12/01/2013

Green and Sustainability Jobs and Career Resources

By Debra Rowe

Student interest in creating a greener and more sustainable future has never been higher. Our urgent societal employment and environmental challenges have fueled this student interest. In response to student demand, Princeton Review now ranks colleges on their green and sustainability initiatives. Green and sustainability focused curricula are showing up as new majors, minors, degrees, certificates, and continuing education programs in higher education. Over 1800 interdisciplinary environmental and sustainability programs now exist in higher education within the United States, according to a study recently conducted by the National Council for Science and the Environment. Furthermore, according to the college graduate-focused job resource, MonsterTRAK (now MonsterCollege), 80% of young professionals would like to work in a green job. Career development professionals are uniquely well positioned to respond to this increasing demand.

 

Green and sustainability jobs go beyond the solar designer or the wind generator installer that many people characterize as a green job. Green jobs are defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as jobs…that produce goods or provide services that benefit the environment or use fewer natural resources. This means that any job where the people are making decisions about what resources to consume are green jobs, from simple items like ordering office supplies to complex product development.

 

Green jobs are a subset of sustainability jobs. Sustainability jobs and careers are about implementing the “triple bottom line of sustainability”. The triple bottom line is often described as “people, planet and prosperity” or “environment, equity and economy”. Whatever the choice of words, sustainability is about making smarter decisions so our society can have healthy ecosystems, improved quality of life, and vibrant economies. Sustainability jobs span all types of companies, non-profits and government entities, and encompass a very large realm of environmentally and socially responsible professional career pathways.

 

Students need information about both career pathways and job openings. Three networks, the Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium (HEASC), the Disciplinary Associations Network for Sustainability, and the US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development have worked with multiple HEASC Sustainability Fellows to compile a listing of resources. These networks are made up of over 42 national higher education associations and all have been requesting quality information on green and sustainability career pathways and job openings. The Fellows have therefore compiled a listing of over five dozen sources of information for use on campuses across the country. These resources will be also updated regularly.  This easy to read document includes both job boards and career pathway resources that can help students explore which green and sustainability careers they are interested in, what competencies are desired for different career pathways, and what jobs are presently available both locally and nationally.

 

This resource can be shared prominently in your career center. The logos of the above organizations can be used as graphics/poster materials to raise student awareness when they enter the career center. (Many more images are free and downloadable from the web or can be taken from the set of sites on the list.) Career professionals on campus can take the lead to share these resources with the following target audiences on campus:

The national trend in higher education regarding sustainability has made clear that each academic discipline has a unique and important perspective to bring to the creation of solutions to our shared sustainability challenges. There are career pathways in sustainability from each academic area so it is important that faculty and academic advisors are aware of these sustainability resources. Oftentimes they are the ones who have to first respond to a student’s interest in sustainability. Academic associations have recognized this (see Participating Associations at http://dans.aashe.org/content/participating-associations) and are increasingly posting sustainability resources on their own sites, but the career resources are often overlooked, so sharing them internally on campus with faculty and staff can be very useful.

 

Furthermore, student life activities and residential life activities are often related to sustainability (see the resources page at http://heasc.aashe.org/content/heasc-resource-center), yet the career resources are often not connected, so sharing this link with student life and residential life staff could be very helpful.

 

A partial list follows of the hundreds of careers/jobs where green and sustainability competencies are increasingly valued:

 

This listing provides just a partial introduction to the many sustainability jobs presently in the marketplace. Job searches regularly provide hundreds of openings in any given region, and some of the more exciting sustainability jobs (e.g. ride sharing platform designers, local currency and time banks, deconstruction business owners, micro-financing developer) are being created by graduates as they see the community’s needs. Career advisors are uniquely suited to help students in any academic discipline envision and find pathways to a more sustainable future for all.

 


 

Deb RoweDebra Rowe, Ph.D., is the President of the U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development. She is also co-founder of the Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium, founder/facilitator of the Disciplinary Associations’ Network for Sustainability, Senior Fellow at Second Nature, and Senior Advisor to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. She has also been professor of energy management, renewable energy, and sustainable products for over 30 years at Oakland Community College in Michigan. Debra presently chairs the Technical Advisory Group and the Green Jobs Policy Community of Action for the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), where she is also a U.S. Designee to the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics’ for their international sustainability group. She is often a keynote speaker at national and international education conferences and is the author or editor of numerous publications. Debra may be contacted at dgrowe@oaklandcc.edu.

 

 

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6 Comments

Vijay Paralkar   on Monday 12/02/2013 at 12:53 AM

I am glad to read this article. It is a need of an hour to conserve the best career culture for next and coming generations. It is a moral responsibility of everyone of our generation. Hope it will grow as a concept with sustainable solution.

Lawrence Jones   on Monday 12/02/2013 at 10:57 AM

I’m pleased to see an article on this topic.

For those interested, our article, “Green Careers and Green Jobs that Match Your Personality”, organizes three kinds of “green careers” by the Holland personality/interest types. It leads users through a 4-step exploration/decision making process. We update it yearly. (http://www.careerkey.org)

Neil Baldwin - Sheridan College   on Wednesday 12/04/2013 at 04:31 PM

This is very topical and, as it happens, on my sabbatical last year I did some research on the state of "green" careers and, more broadly, how to determine what constitutes a career which enhances social, ecnomic and/or environmental sustainability. I wrote an article, "Beyond Green Jobs: Assessing Sustainability-Enhancing Career Options" which will be published next year in Canadian Journal of Career Development. I also will be presenting on this topic at the January conference in Ottawa see www.cannexus.ca

Kevin Doyle   on Wednesday 12/11/2013 at 11:32 AM

Great work as always, Debra. Will be very useful.
Employer based groups like the NE Clean Energy Council (www.cleanenergycouncil.org) are also a good source of career information.

Yuka Honzawa   on Tuesday 12/24/2013 at 05:02 PM

I am glad to find this article. As international student, it was hard to find careers that related to sustainability and also meet my interest. This will help my further research in the future. Thank you.

Bibhu Prasad   on Sunday 05/18/2014 at 01:09 AM

I learnt so many things from here. I feel great. Thanks Debra for the great contribution. I being a matured development professional always wish to be connected to such organisations and youth mass in particular to motivate them towards green energy, sustainable food and livelihood security and application of appropriate technology for sustainable development. Lovely write up and great going.

Bibhu from India
bibhu65@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the comments shown above are those of the individual comment authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of this organization.