State of US Green Job Market

Posted by Nick

Forbes recently ran an article addressing job prospects for impending 2008 graduates. Despite the looming (or already present, depending on your outlook) recession, job prospects for neophytes look quite strong!

Interestingly, the green jobs sector looks poised to offer future laborers an even more promising professional outlook than most. According to an article recently published by the Green Biz Journal, green jobs are in for boom times. All the more reason to consider your career options carefully when leaving the educational sandbox, and consider working with environmentally focused recruiters like Bright Green Talent (recent news release on BGT available through Forbes online). The Blue Green Alliance is another excellent resource for those looking to help transition rust-belt jobs towards a cleaner, greener future.

The interesting caveat to the green jobs prognostications is that the number green jobs may, in fact, suffer from the very problem they’re trying to solve: improved efficiency and better resource utilization. Many green jobs rely on finding folks who can do more with less. Though the economy’s poised for a green growth spurt, it may be slightly offset by the number of jobs that are made redundant and conflated into more efficient roles. Two sides to every coin, I guess. Either way, with more talent charging into the green economy, it’s another nickel in the green economy’s pocket, and a win for the planet. All good, all green.

Getting Green, Educated, Passionate

Posted by Nick

To bring folks up to speed on what’s happening with green jobs, green
organizations, and our bright green future, I thought it worth sharing
a few resources that provide top-notch intelligence on the movement
writ large.

Check out the “State of Green Business 2008 Report” and a recent
report on the intersection of human rights and green jobs entitled
“Green Collar Jobs in America’s Cities,” published by the Apollo
Alliance (www.apolloalliance.org).

The Ella Baker Center and, for those in SF, SF
Connect’s Environmental initiatives are also making waves at the intersection of community, environment, and human rights. More on those through the links
below:

Ella Baker Center on Human Rights
http://ellabakercenter.org/page.php?pageid=1
SF Connect: Environment
http://www.sfconnect.org/AboutUs/index.php/green_connect/pgc_our_mission.html

Bottom line: now’s the time to get educated, involved,
and passionate about greening the workforce, saving the planet, and
spreading the good green word.

Peace, love, and all the rest, Nick

Being picked up

By Tom:

It’s hard to know exactly where to push your resources when you’re starting a business. One of the things we’ve been low-key with to-date is trying to get press coverage. It’s not because we don’t want to be noticed, but because we’ve wanted to ‘make it happen’ before we shout from the rooftops. Perhaps we’ve missed a trick, but so far we haven’t pushed to hard to promote ourselves, relying instead on recommendations and our networks.

In the last week we’ve started to open our doors a little and send out a few press releases and we’re really happy to have been ‘spotted’ by Forbes today. It’ll be good to see what difference this proactivity will have.

From a personal standpoint, I’ve always felt that there is real power in the understated approach, which is embodied by our friends Sawdays, for example, who have always relied on doing things ‘right’ as opposed to investing time and money on PR, which in turn has resulted in excellent publicity. Nonetheless, it is important to reach those people who you may not have direct contact with and some entrepreneurs, such as Branson and Stelios and some companies, for example Innocent Drinks, use their profile to excellent effect with the media.

I’ll be really interested to see how our/my attitude pans out over time!