Green Collar Blog

Don't take my word for it, take the word of Exxon-Mobile, the world's largest publicly-traded oil company.  In an article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday titled Exxon Struggles to Find New Oi l, states:

 

In its closely watched annual financial report released Tuesday, the company said that for every 100 barrels it has pumped out of the earth over the past decade, it has replaced only 95.

 

It's a conundrum shared by most of the other large Western oil-producing companies, which are finding most accessible oil fields were tapped long ago, while promising new regions are proving technologically and politically challenging. 

 
Peak Oil has come and gone, and still our vaunted congress is doing everything they can to keep their head in the sand and let the oil companies write our energy policy.  

In a related story, Japan just announced a plan to build the fastest high 

speed train in the world (310 mph).  Imagine a 310 mph train connecting Boston and Chicago.  You would be there in 3 hours - less time than getting to Logan, parking, getting frisked in security, waiting around for an hour, waiting for the weather to clear, the plane to be de-iced, waiting in line on the tarmac, waiting for our baggage, and renting a car - and ou would walk upstair in a train station in downtown Chicago, not 25 miles out in the suburbs.  According to Smart Planet :

The new line, which [will run between Tokyo and Nagoya] is estimated to cost about $64 billion, will extend for about 178 miles. The company expects trains running on it to reach speeds up to 310 miles per hour. The line will cut travel time between the two cities by 40 minutes. 

Meanwhile in America, we apparently want no part of this green wave of the future.

 On the flip side, Florida governor Rick Scott announced today that his state would be rejecting $2 billion in federal funds to build a proposed high-speed rail line linking Tampa to Orlando. Scott, a Republican elected in last November’s election, will be the third Republican governor to return funds allocated for high-speed rail.

John Kasich of Ohio and Scott Walker of Wisconsin have also rejected high-speed rail funds, citing cost overruns.

 

 What is going on here?  Asia is cleaning our clock on the infrastructure and industries of the 21st .  Make no mistake, we are going to be installing high speed rail in this country...the difference is that we are going to be importing it all from overseas...same for wind turbines and solar solutions.  We'll probably even import the jobs to install all of our green infrastructure because Americans won't know how.

If you are interested in pursuing a green career or looking for a company that espouses green practices, you've hit on a growing demand cycle. To properly leverage all the new opportunities out there, you not only need to have the required skills, but the right attitude and "brand". Employers are looking for professionals who not only bring high energy, but a real devotion to green philosophies. This shouldn't come as a surprise as companies who pursue a green business model are concerned not just about the bottom line, but how their activities contribute to a better future.

How To Build A Personal Brand

In essence, your job seeking "brand" is a reflection of who you are and should be focused on what an employer will value.

1. Keep your message consistent. It is no longer possible to separate your business persona from your personal life. Employers are hyper-sensitive to any appearance of subterfuge or dishonesty. This means your message includes not just your education and work history, but what you do with your free time. Are you active in charities or causes that support the environment? Do you pay attention to your own carbon footprint?

   Walking the walk is reflected in many simple ways, from your power settings on your computer to being connected with what's happening in your community. You should be conversant in any initiatives in your area and the green movement in general. Industry specific advances are an expected part of what you bring to the table. You can take a Green Quiz here to get in the mood, and read about green living all over the Internet. Remember, this isn't an adversarial relationship; employers are looking for you precisely because you bring the right conservation attitude to the mix.

2. Your online image.This is a perilous trap you can avoid simply by investigating yourself as if you were a potential employer (or ask a computer savvy friend to do it). You may, in your heart of hearts, be the most concerned and caring person on the planet, but if your Facebook page has pictures of your unmuffled Harley and a recipe for your famous "knock you on your butt" cocktail - this can be discovered and will end up working against you; even if it never gets mentioned.

   What forums do you post on? What does your LinkedIn page say? Let your online persona reflect your best and brightest self. What you post in blogs and elsewhere will be counted as part of your brand, if only because employers think this is a clearer reflection of your true self. You can improve your brand by adding industry specific links and articles that have an eco-centric bent. Just tap into what you are already interested in and share it with others in a natural way online.

3. Understand the realities.This is the obverse of the above. Sometimes, in our anxiety to impress, we come off as too critical of the current state of affairs. Understanding the realities of a business you are applying to means a willingness to start from wherever a company or community happens to be.

   You may be asked to make an off-the-cuff assessment, but criticisms have to be combined with suggested solutions or ideas. Without this pairing, it is better to be graceful about what you feel are poor practices. A businessman will understand there are improvements to be made, but if you are over-critical, it is just insulting. Hiring is hugely biased by personality. Don't be so aggressive in your drive toward eco-friendly that you become an irritant.

4. Understand your future employer's concerns. It should be a part of your investigation of any company - what are their policies and vision on the ecological front? How will current trends feed into this? Are they hoping for a push toward solar? Do they envision a combination of wind farms and free-range as the best use of available land?

   Companies that will interest you will be upfront on their website and promotional materials about initiatives they have in the works. You should be familiar ongoing projects and be familiar with the challenges as they relate to your own area of expertise.

5. Don't overplay your hand. There are two realities at play here. The first is whether you have the background and skills for the job. The second is your "brand" when it comes to dedication and your own sense of "best practices." However, if you overplay your hand and attempt to be Mother Earth's Own Prophet, you risk coming off as, well - a bit nutty. Passion is one thing, extremism is another. The green revolution came, not from the rabble, but from honest people who addressed real problems in a mature manner - that's the proper tone.

   Don't rely on your environmental IQ overcoming a lack of necessary education or work history. Think of your brand as augmenting your demonstrated skills, not a way to oversell yourself.

Final Tip

Examine your resume with an eye toward your brand. If I had never met you, could I tell from your resume that you are involved with environmental trends?

One tactic is to leave some of the things that give you your best credibility less than fully developed. Mention them, but don't put in details - give some natural openings for questions at an interview. This works wonderfully when you've had previous employment in the sector or are active in environmental causes. One line in a resume can lead to a ten minute chat about something you know well and care about.

Brendan Cruickshank (Vice President of Client Services) - Brendan is a veteran of the online job search and recruiting industry, having spent the past 8 years in senior client services roles with major sites like Juju.com and JobsInTheMoney.com. These sites cover employment searches on everything from jobs to North Carolina Jobs.

In this interview with Karen Biscoe, founder and President of Green Search Partner, we discuss what's really happening in the Green Economy when it comes to hiring.  Where is the action, what types of people are being brought on board, who is getting funding, how is the economy and the (lack of ) government support impacting the green sector.

Listen to the whole interview:

Here is a summary of most of the Q & A.  If you are a green company and looking to bring the right people on board, or if you are a company planning on hiring the right person to spearhead sustainability in your organization, give Karen a call. 

Q: As a recruitment specialist in the green space, how do you feel the green economy is doing in the face of this recession? T

A:  The green industry, like many others with respect to job creation, is moving very slowly. Over the past several years there has been a tremendous amount of innovation and development of new technologies, both from the commercial and academic sectors. But for many of these entrepreneurs, the struggle continues for capital and resources required to get these technologies past the proof of concept stage, and out into the marketplace. You can't create jobs if you don't have the funding to get your product to the market. 

Q:  What sectors of the green economy are gaining traction?

A:   Small Hydro-Electric seems to be gaining more traction here in the northeast. There has also been an increase in development of new polysilicon technologies, bio fuels, and waste treatment/management. 

Q:  How does your firm define a ‘Green' business?

A:  This is what I call the gray/green area. There are several definitions of a green business. In my mind, the primary definition is a business that focuses on the direct development of technologies or systems that make a positive impact on the environment and decrease our dependence upon traditional fossil fuels such as oil and coal. Another definition is a company that utilizes eco-friendly resources in the development of products that allow people to enjoy a higher quality, sustainable lifestyle without compromising environmental integrity. Additionally, a green business can be defined as one that, while not directly involved in the design and manufacturing of a green technology, they are employing the dynamic use of new or existing technologies designed to increase awareness and ultimately allow the user to manage and reduce our overall CO2 emissions. Examples of this are demand-response control solutions, or consulting firms that retrofit buildings to increase energy efficiency and decrease water usage. Some may define a green business as one that employs and maintains sustainability policies relative to how they run the operations of their company, such as a robust reduce/reuse/recycle policy. From my perspective, sustainability is something all companies should be practicing consistently. Having a sustainability policy doesn't necessarily qualify a company as a "green" business.

Q:  What types of employees and executives are green companies looking for?

A:  Great question, I get that one a lot. The answer is pretty subjective based on where a particular company is in its development. The initial need is usually on the R&D side, so civil, environmental, chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineers are in high demand in the early days of development. As a company moves from research and development to commercialization, a GM with good project management experience, a project finance person and market research expert is likely to find a role within a clean tech company before a salesperson would. But, I would also venture to say that if you are a business development expert with strong relationships within the public utilities this is a good time for you to be getting your resume out there.

Q:  Does your firm specialize in a particular type of hire, or do you fill all hiring needs for green businesses?

A:  Typically, a founder or CEO will call upon me to help build out their management team or to hire several key staff people for the organization. Considering the average size of a client company is between 2 and 50 employees, being nimble and highly adaptable as a recruiter can make the critical difference for them. However, there are certain roles best handled by a recruiter with specific technical expertise, such as IT. In this case, it's best to say "I can't help you with this, but I know someone who can". 

Q:  Are large, traditionally non-green businesses looking to bring green expertise on-board? For what reasons.

A:  Yes, but the roles they are hiring for depends upon the business model in question. Those organizations that have put sustainability on the top of their priority list may hire at the corporate level to put sustainability policies in place. I've had several clients adjust or add titles to their org charts such as "Chief Sustainability Officer" In some cases, companies have hired or brought in and marketing and branding consultants to "green up" the company's identity and public profile. In companies with very complex manufacturing and distribution operations, hiring a senior person to implement a green approach absolutely makes sense and should be the company's top priority. That's not to say there is no need for other talented professionals in their R&D, operations, sales or even IT departments. But many companies are still very hesitant to hire on the basis of a green agenda alone, they will need to see the market stabilize before hiring the "nice to have" green collars among us.

Q:  What makes recruitment in the green sector unique?

A:  It's incredibly dynamic, educational, and exciting. The green movement has really captured both the analytical left brainers and enterprising right brainers throughout this nation. The competitive collaboration of our brilliant academics paired with the creative energy of business leaders has once again harnessed the entrepreneurial spirit of US. I hope the new technologies coming from countries like China and Israel serve to inspire our government leaders. We need more commercial and government support to provide the necessary funding and resources to launch these worthy start-ups.

OK, so while the "innovation' measured here is not entirely Green focused, I can't pass up an opportunity to promote my home town (and to bust on New York and San Francisco...you guys know you think you're cooler than us).

According to SmartPlanet:

In its latest index, Australian analyst firm 2thinknow says Beantown leads the world in relative performance in the global innovation economy. That means the city's actions to facilitate the growth of new industries are opening up a better economic opportunity for talent. 

 Well done Boston...Mayor Menino never ceases to surprise me.  If you haven't been here since they finished the Big Dig, you really have to take a trip.  The city looks fantastic and apparently we're innovative...who knew?

Here is the list of the 30 cities that according to the index received the top rating of an innovation 'Nexus".

I have been a big proponent of white roofs and lighter colored pavement for quite some time for 3 primary reason.  1.  Reduced Energy Costs.  A building with a white roof saves 10-15% on average.  2.  Reduced Heat Island Effect - less absorption of energy from the sun means less heat in cities and therefore reduced Global Warming, and; 3.  Jobs....this is a no brainer and someone has to deal with the millions of black roofs in America and help us reap the benefits.  A new research study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory confirms the benefits of this concept in a big way.  According to their report:

In the latest study, the Berkeley Lab researchers and their collaborators used a detailed global land surface model from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, which contained regional information on surface variables, such as topography, evaporation, radiation and temperature, as well as on cloud cover. For the northern hemisphere summer, they found that increasing the reflectivity of roof and pavement materials in cities with a population greater than 1 million would achieve a one-time offset of 57 gigatons (1gigaton equals 1 billion metric tons) of CO₂ emissions (31 Gt from roofs and 26 Gt from pavements). That's double the worldwide CO₂ emissions in 2006 of 28 gigatons. Their results were published online in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

It goes on to claim that doing this in the northern hemisphere would produce the equivalent benefits of taking 300 Million cars off the road.

"If all eligible urban flat roofs in the tropics and temperate regions were gradually converted to white (and sloped roofs to cool colors), they would offset the heating effect of the emission of roughly 24 Gt of CO₂, but one-time only," says Rosenfeld, who returned to Berkeley Lab this year. "However, if we assume that roofs have a service life of 20 years, we can think of an equivalent annual rate of 1.2 Gt per year. That offsets the emissions of roughly 300 million cars (about the cars in the world) for 20 years!"

In both studies, the researchers used a conservative assumption of increasing the average albedo (solar reflectance) of all roofs by 0.25 and of pavements by 0.15. That means a black roof (which has an albedo of 0) would not have to be replaced by a pure white roof (which has an albedo of 1), but just a roof of a cooler color, a scenario that is more plausible to implement.

 And it's not just me that is excited about this concept.  Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu is touting this research as one of the most effective things we can do as a society to address global warming and reduce energy costs.   He is working to have all governmental buildings converted to white roofs to take advantage of the energy savings and make a statement about the benefits to climate change.  Now, let's take this concept and roll it out in a big way in a jobs bill to jump start the 'green collar' economy!

Green Collar Research welcomes Tulsi Tanti, the CEO of Suzlon Energy, as he describes his companies new 10 acre LEED Platinum corporate campus.  He eloquently describes the business, financial and environmental benefits of committing his organization to long-term sustainability.

A Greener World Must Start with Greener Workplaces

By Tulsi Tanti

I believe fervently that today's business leaders must shape a greener world to halt climate change. I view my own company, Suzlon Energy Limited, both as a business and the champion of that cause. So whenever possible, we strive to employ life-changing solutions that make a difference to our planet and also deliver an ROI.  

A greener world must start with greener workplaces. This explains why One Earth, our newly opened 10.4-acre global headquarters in Pune, India, is a campus powered 100 percent by renewable energy. And why it employs the latest "green building" concepts in materials and resources that help create a great place to work for 2,300 employees. In the process, One Earth has achieved Platinum-level LEED certification, the highest level of green-building certification.

Perhaps most noteworthy, though, is that we constructed this project at a lower cost compared to other facilities of comparable size. It's been commonly held that green buildings cost more. That's simply not the case.  This explains why progressive developers, those that recognize value, are embracing green construction because it's the most cost-effective strategy.  

Green Buildings Transforming Building Market

We hope One Earth will serve to exemplify the type of LEED-certified projects that are transforming today's building market - not only in the U.S., where there are 4,800 certified green buildings, and other developed countries but also in India, China and other rapidly growing economies.  These green buildings are providing healthier work and living environments and, consequently, contributing to higher productivity and improved employee health and comfort. 

Nearly every day, the sun shines on another LEED building.  And, like ours, many are corporate headquarters. Their leaders are making a statement about the importance of a greener planet. Among the LEED-certified U.S. headquarters are those for Darden Restaurants, Orlando, Fla.; Genzyme Corp., Cambridge, Mass.; Manpower Inc., Milwaukee; Manulife Financial, Boston; Radio Shack Corp., Fort Worth; and Sony Electronics Inc., San Diego. 

Abroad, headquarters for BorgWarner Turbo Systems Poland in Rzeszow; Herman Miller's European base, Chippenham, England; Metito, Dubai; Nokia China, Beijing; Office Depot United Kingdom; and Pacific Controls, Dubai, are LEED or BREEAM certified, among others.

Suzlon's LEED-Certified Headquarters

Our own corporate headquarters, home to the world's third-largest wind turbine manufacturer, sets new benchmarks in energy efficiency in all aspects of engineering and construction.  One Earth is located in a dry and tropical climate, about 100 miles from Mumbai. Its built-up area covers more than 800,000 square feet. The buildings are all Ground+2 levels except for Corporate House, which is Ground+3.

All of the campus' energy comes from two primary areas: (1) an on-site wind-and-solar hybrid system that employs 18 windmills and solar panels installed on campus buildings and (2) off-site wind turbines at Suzlon-built wind farms in the state.

Suzlon is also very efficient with the power we do use.  Light-emitting diodes (LED) lighting, which requires minimal power, is used for outdoor lighting. Ninety percent of regularly occupied spaces have daylight exposure, which saves on artificial lighting.  And daylight sensors in workstations allow maximum use of natural lighting, while sensors also control task lighting in unoccupied workstations. In total, this ensures savings of about 20 percent of energy costs.

As for ventilation, jet fans in the basements intermittently push out stale air and bring in fresh air, saving 50 percent energy as compared to a ducted basement-ventilation system.  And a storm- and rainwater-management system channels all rain into a controlled flow, preventing soil erosion and helping the removal of silt.

One Earth Already Generates Energy Savings

Already, our building systems are generating a 36 percent energy saving and a 30 percent water saving over any similar facility of comparable size. As you might expect, a zero waste practice has been adopted as all waste is recycled or reused in some way.

We believe our headquarters underscores our commitment to sustainability. As a provider of renewable-energy products, we recognize we have an obligation to help in the expanding efforts to curb climate change that harms our planet. But our fervent belief would be that we "go green" regardless of what we made or serviced.

One Earth was named as a tribute to Earth's unique existence as a self-replenishing ecosystem.  We hope it will serve as inspiration and proof to others that it is possible, if we are really determined, to create the sustainable world we seek for our children and grandchildren.

This is important because the change necessary to deliver that greener future won't be easy.  We need to invest now. It's time for today's business and private-sector leaders worldwide to lead the way and deliver our planet's green future.

Tulsi Tanti is founder, chairman and managing director of Suzlon Energy Ltd.