Help for job seekers and a few thoughts
Looking forward to my Intro to Solar Electricity class coming up Nov. 14-15, through the Sustainable Practices program. If you’re signed up and want to share some thoughts, give me a shout here on Ning. Or we’ll see you there.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a 52-year-old journalist (hold the laughter, please!) recently liberated from a job in the wireless telecom field. This has given me the opportunity to take the plunge in a more promising direction with renewable energy and other sustainable practices.
Where the wireless telecom field is mature and stagnant, the burgeoning renewable energy and sustainable practices field is growing as Americans come to their senses about their lavish energy-consuming, carbon-emitting lifestyles. And their pocketbooks. What a powerful combination for raising awareness! There’s the silver lining to this monstrous recession: it tends to bring folks to “think future” and make smart choices.
I’m particularly interested in empowering the American homeowner to pursue energy efficiency and renewables to save money making one’s home a safer, healthier and less expensive environment to maintain. The homeowner needs to guard against the unpredictable costs of heating/cooling/lighting and information technology that require energy. Add a few solar electric panels, a few solar hot water panels, a large garden full of vegetables and herbs, a rainwater collector and compost pile and my suburban home on a dead-end road in Littleton starts looking sustainable – yeah, baby! With 130 million existing homes in the U.S., there’s a vibrant market for common sense practices.
When you strip away the noise created by certain media and talking heads whose agenda is to demonize common sense, you see that we’re not alone. This is a major, mainstream shift in American society. It’s a classic case of the dividends paid by thinking for yourself. Of course, for that reason, we’re seeing businesses small and large – and the military, too – jumping on the opportunities for EE and RE for myriad purposes. Dollars and sense at home and at work improves our national security. Thomas Friedman, columnist for The New York Times, has successfully hammered this theme home in countless columns and a handful of books. It is indeed one the critical issue of our times. Okay, I’m preaching to the choir here.
Back to my theme: I’m a worker in transition. Next year, as I work towards completing the Sustainable Practices certificate, I’m hoping that A/D Works (Arapahoe/Douglas counties’ office for job and career assistance) will pay my tuition. The WIA (Workforce Investment Act) program will pay your tuition, too, if you can establish that the program will lead to employment in your chosen field. It’s been done already, so the state is hip to the Sustainable Practices program. There are a few tricks and, if my application is successful, I’ll outline in another blog how to go about it. Bottomline: if interested, go to your state employment office in the county in which you live and ask for guidance on the WIA program. Be persistent for best results. The workforce folks are there to help you.
Anyone looking for market insights into the renewable and clean-tech field should include newly, locally launched Pike Research on their radar. Clint Wheelock, a veteran market research leader at some of the most powerful market analysis firms in the country, now leads Pike Research, based on Pearl Street in Boulder. Wheelock’s own specialty is smart grids, but he’s got analysts who cover the entire clean-tech market. Just the sort of work I could envision doing. Clint recently (kindly) gave me some advice on how to make myself more qualified to do so.
My next blog, coming this afternoon, takes a look at Pike Research’s latest findings and glances back at a killer backcountry trip I just took. (Home movies, anyone?)
Note to sustainable music lovers:
Just caught Bob Dylan at the University of Denver. Talk about sustainable energy; Dylan takes the cake. He hopped around the stage, delivering organ, guitar and harmonica licks aplenty, with more energy than rockers half his age. And his songs from the past 45 years still hold relevance, as do his wistful songs on the autumn of life.
And I’m looking ahead to Mississippi-based harmonica-wizard Charlie Musselwhite at Toad Tavern in Littleton on Wed., Nov. 11, with my favorite local band, the Delta Sonics, opening. If blues appeal to you, don’t miss this one. See ya there…
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a 52-year-old journalist (hold the laughter, please!) recently liberated from a job in the wireless telecom field. This has given me the opportunity to take the plunge in a more promising direction with renewable energy and other sustainable practices.
Where the wireless telecom field is mature and stagnant, the burgeoning renewable energy and sustainable practices field is growing as Americans come to their senses about their lavish energy-consuming, carbon-emitting lifestyles. And their pocketbooks. What a powerful combination for raising awareness! There’s the silver lining to this monstrous recession: it tends to bring folks to “think future” and make smart choices.
I’m particularly interested in empowering the American homeowner to pursue energy efficiency and renewables to save money making one’s home a safer, healthier and less expensive environment to maintain. The homeowner needs to guard against the unpredictable costs of heating/cooling/lighting and information technology that require energy. Add a few solar electric panels, a few solar hot water panels, a large garden full of vegetables and herbs, a rainwater collector and compost pile and my suburban home on a dead-end road in Littleton starts looking sustainable – yeah, baby! With 130 million existing homes in the U.S., there’s a vibrant market for common sense practices.
When you strip away the noise created by certain media and talking heads whose agenda is to demonize common sense, you see that we’re not alone. This is a major, mainstream shift in American society. It’s a classic case of the dividends paid by thinking for yourself. Of course, for that reason, we’re seeing businesses small and large – and the military, too – jumping on the opportunities for EE and RE for myriad purposes. Dollars and sense at home and at work improves our national security. Thomas Friedman, columnist for The New York Times, has successfully hammered this theme home in countless columns and a handful of books. It is indeed one the critical issue of our times. Okay, I’m preaching to the choir here.
Back to my theme: I’m a worker in transition. Next year, as I work towards completing the Sustainable Practices certificate, I’m hoping that A/D Works (Arapahoe/Douglas counties’ office for job and career assistance) will pay my tuition. The WIA (Workforce Investment Act) program will pay your tuition, too, if you can establish that the program will lead to employment in your chosen field. It’s been done already, so the state is hip to the Sustainable Practices program. There are a few tricks and, if my application is successful, I’ll outline in another blog how to go about it. Bottomline: if interested, go to your state employment office in the county in which you live and ask for guidance on the WIA program. Be persistent for best results. The workforce folks are there to help you.
Anyone looking for market insights into the renewable and clean-tech field should include newly, locally launched Pike Research on their radar. Clint Wheelock, a veteran market research leader at some of the most powerful market analysis firms in the country, now leads Pike Research, based on Pearl Street in Boulder. Wheelock’s own specialty is smart grids, but he’s got analysts who cover the entire clean-tech market. Just the sort of work I could envision doing. Clint recently (kindly) gave me some advice on how to make myself more qualified to do so.
My next blog, coming this afternoon, takes a look at Pike Research’s latest findings and glances back at a killer backcountry trip I just took. (Home movies, anyone?)
Note to sustainable music lovers:
Just caught Bob Dylan at the University of Denver. Talk about sustainable energy; Dylan takes the cake. He hopped around the stage, delivering organ, guitar and harmonica licks aplenty, with more energy than rockers half his age. And his songs from the past 45 years still hold relevance, as do his wistful songs on the autumn of life.
And I’m looking ahead to Mississippi-based harmonica-wizard Charlie Musselwhite at Toad Tavern in Littleton on Wed., Nov. 11, with my favorite local band, the Delta Sonics, opening. If blues appeal to you, don’t miss this one. See ya there…
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