Green Collar Blog

I just ran across this site, thanks to SmartPlanet .  It is by Streetfilms.org and is called Moving Beyond the Automobile .  It has excellent, high quality short films educating you on proven  methods for streamlining municipal transportation and helping the environment.  

 I watched the one on Rapid Transit Busses (it won't work in Boston because our roads are old cowpaths, but very cool idea in cities with lots of land). Scroll down below the first video to see all of their videos.

 
Sorry for not embedding it, my antique CMS doesn't play nice with iframes.

Let me know what you think. 

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.

We are happy to welcome back Dr. Nicole Peill-Moelter, the Director of Environmental Sustainability at Akamai, to Green Collar.  Since we last we spoke with Nicole, she has deployed a Solar PV system on her home in California.  She has documented her learnings and asked if we would like to publish them...of course we jumped at the chance.   If you are interested in putting solar on your home (or business), this series will get you moving in the right direction.  Thanks Dr. Peill-Moelter.

Solar Basics

Our family recently passed the threshold where it made sense to look into photovoltaic (PV) solar power.  We moved into a larger home with a pool; and with three teenage boys we were pushing 600 KWH per month.  That's actually pretty low for a family of five because we don't run our air conditioning and installed energy efficient lighting and appliances.  The average single family home uses ~1,000 KWH.

Having engineering degrees in chemical and environmental I had a decent background to navigate both the technical and business aspects of purchasing a PV solar system.  I obtained proposals from four companies and learned a lot in the process which I thought might be useful for other who are also contemplating solar.

The steps for selecting a system and vendor that best suits your situation include:
1) Optimizing your energy usage;
2) Sizing your system based on average monthly usage and projected usage;
3) Determining the orientation of your roof, its size and material makeup, e.g., tile;
4) Understanding energy and financial fundamentals such as KWH vs KW, net metering, current rebates and tax credits;
5) Deciding on the type of system financing

While a PV system vendor can and will do many of these steps for you I recommend doing some basic research and calculations yourself before you call so you have the answers in your back pocket and get clued in if you're being oversold.

What exactly is a PV solar system?

A basic PV solar system consists of a grouping of solar panels that are linked together to an inverter that converts the direct current (DC) electricity into alternating current (AC). Some things to know:

• Most panels are made of a layer of crystalline silicon in a frame with connectors to collect the produced electricity.  
• Panels sizes vary but are in the range of 5' x 8'. 
• The rated power output of a panel in kilowatts (KW) is determined under laboratory conditions by the manufacturer. 
• A typical panel is rated in the low hundreds of kilowatts (KW). 
• Actual output will vary due to losses in the system, e.g., inverter, and how much sun hits your roof. 
• The vast majority of residential panels are made of mono-crystalline or polycrystalline silicon. 
• The other common technology is thin film:  amorphous and thin-film silicon, CdTe (cadmium telluride) and CIGS (copper, indium, gallium, selenide). 
• Advantages of the thin films technologies include lower cost because less material is used per panel; better performance at higher temperatures and indirect sun; ability to perform when one panel is shaded or incapacitated; lower weight per panel; semi-transparency;  and ability to manufacture a flexible panel. 
• Key disadvantages include toxicity (CdTe), uncertainty of material availability (indium) and lower efficiencies requiring larger systems for the same power output. 
• First Solar was the first and one of the few manufacturers of thin-film panels used for residential installations.

KW vs KWH

Since we're already talking about it let's discuss the difference between kilowatt (KW) and kilowatt-hour (KWH). 

1. KW is a unit of power. 
2. KWH is a unit of energy (power over time). 

Appliances need a certain amount of power to operate.  For example, a light bulb might need 60 watts (0.060 KW) to light while a hair dryer needs 1,500 watts (1.5 KW).  If the light is on for 10 hours it will consume 60 Watts * 10 hours (600 WH or 0.6 KWH) of energy, or electricity in this case.  If you run the hair dryer for 10 hours for very dry hair it will consume 15,000 WH or 15 KWH of electricity. 

Your electricity bill shows you the sum of all the energy consumed by the operation of all your appliances during the month.  Refrigerators, microwaves, TV's, monitors, PC's, dishwashers, washers/dryers, pumps, and incandescent (old style) light bulbs are the biggest consumers of electricity. 

 Take a look at your electricity bill, now that you understand the above.  If you are like me, this will lead you to:

Optimizing Your Energy Usage

Ideally you want your PV system to be as small as possible while covering most if not all of your energy needs to minimize your costs.  The first step is to make your home as energy efficient as possible - which is a good idea even if you're not considering a PV system.  The savings payback is well worth the effort.  This can be as simple replacing your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent or LEDs (I know, I know - you don't like the color spectrum, or the noise bothers you, or they take too long to turn on.  Just try it.  The technology has come a long way!).  Upgrading any of your appliances to EnergyStar appliances. 

For a more detailed plan check out the EnergyStar website.  It has information about non-electricity energy efficiency too.  Some utilities give rebates for upgrading your appliances.

Reducing your household energy by 20%, which is very doable, would reduce your PV system size and cost by that amount even before you start haggling with the PV sales rep!

Next time we will review electricity rates, connecting to the grid, net metering and various other mysteries.

One of our favorite sayings at  Green Collar is "You can't improve what you can't measure".  That is why we were so excited for this interview with Amit Chaterjee, CEO of Hara.  Hara is the leading and fastest growing provider of environmental and energy management software. Their mission is to enable organizations to grow and profit while optimizing resource utilization and minimizing environmental impact.

Hara's software helps companies track their "organizational metabolism" and centralize data about their energy, water, carbon and waste in order to use that information to create opportunity.  Generally selling to Fortune 5000 companies, Hara has been proving itself to be a solution that creates "substantial cost savings" and "massive energy reductions".  These often come as a surprise to many of their customers, who may have never taken a hard (or holistic) look at this information before.  Amit tells us of one client who thought their enterprise energy expenditure was around $50 to $80 million per year, but with Hara they realized it was closer to $250 million.  After the shocked expressions wore off (which probably took a while), they got to work and started slashing those numbers.  Amit used a line which I loved..."it is better to lay off energy, than people."  Amen to that.

The insight they are providing and working with their clients on exploiting is rapidly becoming respected and considered vital.  As you will hear, Hara believes it is almost to the point where 'Sustainable" finance could be considered a critical discipline in a Fortune 5000 company.

Hara echoes the refrain we have heard Green Collar on many occasions, that the huge majority of businesses - even large businesses - do not have someone who is responsible for energy usage (not to mention carbon) across the enterprise.  Shocking but true.  My guess is that as Hara continues to accelerate and provide the data companies need to make good decisions, you are going to see a lot more companies who have someone responsible for ensuring the company makes smart decisions.

Listen to the Full Interview!

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.