One Day, One Job » certification

U.S. Green Building Council

Willy Franzen — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:07:08 +0000

I live across the street from what was formerly the world’s largest building—the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. It’s massive at 4,000,000 square feet, which is extremely impressive considering it was opened in 1930. What’s even more impressive is that, with some debate, the Merchandise Mart is now the world’s largest “green” building. It is LEED-EB Silver certified, and apparently the retrofitting that they did to achieve this certification has cut utility bills by 10%. Upgrading one of the largest buildings in the world to be more energy efficient and environment-friendly is a daunting task, luckily the LEED Certification process provided the owners of the Merchandise Mart with guidelines to work to. The organization behind LEED is the U.S. Green Building Council, which is based in Washington, DC. They are a non-profit that is “committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings.”

LEEDing You to a New Career

We’ve heard a lot about green jobs over the past few years, yet we haven’t seen the growth to back up the talk. Although the U.S. Green Building Council is a non-profit that probably won’t grow as quickly as a for-profit focused on the $60 billion green building industry, they do have some pretty cool job offerings. Here are some stats that explain why the USBGC is doing what they do:

Buildings in the United States are responsible for 39% of CO2 emissions, 40% of energy consumption, 13% water consumption and 15% of GDP per year, making green building a source of significant economic and environmental opportunity. Greater building efficiency can meet 85% of future U.S. demand for energy, and a national commitment to green building has the potential to generate 2.5 million American jobs.

If you like where the USGBC is going, then you should check out their Jobs page. They have quite a few positions posted, and a number of them appear suitable for new grads. These include Associate – Chapter Leadership Development, Computer Systems Analyst, Education Review Associate, Executive Administrative Assistant, and LEED Technical Customer Service Associate. To apply for any of these positions you can send your “résumé and letter of interest with salary requirements and title of position applying for to jobs@usgbc.org.”

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about the U.S. Green Building Council?

B Lab

Willy Franzen — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:00:52 +0000

Have you ever heard the term B Corporation? It’s “a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.” If you’ve been following One Day, One Job for a while or you’ve been reading through our archives, you already know of quite a few B Corporations—Better World Books, New Leaf Paper, Seventh Generation, and King Arthur Flour are a few that we’ve already featured. Each of these companies has met “comprehensive and transparent social and environmental standards via the B Rating System” and then officially amended “their corporate governing documents to incorporate stakeholder interests.” They’ve all done this through B Lab (or B Corporation, there’s still some ambiguity in their name), a Berwyn, PA based non-profit organization that is behind the B Corporation movement.

B a Part of Something Big

B Corporations have a double/triple/multiple bottom line. They’re not just in business to make a profit, although profit motives are still an important part of what they do. The certification of B Corporations comes from B Lab. Considering how many successful companies have already jumped on board (190 B Corporations with $1 billion in combined revenue across 31 industries), this movement seems like it has a lot of momentum. I’m looking forward to finding more exciting B Corporations to feature here in the future, but for the moment let’s stay focused and talk about jobs at B Lab. There’s no reason for me to think that they’re currently hiring (they don’t even have a jobs page), but they do seem to be growing. Their Idealist profile includes a number of internship postings, and their Staff page shows what kind of jobs they do offer. If you want to be a part of B Lab, you’re going to have to take the initiative and apply for an unlisted position, but that’s just how it should be with a relatively small non-profit startup.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Had you heard of a B Corporation before?

Green Seal

Willy Franzen — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:25:07 +0000

Whether or not we’re really going through a green revolution is up for debate, but I can assure you that Marketing departments across the world are taking advantage of the public’s appetite for “green” products. Unfortunately, “green” doesn’t really mean anything. To you it might mean one thing, and to me it might mean another. We assume that something that is labeled or advertised as green will be better for the environment, but how do we really know? That’s where Green Seal comes in. They are Washington, DC based “independent non-profit organization dedicated to safeguarding the environment and transforming the marketplace by promoting the manufacture, purchase, and use of environmentally responsible products and service.” They do this by certifying products that meet their Green Seal standards. By having an independent third party set standards, consumers can actually make informed choices about the products they buy (as long as they’re Green Seal certified, of course).

Are You Green Seal Certified?

There’s a lot that goes into the certification process, and there are plenty of other organizations and businesses that work in the green certification field. The reason that Green Seal is different is that their “standard-setting process is open, collaborative, fair, and completely transparent.” There are no trade secrets. That means that even the most environmentally conscious customers will be able to know if Green Seal meets their personal standards. If Green Seal meets your personal standards, you may want to think about a job with them. I couldn’t find a Jobs page on their website, but they do post open positions on Idealist. Right now they have two opportunities that appear to be suitable for new grads: Environmental Scientist and Environmental Engineer. The jobs sound pretty similar, and they require a strong science background, so check out the full job descriptions and see if you’re the right fit.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you try to buy certified products? Which certifications?