New Year, New (Green) Career

Are you dreading the inevitable return to the daily grind? While most of us may still be in a post-holiday funk (brought on by the large hit to your bank account, or the added pounds from holiday feasting), it may not be a seasonal problem.

According to Live Science, “Americans hate their jobs more than ever before in the past 20 years.” In fact, a dismal 39 percent of workers are satisfied with their jobs, meaning that more than half of Americans are unhappy at work.

We asked our readers to tell us about the jobs in which they were interested. Not surprising, most of the comments were about jobs that were more than just pencil-pushing positions. Our readers wanted the lowdown on those careers that had direct influence on the public from both an educational and technological standpoint.

So, let’s roll up our sleeves, get our hands dirty and get schooled on the 2010 green job market.

Sustainability education programs are popping up around the country, however, their career worth and overall investment are still up in the air. Photo: Arizona State University

Sustainability for Grown Ups

Last year, we chose a science teacher as one of our top five green career picks. These ever-patient, public school gems really do make a difference as they instill the next generation with environmentally friendly habits.

But after some digging around, we found that a career in environmental education goes beyond the elementary school classroom.

According to Dan Childers, a professor at Arizona State’s School of Sustainability, the more educational programs and businesses adopt the term “sustainability” into curricula and business plans, the higher the demand will be for experts.

As an educator at the nation’s first School of Sustainability, Childers explains that the career field is still murky, but he doesn’t consider this a negative aspect as anything is up for grabs.

“It’s a little tricky because we’re here in the experiment educationally, because the school is so new, none of us can point to a track record for job placement,” he says.

However, Childers points out that there is a reoccurring trend of growing demand for real-world environmental problem solvers for businesses that are rethinking and remolding their images to not only fit environmental regulations and legislation, but to also meet the growing consumer demand for “green” products.

So what career path does Childers expect to blow up in the next couple of years? Two words: sustainability consultant.

According to Sue Bumpous, program and communications manager for North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), the most important necessity for tackling this career path is enthusiasm.

“Most people in the field begin with a passion for environmental protection, often in a particular arena like air quality, water quality, waste management or wildlife protection,” Bumpous says. “They quickly learn that all things are connected, and that solving one environmental problem often results in creating a different type of problem. It’s important for environmental educators to know a lot about not just the science of ecology, but also social sciences and economics, which help describe how people interact with each other, and to understand good education principles as well as environmental facts.”

OK, we’re suckers for warm and fuzzy thoughts, but we know you need more than that to get a job. It goes without saying that it takes education to become an educator. But Childers says the field is unexplored, and there are no standards.

“From small engineering firms to General Electric, we’re seeing this parade of people coming to the academia world for problem solving,” Childers explains. “Get yourself a plan together because in 10 years it will be a huge business. The idea is that is education and research are needed to solve real problems, but all bets are off for what kind of requirements would be needed to work for one of these firms. It’s a bottom-up driven kind of thing. Not the status quo.”

Technology, Just One Example

Yeah, it all sounds interesting, but where do you start if you’re working in retail sans college degree? You don’t have to shell out a cool $35,00o per year for a Bachelor’s degree (seriously). Several community colleges around the nation offer affordable two-year degrees that put you in the forefront of advancing sustainable technology.

Just to give you an idea to get your creative juices flowing, GateWay Community College in Phoenix has programs for both hydrologic studies and water technology. The convenient degree qualifies students for jobs that are hands-on, such as testing water’s drinkability and improving natural resources at local, state and federal levels.

While water seems like an abundant resource that we can access with literally the flip of a switch, pollution from industrial and household contaminants as well as changing weather patterns threaten this daily staple, while shortages in parts of the U.S. have lead to enforced rationing in many heavily populated areas.

Thirty-seven years ago, the Clean Water Act put in place the basic structure for regulating pollutants in water and setting a quality standard. But according to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in a hearing before the House of Representatives, “We have a long way to go.”

Choose this field, and the economy has got your back. According to GateWay, jobs in water and wastewater treatment are expected to increase by 10 percent or more in the next 10 years as a result of population growth and industry demand.

Can’t Leave? Make It Better

We love the idea of putting all your eggs into the education basket, but we realize that, sometimes, that’s just not feasible. A major career change may not be in your cards, but there are ways to increase your job satisfaction. According to Krista Gullo, business and environment program manager for the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF), you don’t have to have a “green” job to essentially have…well, a green job.

“[In a benchmark study] we found that really all jobs are green jobs and right now during this economy, an education can be a huge source of bottom-line benefits. There is a large business case for educating your employees from energy savings to source reduction,” Gullo says. “In addition, we are seeing that there are number of ways a company can engage employees because they are a huge source of innovations and ideas of what could happen.”

The National Environmental Education Act of 1990 established NEEF as a complementary organization to the U.S. EPA. Its business program was developed to create a corporate culture in which each employee is committed to doing his or her part to improve the environment.

Looking for ways to green your current job? Check out what Earth911 did for a few ideas to get started!

“We have learned to harness the value of education. This has happened with companies aligning their own day-to-day values,” Gullo says. “And it’s not just stopping with the day job. The employees are taking these ideas home as well.”