and networking groups, such as the Renewable Energy Business Network. For news and good insights, check out the Cleantech Blog. Keep in mind that this is potentially a risky career path, as many of these startups will eventually fail. The ones that succeed should do very well though.

2. Working with large engineering/design firms in newly established “sustainability” practice areas. Many types of companies, from the big accounting firms to small, one person consulting shops, are helping companies reduce their environmental footprint and develop climate change and/or environmental strategies. I’ve been most impressed by engineering/architecture firms in this area, because they have the technical background to help with real improvements. Lots of companies are looking for energy auditors and green building specialists. Check out WSP and HDR as examples.

Any mechanical engineers out there want to chime in with more information?

In part 1 I presented a list of potential green collar career subjects. I will now list the sectors I’ve come up with. Again, I see the space in a sort of matrix - with subjects on one axis and sectors on the other. All the overlapping areas are potential business and job opportunities. I will give some examples after the sector list.

Note that this list is by no means exhaustive. I plan to include more sectors and subjects as I run across them. I hope this is useful in terms of thinking about what kinds of green business work you might be interested in. Here they are:

• Consulting
• Finance
• Products (natural or otherwise)
• Advertising
• Design (architecture, etc.)
• Startup private sector
• Established private sector
• Publishing
• Information technology
• Government
• Building
• Law
• Non-profit
• Philanthropy
• Retrofits
• Hospitality

So for example, let’s say you’re interested in wind power, but you don’t know what you want to do. The overlaps here are pretty extensive. You could work for an NGO that tries to build public and policy support for renewable energy (non-profit). You could get a job with a wind power developer (startup, larger private sector, and/or building). You could work on renewable energy projects with the EPA (government).

The list goes on. Keep in mind that the overlaps don’t have to be one-to-one, that is, in the consulting sector I touch a huge number of subjects. Though of course there are plenty of consultants who focus on just one thing.

This is simple, I realize, but I think it’s useful to break down this complex industry into smaller pieces so that we can all get a handle on what we’re really talking about.