Growth in sustainable degrees

We first saw this article a couple of years ago in USA Today, and the trend continues to grow and grow rapidly.  A positive for the college students is that jobs in the green economy are expanding and keeping up with their influx to the work force.

This Wed's night we are filming five shows on sustainable changes in education:  From facilities (schools) to curriculums to staffing to amazing innovations taking place in our school systems.  We will premier those shows in Dec.

College students are flocking to sustainability degrees, careers

"Students interested in pursuing a job in sustainability now can choose from a variety of "green" degree programs.

With an increased interest in the environment and growth in the "green collar" job sector, colleges and universities are beginning to incorporate sustainability into their programs. From MBAs in sustainable-business practices to programs that give students the technical training necessary to operate wind turbines, students have an increasing array of options to choose from.

"Clearly, demand is there for these types of workers," says Marisa Michaud of Eduventures, a higher-education research and consulting firm. "Colleges are seeing that, and they want to provide appropriate educational programs to meet that demand."

Concern for the environment is the motivation, says Julian Dautremont-Smith of the Association for Sustainability in Higher Education.

"The past few years, society as a whole has become increasingly interested in sustainability," he says. "Higher education has been swept up as well."

David Soto of The Princeton Review says student interest is driving colleges to create programs that offer training in sustainability. Two-thirds of students surveyed for the company's recent "College Hopes and Worries" survey said a college's "environmental commitment" would be a factor in where they applied.

"Students are really savvy shoppers these days, so they're realizing, with a changing economy and green jobs looking to take a leap within the next couple of years, that they want to be armed with those types of skills," Soto says.

Green — not greed — is good

One popular program is an MBA that teaches skills for operating sustainable businesses.

A University of Pennsylvania program that started this year lets students earn an MBA and a master's in environmental studies at the same time.

"There's an increasing interest among businesses to take the environment seriously," says Eric Orts, director of the Wharton School's Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership at Penn.

"Our take is you really need to have the science background and some other approaches that are not normally taught in the business school context," he says..."

A quick look back

As we retrace prior steps, look at legislation and investments that have cleared the way for restoration of great natural resources, like Narraganset Bay, and hope that this administration, and Congress, take similar steps to preserve and enhance key resources that carry our environmental and economic futures.

Send us what you consider key steps, and investments, made by past leaders.

"In the 1980s, Congress determined that key estuaries across the United States were threatened and so drafted legislation that was included in the 1987 amendments to the federal Clean Water Act. This legislation created the National Estuary Program, and Narragansett Bay was one of the first four estuaries to be included in the program."

Thank you

To those of you in the MA/RI area who brought supplies to Cardi's Furniture for us to bring down to the NY/NJ area, THANK YOU.  You have filled our trucks and hearts.

We salute the Cardi's, media who covered the event, the wonderful, hard working staff of both companies, the volunteers who tirelessly helped and to every single person who donated, food, water and clothes.

We had one older woman bring a single blanket as that was "all she had"...yet she gave it to others.

We are inspired by our citizens, community and nation.  

Enjoy the show and tour 2012

Listen to the radio show from yesterday

As we talked with The Solar Living Institute in CA and found out how they are training people, there and on-line, in techniques of installing renewables, and got a glimpse inside a major Institute pushing all of us into a cleaner future.

Here's the link.   There's a slight buzz on his audio (he came in on a phone line), but we are trying to edit that out.  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/renewable-now/2012/11/07/solar-living-institute

Good post-election thoughts from Grow Smart

All states are a microcosm of investments and choices we make on a national level as well.  RI, as you'll see from the below statement from Grow Smart, voted to put new money into some critical areas:  clean water, preserving open space, maintaining or growing farming and affordable housing (they could also have added investments in education as they approved 50m into one of their oldest and most important colleges).

We agree with Grow Smart that these represent good, targeted investments in key State assets, and enhance quality-of-life in RI that is critical to their economic success.  

Did your state make similar investments?  If so, we'd love to hear from you.

Grow Smart applauds voters for approving investments to strengthen Rhode Island 

Last night, Rhode Island voters made a resounding choice to support three (3) key investments in our state's economic future.

By approving investments in Clean Water Infrastructure (Question 5 - 73% approved), Open Space and Farmland Protection (Question 6 - 69% approved) and Affordable Housing (Question 7 - 61% approved), voters sent a clear message to elected officials that they support targeted investments in our infrastructure and quality-of-place as being vital to building a robust 21^st century economy.

"Maintaining this focus on targeted investments in our key assets can accelerate our economic progress dramatically," said Scott Wolf, Grow Smart Rhode Island Executive Director, emphasizing that "a strong quality-of-place is becoming an increasingly competitive advantage for the very mobile, high-wage, knowledge-based workers and jobs that Rhode Island seeks to attract."

The Clean Water Infrastructure and Open Space/Farmland Protection bonds passed in every community, while the Affordable Housing bond passed in 34 of the state's 39 cities and towns, representing more than 95% of the state's population. 

Good radio show today on WARL 1320 and Blog Talk Radio

As we talk with Ross Beck from the Solar Living Institute in CA.

The Institute provides a very wide range of educational programs--many on line--internships (I wonder if they'd let me in???  I'll ask Ross later today), advise and help on solar living buildings that feature organic gardens, sustainability workshops on everything from beekeeping to bio diesel and grey water use...you get the idea, lots of great things to talk about.

We will be on at 12-1 today, EST, on Blog Talk Radio, Renewable Now channel...http://www.blogtalkradio.com/renewable-now..and WARL 1320 AM...http://1320warlradio.com/gs/

Feel free to contact us during the show.