Green Jobs

Where's the Green?
Eco-friendly degrees can lead to real jobs -- just follow the federal stimulus money
By Nan Mooney
Kate Kritcher had no idea she'd be entering a hot job field when she decided to pursue an environmentally friendly career.

"All I knew was that I loved the outdoors and didn't know what to do with my B.A. in psychology," Kritcher says.

She tested a few jobs -- working as an environmental educator at a camp in the Baltimore area and as a science writer for the EPA -- before accepting a position as a volunteer coordinator in the Department of Natural Resources. The combination of working with people and spending time outdoors struck a chord. She stayed with the department for five years, taking time off to go back to school and earn a second B.A. in environmental studies.

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Zip Code: Subject: - Select All Subjects - Business Culinary Arts Digital Media Arts Education Fashion & Interior Design Health Care Law & Justice Psychology Technology Technicians Degree: - Select All Degrees - Associate Bachelor Master Doctoral Certificate Diploma MBA Online Campus Both As Kritcher settled into her new career, the green-job arena began to blossom, offering plentiful opportunities for someone with a background in working with people and science.

Today Kritcher works for a consulting firm that hires out to local and state governments, and occasionally the federal government, to provide environmental assessment and permits for building projects. She may do anything from determining if a proposed highway expansion violates wetlands to reporting on whether a building project threatens endangered plants or ecosystems.

"I really enjoy the work and I don't have to feel as if I've sold out my values," says Kritcher. "Sure there's some bureaucracy, but overall I feel very lucky to be doing what I do."

Where the stimulus meets the job market
Green jobs like Kritcher's are one of the few bright lights in our struggling economy. The 2009 economic-stimulus package contains more than $13 billion to make federal buildings and public housing more efficient and to weatherize as many as one million homes; more than $10 billion to modernize the electricity grid and install smart meters in homes; and as much as $20 billion in tax incentives for wind, solar, hydro and other renewable power sources. It also includes $18 billion for environmental projects, including clean water systems, flood control and pollution cleanup work. All these provisions could create nearly 900,000 jobs.

Nice work if you can get it. But what exactly is a green job? And how do you land one for yourself?

There's no hard and fast definition of a green -- or green-collar -- job. In general they're described as positions that are both environmentally and socially responsible, meaning the job not only helps maintain vital parts of the ecosystem, but also pays decent wages, provides a career path with upward mobility and likely includes benefits.

Most people equate green jobs with retrofitting buildings to make them more energy efficient, creating smart grids or building wind turbines. But they actually cover a much broader area of the employment market. Green jobs can include sales managers, computer engineers, bus drivers and building inspectors.

Many of these jobs will simply require retraining to build upon skills workers already have in fields ranging from construction to information technology to business management. And because so many of the jobs require dealing with a physical entity -- be that installing a solar panel or updating a city water system -- green jobs are also relatively unlikely to be outsourced, providing a sense of continuity and job security that's rare these days.

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Green in the city
Ashley Traut was drawn to an environmental career because he loved the outdoors and because he'd always had what he called a "conservation mentality."

"I could see the huge impact our actions were having on the planet and I wanted to do something to counter that," he says.

In college, Taut studied biology and natural resources and graduated to a series of jobs that involved wildlife conservation, including one stint documenting birds on a remote, half-mile-wide Pacific island.

But as he grew more familiar with green-job opportunities, he was drawn to issues surrounding the greening of urban areas. Today he works as a project coordinator for an inner-city watershed -- recruiting volunteers, arranging stream cleanups and designing educational outreach programs for a poor, urban community in which environmental issues tend to carry very little sway.

"I find it incredibly stimulating and satisfying," Traut says. "It's a challenge figuring out how to reach a section of the population who never really cared about the environment in the past."

Steve Voorhees was just ahead of the green curve eight years ago when he started a small wind farm development company in the western United States. "It's really exciting to be playing a role in a revolution," he says.

Today his company has been bought by a major French infrastructure company with the capacity to expand Voorhees' vision across the country and even the world. "There's a pride to being able to say I've been part of a paradigm shift," says Voorhees.

Where to start?
Training for a green career can entail as little as a week-long course or as much as a four-year degree. If you're contemplating an educational commitment to a greener future, here are some of the more promising areas to explore:

Urban planning -- Urban planners work to streamline the ordering and design of cities. They contribute to a greener future by strengthening mass transit systems, limiting sprawl, and creating contingency plans for large cities as floods, droughts and garbage accumulation become increasingly common problems.

Civil, electrical, chemical and environmental engineering -- Engineers make things run, and with rising interest in smart grids, biofuels, environmentally friendly waste-treatment facilities and new mass-transit systems, there's no question they will be in demand.

Conservation biology -- Conservation biologists focus on protecting species, their habitats and ecosystems from extinction. It is an interdisciplinary subject drawing on sciences, economics and natural-resource management with job opportunities in teaching, research and fieldwork for government, nonprofits and private companies.

Environmental law -- Questions about legal levels of pollution, corporate involvement in environmental health, and our national commitment to stopping global warming all have significant legal components. With corporate law firms cutting back on their hours, environmental law may step in to become the new hot spot for budding attorneys.

If you're intrigued by the prospect of a green job but unsure where to begin, investigating local education opportunities can provide a good start. Technical and community colleges offer an increasing number of classes in green-related subjects.

Whatever field ultimately draws your attention, pursuing a green career means not only benefitting your own long-term security, but also taking part in a much larger project to see to the long-term security of our planet.

About the Author
Nan Mooney's third book, "(Not) Keeping Up With Our Parents: The Decline of the Professional Middle Class," is available now. Mooney is also the author of "I Can't Believe She Did That: Why Women Betray Other Women at Work" and "My Racing Heart: The Passionate World of Thoroughbreds and the Track." She lives in Seattle with her son Leo and lots of rain. Visit her Web site.