Renewable Energy Alternative Fuels

By Carol McClelland

Overwhelmed with your quest for a green job? Not sure where to start?

You are not alone. Based on the questions I hear on a daily basis, I know it's hard to figure out where to put your energy and attention when you are searching for a green career.

Use these four points to guide your actions as you continue your journey to your green career.

1) Nail down Your Green Niche

The green economy is evolving and shifting at the moment. With emerging technologies and growing industries, opportunities continue to open up.

With all of this change, it's nearly impossible for one person to keep track of the developments taking place in all of the green industries and sectors. In fact, scanning the entire universe of green careers on an ongoing basis is a good recipe for overwhelm and frustration.

Instead, the key to success is to identify your green niche, the career that combines your skills, interests, experience and education. With a specific goal, you gain a clear understanding of your target career, focus your exploration, build momentum with your job search, and land a position that matches your strategy.

2) Immerse Yourself in Your Target Green Industry

Before choosing a specific job title, focus on understanding the components of your target industry. Having a big picture of your target industry will help you answer these questions to refine your sense of the industry.

• What problems is the industry facing?
• What opportunities does the industry have?
• What is missing in the industry that's keeping it from solving these problems and capitalizing on these opportunities?
• What unique terminology is used within the industry?
• Who are the key players in the industry?

Begin with online research to grasp the basic structure of your target industry. Then expand your efforts by talking with your contacts to fill in the gaps in your understanding of the industry.

As you gain a sense of the industry, explore how your skills will benefit companies within the industry.

3) Engage in Your Local Green Community

To locate job openings, your most promising strategy is to connect with others in your community who share your interests, values, and causes.

Leverage the following strategies to strengthen your green connections in your area.

• Remember to keep your passion in mind as you look for opportunities to get involved.
• Volunteer with a local non-profit or team that's helping your community go green.
• Take a class in sustainability to strengthen your knowledge while connecting with others in your area.
• Meet in person by participating in green networking groups such as Green Drinks and EcoTuesday
• Connect with people virtually on Facebook, LinkedIn groups, NetImpact, and JustMeans.

As you meet people who are well connected and/or know something about your target industries, connect with them on LinkedIn, get together for a conversation, and keep in touch by sharing resources that match their needs.

4) State Your Job Search Goals with Clarity, Confidence, and Conviction

The key to impressing potential employers and networking contacts is being able to talk about your career goals as powerfully as possible. Review your recent networking and interviewing experiences and then ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I able to state my employment goals clearly and concisely in one or two sentences?
• Do I state my employment goals with confidence and enthusiasm?
• Does my sense of conviction and passion come through as I talk about my employment goals?

When you answer these questions with a series of emphatic "yes" responses, your readiness to be hired shines out to the world.

If you aren't able to answer yes to these questions, focus your efforts on clarifying your goal, finding ways to feel enthusiastic about your goal, and expressing your passion as you talk about your employment goal. Being connected to your goal in this way ignites your energy. Your contacts, colleagues, and potential employers will feel your excitement and be drawn to find out more about you.

Pulling It All Together

Taking these four points in order will help you build a strong, sustainable foundation for your future green career. The green economy is going to evolve in ways we can't predict at this moment. Think of it as a journey that will have its ups and downs as you strive to reach your goal destination.

If you need a job now, I recommend you focus on an interim position that taps the skills you've used in previous jobs. If possible, choose an interim job that helps you move one step closer to your green career goal. Then when your target green industry opens up, you'll be ready to act on the opportunity.

About the Author:

Green Career Expert, Carol McClelland, PhD, the SelfGrowth.com Official Guide to Green Jobs/Green Careers, is the author of Green Careers For Dummies and founder and executive director of Green Career Central, an online resources center with easy-to-use resources, coaching programs, and training events to help professionals, students, and career counselors make sense of the green economy. Download your free report: Six Strategies to Find Your Green Career at http://www.greencareercentral.com/

NGO: Palm oil industry highly sustainable in developing economies

01/10/2009 (The Star Online), Petaling Jaya - Palm oil, which accounts for 60% of the global vegetable oil trade, has come under fire from Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. The non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are pressuring processors and consumers to boycott the oil and European Union (EU) governments to block its import based on the contention that palm oil damages the environment.

But, according to a report by World Growth entitled Palm Oil – The Sustainable Oil, palm oil uses less land than crop-based oilseeds.

“Only 0.26ha is required to produce a tonne of palm oil while soybean, sunflower and rapeseed need 2.2ha, 2ha and 1.5ha respectively to produce the same amount of oil,” said the report.

The proposed restriction may also hurt the export trade of developing countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia that collectively produce 87% of the world’s palm oil.

The report said the palm oil industry was a highly sustainable development tool in the economies of many developing countries.

World Growth chairman Alan Oxley said the campaign by environmental groups to prevent conversion of forest land to other more productive purposes would deny developing countries the opportunity to use palm oil as a development tool.

“The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have rated palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia respectively as a very high quality development tool for reducing poverty,” he told StarBiz via email.

In Malaysia, the world’s second largest palm oil producer, the industry currently employed 570,000 people with export earnings of more than RM68bil last year, said the report.

World Growth said the EU import demand for palm oil had also grown as some countries there had resorted to using it as a feedstock for bio-diesel production.

“But the proposed EU Renewable Energy Directive includes a condition that will restrict the availability of palm oil,” it said.

On the industry’s impact on the environment, the report said it had not destroyed forests’ biodiversity in developing countries.

“For example, palm oil is restricted to only 20% of the total land in Malaysia allocated for agricultural purposes.

“And in Indonesia, palm oil is only cultivated in areas set aside for commercial production,” it said.

Oxley added that biodiversity in forests was protected by establishing forest conservation areas which contained representative strands of natural forests, not by imposing a blanket ban on conversion of forest land for other purposes.

“And well-managed oil palm plantations are more effective in absorbing greenhouse gases than natural forests,” he said.

Moreover, said the report, the technical understanding of carbon footprint of oil palm, other plantations and forest industries was still weak.

World Growth is a non-profit NGO established to bring balance to the debate over trade, globalisation and sustainable development.