North Carolina is a leader in U.S. solar energy development (flickr / Mike Baker)

North Carolina’s story is not entirely unique.  A similar display of support for clean energy came from Kansas days earlier, as state lawmakers rejected a bill like Hager’s.  Looking outward, there is ample opportunity for others to follow suit, as attacks on state renewable energy policies have advanced in more than 20 states.

Ultimately, jobs won the votes in North Carolina & Kansas

Yes, this was an important win for renewable energy.  But according to those who cast their votes against Hager’s bill in North Carolina, this was all about jobs.

“It was based off local issues back home.  I would have had a difficult time talking to a CEO who just brought 300 jobs to Cleveland County [and telling him] that I’m going to vote to eliminate this program that justified their investment.” – Rep. Tim Moore

Likewise in Kansas, jobs helped tip the scale in favor of a clean energy future:

“It’s not about a deal that a bunch of suits made one evening.  It’s about jobs.  It’s about economic vitality.  It’s about the future health of Kansas citizens.  It’s about the future environmental health of our state.” – Rep. Julie Menghini

Rep. Moore refers to the reality that the policy in question allowed North Carolina to become the fifth-largest solar energy developer in America, and helped the state at a desperate economic moment.  In Kansas, Rep. Menghini and her colleagues voted with foresight, amplifying that the outcomes of energy debates will have multi-generational impacts.  These first strong victories in defending clean energy polices show what polls continue to underscore – Americans want more clean energy, not less.

Building a bigger story

Offshore wind production will bring long-term jobs to America’s shores (flickr/DeepCwind)

Now is not the time to move backwards in our pursuit of clean energy for America, and thank you to the North Carolina House of Representatives for demonstrating that we do not need to.  The growing abundance of clean energy solutions at our fingertips render attempts like Hager’s inexcusable.

America is ready to get to work building infrastructure to support power sources that do not pollute our air and water.  We are ready to share in the successes we continue to see abroad, and build responsibly sited wind turbines off our shores.  We are ready to leave behind dangerous pipelines and coal mines that destroy wildlife habitats and contribute to climate change.  And finally, we are ready for our elected leaders at both the state and federal levels to hear us, and to help in bringing to fruition the energy future that is well within reach—or at the very least, to please, stay out of the way.

Blue Skies on Capitol Hill

The Senate bill, S.761, carries the same extensive support that it did last year, though it reflects a trip back to the drawing board to rework a few points of contention that ultimately blocked its enactment. Now, the bill’s low-cost, mutually beneficial qualities have attracted the approval of more than 200 organizations. The bill works in three key areas (buildings, manufacturers, and the Federal government), and outlines financing strategies with which to meet its goals. It includes a plan to plant the seeds for sustaining its vision, by establishing university-based training programs to ensure that those entering the workforce will be equipped with current and progressive skill sets.

By incentivizing the transition to more efficient manufacturing technologies—a process that itself will create jobs in the short-term—companies will see energy cost savings that they can use to grow their businesses and hire long-term employees.  On another note of mass appeal, its requirements of the Federal government to retrofit its systems and address inefficiencies in its buildings and vehicle fleets, this legislation would ultimately save tax dollars from leaking through the cracks of outdated infrastructure.

Both Senators credit economics for their bill’s bipartisan popularity.  Senator Shaheen states simply that: “The cheapest energy is the energy we don’t use.  That’s why energy efficiency is something we can all support.” Introducing this bill urges their colleagues to act on the obvious in a Congressional climate that offers few opportunities for doing so, as was the central message of Senator Portman’s press release yesterday:

“We don’t often get legislation that brings Republicans, Democrats, business, labor and environmental leaders together, but with this bill we have. Energy efficiency is the fastest, most cost-efficient way to tackle our energy needs and keep our economy competitive all while creating needed and sustainable jobs.  Passing this bill would be a clear and quick win for the economy, taxpayers and the environment.”

If enacted, the ESIC Act has the potential to do more than grasp the low-hanging fruit of energy policy.  Rather, it strengthens a critical and politically useful argument that investing in energy-saving technologies pays for itself.  It reduces emissions that are polluting our water and our air and endangering wildlife.  And it gives us all something to shake hands on. Every step forward makes our leap of comprehensive climate policy more attainable.  The National Wildlife Federation applauds two Senators willing to orchestrate one of those steps.  May it inspire many more.

Tweet your Support! Congrats to @robportman and @SenatorShaheen for introducing a bill to create jobs and improve America’s energy efficiency!

The opening session on Tuesday featured key note addresses by Leo W. Gerard from the United Steelworkers (USW) and Dr. David Danielson from the U.S. Department of Energy. The following panel featured Bryan Walsh from TIME magazine, Kevin J. Anton from Alcoa, Kevin Knobloch from the Union of Concerned Scientists, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island, as well as Mr. Gerard from the USW. The discussion focused on bringing climate change to the national agenda, a few highlights include:

• Kevin J. Anton from Alcoa – “If you want to go fast, go by yourself; if you want to go strong, go together.” The goal of making climate change a national issue, of getting Congress to address it needs to be a collective effort – all the groups gathered here today, the USW, Sierra Club, General Motors, Kaiser Aluminum, and others need to work together.
• U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse – Two things prompt legislative action – 1) disasters (like Super Storm Sandy), and 2) Executive action that forces the issue. This needs to change.

And the closing speaker for the morning was Jacqueline Patterson from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); Jacqueline had many words of wisdom, inspiration, and hope for the future of the U.S. and greener, healthier jobs, but one thing she said stuck the longest and strongest: “We need to get money out of politics.” It’s true, but how?

My next stop during the day was a session under Tools for the Clean Economy on offshore wind, called “Build Here, Build Now: The Case for an American Offshore Wind Energy Industry.” Offshore wind is very important to me for a couple of reasons. I live in Virginia, we are a coastal state, and currently we have no wind energy – on land, or offshore. But we do have wind! Last fall, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded Dominion Power a $4 million grant for an offshore wind energy test project. So wind is a real opportunity for Virginia, and other coastal states, as well as the Great Lakes.

This session featured future plans for developing offshore wind in the U.S., including a new project that will be launched soon in New Bedford, Massachusetts, “New Bedford Will Host Marine Commercial Terminal to Support Offshore Wind,” and also spotlighted existing offshore wind installations in Germany. We look to Europe for the expertise on offshore wind – Germany, Scotland, and others. Dirk Scheelje from the Ministry of Science and Research, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, talked about existing installations, future projects, and highlighted the point that this was an opportunity for the workforce not only on the coast, but throughout the country. Many of the presenters had great photos to share of offshore wind installations and components, but they were all from overseas, hopefully soon we will have some photos of our own to share. New Bedford should soon.

I also discovered a great new resource at the GJGJ conference, www.ChemHAT.org. ChemHAT — the Chemical Hazard and Alternatives Toolbox — is a new internet database designed to offer up easy-to-use information that can help protect individual workers, their families and co-workers against the harm that chemicals can cause; “ChemHAT is based on the simple idea that when we know how a chemical can hurt us we can take protective action.” You simply go to the website and enter in the chemical you want to learn about. I also learned some very unsettling facts about chemical management and effects:
• Our workforce is exposed to 10,000 different chemicals;
• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) manages 16 of them;
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires a listing of about 200 others;
• 40,000 workers have died because exposure to toxins; and
• Women working in the auto manufacturing or plastics industries are 5 times more likely to get breast cancer.

The Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conferences was a great experience. It highlighted all the great work that is being done, but also revealed all the important work that still needs to be done.

Yet just yesterday, the Administration’s budget proposal effectively eliminated two critical programs designed to meet both goals at once – the highly important environmental education programs of EPA and NOAA.

Let’s take a look back…

What Obama Said Then

Earlier this year during the President’s Inaugural address, he spoke to these issues:

“The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult.  But America cannot resist this transition, we must lead it.  We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries, we must claim its promise.”

And then a few weeks later at the State of the Union:

“Now, if we want to make the best products, we also have to invest in the best ideas.  Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy — every dollar. Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer’s. They’re developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs; devising new material to make batteries 10 times more powerful. Now is not the time to gut these job-creating investments in science and innovation. Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race.  We need to make those investments.  Today, no area holds more promise than our investments in American energy…”

For a few years now I have struggled to understand why the Administration has failed to realize that we must invest not only in clean energy technology, but also in the education of American students and workers.  There is a disconnect here.

This investment in preparing the American people for the clean energy economy has a name: environmental education. Without it, the United States will never lead the transition to a clean energy economy.

Why Environmental Ed. is Critical to our Future

Environmental education happens at institutions of higher education (including community colleges), K-12 schools, career and technical education centers, and through innovative partnerships with non-profits, apprenticeship programs, business and others that will help create and strengthen education and re-training programs, curricula, and courses.

And earlier this week, with the release of the Administration’s budget, EPA’s and NOAA’s environmental education programs have been marked for elimination, even though they have bipartisan support in Congress (technically, NOAA’s programs are expected to be “consolidated” with other science, technology, engineering and math programs and details will not be available for a few more days).

These reductions would eliminate already woefully underfunded grant programs for child-serving organizations, schools, nature centers, zoos, aquariums and teacher training programs in nearly every community.

And let’s be honest, while these programs provide critical funding for teachers and communities nationwide, $25 million is a rounding error in the $1 trillion federal budget.  If the United States is to lead the global transition to a clean energy economy, to lead the world in science and technology, to spark the next space race or human genome product, $25 million is not going to cut it! 

We need an investment of billions of dollars across all levels of education. We need leadership to educate, train and prepare all Americans for this transition to a green economy.

What Do You Think?

We at the National Wildlife Federation would like to hear from YOU about your ideas for how we get there.  How can we, together, get Congress and the Administration, Republicans and Democrats, the public at large behind an agenda to truly prepare Americans for the clean energy economy?

Please leave a comment below!

Billy Parish shared three keys to his career success in a webinar discussion with NWF Emerging Leaders. Read more in his new book, Making Good: Finding Meaning, Money and Community in a Changing World. 

If there is anyone who knows about successfully building a career of meaning, it’s Billy Parish. Within the last decade, Parish co-founded both the Energy Action Coalition (of which NWF Campus Ecology is also a co-founder and proud partner!)–the largest youth advocacy organization in the world working on climate change issues–and Solar Mosaic, a solar energy marketplace, where he currently serves as President. In 2012, Parish and co-author Dev Aujla published Making Good:  Finding Meaning, Money and Community in a Changing World, a project that’s expanded beyond a simple print publication into a multi-faceted support and empowerment system for young people looking to “build careers that make money and change the world.”

This sounds like a big task, and highly idealistic. But Parish assured us that our work, our paying work, not just our extracurricular activities, can be meaningful.

Billy Parish’s Guiding Principles to Building a Career of Meaning:

1. Follow Your Purpose:  Parish admitted that when he started with EAC, he had no training (and no money) but he had a clear purpose:  building a movement to address climate change. His focused purpose helped him stay the course and fit all the puzzle pieces together to achieve his goal.
2. Build With the Best:  As you are following your purpose, Parish encourages partnering with the best people you can find to help you accomplish your goals. While you may not be calling up Van Jones or Joel Rogers, as Parish did, he wisely suggested reaching out to the people you actually need on your team–don’t refrain from asking for help for fear of rejection. So maybe you should dial Van’s number after all! (“Hey, remember me from Power Shift ’11?! I was the one in the green hard hat!” might be a good way to start your conversation…) More realistically, think of the “Van Jones” in your life–someone with political, legal and business savvy. A corollary to building with the best includes cultivating relationships with your future co-founders:  identifying your dream co-workers, your dream job. Keep in touch and lend a hand to the people who will help you get where you want to be.
3. Go to the Root:  Parish used the metaphor of a plant to represent his goals, and warned against always hacking at the leaves rather than tackling the root–the leaves always grow back, they even multiply, and a more effective and efficient strategy is to address the root issue. For Parish this meant building a constituency willing to fight for bold legislation to grow the green energy industry (through EAC’s Power Shift conferences), and later, finding a way to finance clean energy projects (via the creation of Solar Mosaic).

So there you have it:  strong advice from a successful, driven, young, inspired (and inspiring!) entrepreneur for entering the working world while still achieving your ultimate goal of building a cleaner, greener society!

Of course, you are encouraged to read more than just this blog about Making Good — Indie Bound will help you find a local book store to visit and order the book from — the book itself offers exercises and other resources to help guide you through your meaningful career path!

Have you read Making Good, or did you attend the webinar? Are you finding meaning, money and community in this changing world? Share your thoughts, your advice and your experiences in the comments below.

Praise for Making Good from Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada, Author of Global Warming for Dummies:  “Billy Parish and Dev Aujla embarked on a remarkably ambitious book. Not content to educate and mobilize on global warming and social justice, they have written a ‘how to’ book for ethical living in a corrupt economy. It is a practical guide to ensure that ‘making a living’ does not compromise ‘having a life.’ Making Good could change the world.”

The Lucid Design Group, in partnership with National Wildlife Federation, the U.S. Green Building Council’s Center for Green Schools, and the Alliance to Save Energy hosts this annual competition. In 2013, nearly 200 campuses (twice as many as in 2012) and over 250,000 students will compete and contribute to the goal of reducing 2 gigawatts of electricity and 2 million gallons of water.  Last year students saved more than 1.7 million kilowatt-hours of energy—equal to removing 150 U.S. homes from the grid for a year, and saved more than 1.5 million gallons of water—about 10,300 hours of shower time.

“The growth and success of CCN really demonstrates that when people have access to the right information in the right context, they can have a significant impact on a building’s energy and water use,” said Andrew deCoriolis, director of marketing at Lucid. “Perhaps more importantly, CCN serves as a platform for students to connect their personal actions to broader impact.”

Another new aspect of CCN is the addition of the NWF Video Contest, which gives students the opportunity to creatively document their actions toward climate solutions. “We see our involvement in CCN as a natural extension of our Campus Ecology Program,” said Kristy Jones, sr. manager of campus climate education and action at NWF. “Through CCN we are giving students a platform to make measurable impacts on climate, and then use their experience to inspire campuses around the country to continue to push forward with actions to reduce their impact on climate change, thus reducing the impacts on wildlife and habitat.”

The campus that demonstrates the greatest reduction in water and energy usage will receive Lucid’s Building Dashboard(R) to monitor real-time electricity use on their campus. Participating schools will also have the opportunity to win carbon-offsetting renewable energy certificates (RECs) from Carbonfund.org and cash prizes as a part of NWF’s CCN Video Contest.

To learn more about the competition, visit: CompeteToReduce.org. To view entries for the CCN Video contest, visit Facebook.com/CampusEcology.

National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology Program hosted Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming from 2007-2011 to support and recognize campus efforts to reduce the carbon footprint. Check out Chill Out vides at: CampusChillOut.org.

A student at St Clair County Community College scans a QR code with her smartphone to learn more about a campus green feature. Image credit St Clair County Community College.

Campus sustainability (read:  campus efficiency projects) today is frequently driven by facilities departments, who see the cost savings from use of long-lasting CFL bulbs or double-paned windows, but, Newport and Antle say, economic benefits can’t be the main force behind sustainability. Eventually we’re going to have to figure out how to tap into the “moral imperative,” based on the concept that everything is part of the puzzle.

Climate change is, obviously, not an easy concept to grapple with for students and the general public alike, and in the face of increasing extreme weather and political inaction on mitigation and adaptation, it’s easy to feel like this problem is too big to solve. But, Newport and Antle agree, this is where colleges and universities, especially community colleges, come into play, bringing together stakeholders and making immediate and positive impacts on the local level. Campus sustainability efforts provide a rare opportunity for relatively instant gratification in the realm of action to address causes and effects of climate change; colleges and universities are generally willing and able to move much more quickly to cut carbon emissions, operate more efficiently and transition to clean energy, than, for instance, the government.

Newport argues, however, that with all the good they are doing, institutions of higher education can operate with even greater transparency, and with greater self-awareness of their environmental impact. Somewhat surprisingly, Newport suggests multinational corporations as models. The general market trend has been toward increased, consumer-demanded corporate social responsibility–better labeling, workers’ rights, agricultural practices, etc. Newport touched briefly on the current student-driven movement to divest from fossil fuels (which now includes cities, churches, 210+ campuses and at least one or two senators) as a good start. I’ll add that the 665 signatories of the Presidents’ Climate Commitment, which requires emissions inventories and a solid plan for achieving carbon neutrality are not too shabby in the transparency department either.

So to address the title of the webinar, the future of campus sustainability will be well-integrated, all-inclusive and very transparent. Students, faculty, staff and administrators will all be part of not only the discussion but also helping to create the solutions for living lightly on a strained planet.

What do you think the future holds for sustainability on your campus? Solar-powered hovercraft? 100% self-sufficiency for energy, and something close to that for food? What are you doing to propel your campus toward Sustainability 2.o? Leave a comment and let us know!

Related Reading:

• Climate Literacy in a Time of Climate Silence, previous post by yours truly
• Campus Environment 2008:  A National Report Card on Sustainability in Higher Education, NWF Campus Ecology resource
• Campus Sustainability Case Study Database, a 23-year collection of reports on green projects at colleges and universities across the world (search “environmental education” to find out how students are engaging peers in sustainability, as referenced above) 

Like Campus Ecology on facebook and follow @CampusEcology and @YouthforClimate on twitter

In addition to just one-time events, some institutions are strengthening relationships between employers and potential employees (also known as “students”) over the course of a semester by inviting them into the classroom, or by bringing students to the workplace to see what a green job is really all about. The green courses are focused not only on connecting students and employers, but also on broadening the horizons of students who may be unfamiliar with the green economy.

Earlier this fall, a series of regional Green Labor Market Review webinars hosted as part of the Greenforce Initiative (a collaboration between National Wildlife Federation and Jobs for the Future to strengthen the capacity of community colleges in six regions of the U.S. to develop, enhance or refine green career pathway programs) revealed that the green jobs sector is one of the fastest-growing in the nation. So, promoting green jobs skills in the classroom is an important step in supporting the growth.

Several institutions submitted case studies to our “Best Green Campus Projects of 2012“ collection highlighting their commitment to arming their students with the right tools for the green trade—here’s a look at their work:

Lori from Larry’s Beans, an especially sustainable coffee roaster in Raleigh, NC, participates in the Wake Tech Green Symposium. Image Credit: Lisa Haywood

The College of Lake County is building an online tool to connect green job seekers with green jobs. The tool, created as part of the regional Green Economy Center, acts as not only a job search tool for Northeastern Illinois, but also offers resources for people interested in gaining the skills they need—a list of certification programs and news about the latest green jobs trends.

The Rappahannock Community College Green Vendor Fair not only promoted the wares of local green businesses to students, but also directly connected green workforce leaders with professors, opening conversation channels about skill sets in high demand, that professors can highlight in the classroom to ensure that students are well prepared and hold most needed skills upon graduation.

With so many institutions making strides to prepare their students for the green workforce, to help build and be part of the green economy, the idea of “the green economy” being synonymous with “the economy” is, perhaps, not that far off!

• Visit the Campus Ecology Case Study Database
• Read more about the Rappahannock Green Vendor Fair

Like Campus Ecology on facebook, and follow @CampusEcology, @YouthforClimate and @Greenforce on twitter.

Symons identified October’s Superstorm Sandy as a “turning point” in how people are registering climate change in the national political dialogue, and referenced a Zogby poll of voters, taken November 7th, in which it is reported that 65% of voters believe elected officials should take action to mitigate climate change for future generations. But it’s not just voters advocating for legislation and calling attention to climate change and its effects. Symons referenced a new World Bank report, Turn Down the Heat:  Why a 4°C Warmer World Must Be Avoided–a call to immediate action to reduce carbon emissions from an institution that has not, historically, “been a leader of environmental consciousness.”

Audience at Symons’s University of Mary Washington presentation earlier this month. Photo credit Julian Keniry, NWF.

So, what can students do, and what role do colleges and universities play in this transition? Symons cited the strong turnout of young voters on November 6th as an important step, and encouraged that bloc to continue to let their legislators know that clean energy is an important issue to them. He discussed student activism around the Keystone XL pipeline, as well as the value in students gaining hands-on sustainability skills in the classroom, and carrying those skills through to the workforce. Symons lauded the leadership of the higher education sector, as campuses, more often than not, are models of sustainability inside and out–prime examples of efficient, low-impact and low-cost operations.

Jeremy Symons’s inspiring presentation was follwed by comments from Scott Sleisinger of the Natural Resources Defense Council, who reinforced the fact that this past election, the power of the people proved stronger than corporate polluter dollars (10 of the “Dirty Dozen” were defeated, and all 18 of the NWF Action Fund-endorsed candidates won their races), a trend Sleisinger says shows the waning power, politically and otherwise, of the fossil fuel industry. However, Sleisinger pointed out that we need to continue to pressure Congress to vote for clean energy, especially about the Production Tax Credit for Renewable Energy.

A closing message from the webinar emphasized setting our sights high–on eliminating carbon pollution for a healthier planet, building and supporting that infrastructure now, for the long-term, rather than continuing to support industries that are only profitable in the short term.

In reference to the title question of this blog, it may be more telling to draw the connection a different way, instead asking, “What effect does campus sustainability have on elections?” Students, faculty, staff and administrators are greening campuses more than ever before, and will continue to demand the same sustainability initiatives and standards in the workforce and in government.

Read about Jeremy Symons’s visit to University of Mary Washington earlier this month, where he helped students connect the dots among Superstorm Sandy, energy and the future.

Like Campus Ecology on facebook, and follow @CampusEcology, @YouthForClimate and @Greenforce on twitter.

St. Clair County Community College in Port Huron, Mich., uses its green campus to teach students about sustainability and green issues.

Thanks to a $3,000 Greenforce Initiative Innovation Mini Grant, the college was able to produce three videos showcasing how it uses its green technology as Living Labs.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The college’s Living Labs concept immerses students in real-world technology by turning campus buildings and components into instructional spaces. As a result, students get hands-on learning through the same equipment the college uses to power and operate its campus.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The videos show how students study bioswales; rain gardens; green roofs; solar hot water, heat and electrical systems; wind turbine technology; and a geothermal heating and cooling system.

Professor Don Reuba said the green components and Living Labs allow him to teach at a higher level. He’s able to get students out of the classroom and into a hands-on work environment.

The videos of the Living Labs are valuable because they help show others what the college can offer.

“You can have the best product in the world, but if nobody sees it, it doesn’t do you any good,” Reuba said. “The videos help us get the word out about our green campus.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can find more information on St. Clair County Community College’s Living Labs program here.

For more information on the Greenforce Initiative, please visit our website.