We have reached the midway point of summer, and hopefully many of this year’s recent graduates have found some type of employment. For those still looking or for individuals who have part-time jobs to hold them over, now is the time to get creative. The green movement is an olympic drive great way to go. This movement holds many untapped opportunities for job seekers. Green technology businesses are growing at a rapid rate to accommodate the demand for clean energy, especially through solar and wind power companies. This job sector needs employees in all fields, including, but not limited to engineers, ecologists, policy planners and writers, graphic artists, and individuals with business and financial specialties. A good website for information and job listings is www.ecoemploy.com.
There also are job opportunities for marketing specialists in the green industries. A perusal of several websites lists opportunities for green marketing representatives and business managers, clean energy political organizers and media and marketing specialists, just to name a few. These listings are for jobs all over the country and range from entry-level to mid-level positions. To secure a position in this market sector, graduates and mid-level professionals must think out of the box and be willing to relocate to the sites of these opportunities. A good starting place for listings of these job opportunities is www.sustainability.com.
A green job represents a great opportunity for graduates. This job sector is committed to the preservation of a healthy environment through smart living and consistently is on the cutting edge of technology, presenting great opportunities for further education and career advancement. Most importantly, these jobs really give its employees a reason to work as these are the organizations and people who really are making a difference. Green jobs are not just about a paycheck. Rather they are leading a movement to live green, be green.
Living green virtually applies to all areas of our existence, with the root of this effort lying in our concerns for good health. With the status of our health the driving concern for smart living, it naturally follows that we should work to protect the environment and our food sources. Just as the neglect and abuse of our bodies has been a gradual process, so will a turnaround in bad habits to reverse this situation be gradual also.
I found an interesting article on organic intelligence, which promotes teaching children how to live smart. Written by Lloyd Glauberman, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, this writing first acknowledges the slow moving pandemic of obesity, especially in children, and its medical consequences. The author admonishes that this problem needs to be solved literally at the beginning of life. Dr. Glauberman explains how infants respond to internal cues, such as hunger, by crying when needing to be fed and turning the head away when satiated. However, as we age, we are bombarded with so much external stimulation that our internal cues become desensitized and amnesic.
With the incorporation of organic intelligence modeling starting at the preschool level, we can teach children to recognize and label internal cues. A curriculum that teaches and reinforces nutritional value, food quality versus quantity and the need to maintain a healthy body weight and image can be introduced in all academic curricula. Parents can reinforce these concepts at home through conversation and in family participation in snack selection and meal planning and preparation.
Organic intelligence is a simple concept to understand. It is based on a theory of “mindfulness” as opposed to “mindlessness”. As a foundation for a “healthy personal ecology”, organic intelligence teaches us to live green, be green.