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Ecova/Columbus, OH

Program Manager
Responsible for Program Management, execution and delivery of a large scale residential energy efficiency program for a major utility client in the state of Ohio.

Role Description
• Management and oversight of all aspects of a residential efficiency program. Responsibility includes managing budgets while meeting deadlines and deliverables.
• Timely submission of accurate invoicing and progress reports
• Meeting annual revenue and net income goals
• Development and maintenance of client relationships to increase revenue and program extensions.
• Responsible for sustaining and renewing client contracts.
• Ensures that products and services provided consistently meet client needs.
• Oversight of marketing activities
• In coordination with Strategy and Innovation Team, represents delivery function on client account management Plans.
• Acquire, lead, train, develop and retain Project Coordinators, Customer Service personnel and technical talent to ensure the quality delivery of services to our client(s)
• Ensure the most efficient utilization of financial and labor resources by communicating, coordinating and negotiating with other internal departments (HR, marketing, product & service innovation, finance, origination & structuring, finance, etc.) on business development activities.
• Handles strategic and/or complex client accounts.
• Develop maintain and continuously improve Quality Control and Risk Management plans
• Enforce safe practices that result in zero injuries to employees
• Manage field personnel engaged performing residential home audits and the direct installation of energy efficiency measures
• Identify, train, and manage HVAC, Insulation, and other subcontractors engaged in the installation of energy saving measures in residential homes.

Role Competencies
• Bachelors Degree and 8 years of experience in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and/or electric technologies concepts, practices, and procedures or related field.
• Advanced degree in business management, environmental policy, energy management is preferred.
• Minimum 3 years of experience in both client relationship management and team management, plus 5 years of experience leading and directing others.
• Proven experience leading, managing, developing and mentoring is required.
• Successful management of cross-functional and matrix-managed teams is required.
• Possesses strong problem-solving skills, ability to work in diverse and matrixed organizations, and proven project management skills.
• Experience managing P&L and/or departmental budgets and strong financial and marketing analysis experience is required.
• Relies on extensive experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals.
• Demonstrates high levels of leadership, initiative, teamwork and adaptability
• Is able to manipulate, analyze and synthesize data in various systems and/or technology environments.

Ecova Information
Our salaries are competitive and commensurate with experience. We are a performance-based culture and have goal-based incentive programs and generous employee benefits. Our comprehensive benefit package includes medical, dental, vision insurance, life, AD&D, short- and long-term disability insurance. We also offer flexible spending accounts and 401(k) with a generous employer match.

Ecova is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will be considered without regard to age, race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation or preference, religion, marital status, citizenship, veteran status, or physical or mental disability.

To learn more about Ecova and to apply online, please go to: http://www.ecova.com/about-us/careers.aspx.

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By Lisa Hymas

Don’t expect the environment to be in the spotlight in political campaigns this year. The economy will be the star in 2012, with the culture wars singing backup.

Still, environmental issues are getting talked about, often obliquely as part of larger discussions about energy — though the words don’t always mean what you might think they mean. And the words politicians don’t say can tell you as much as the words they do.

Here’s a guide to energy and environmental buzzwords you’ll be hearing, or not, this election year:

Gas prices
Republicans thought they’d get a lot of mileage out of this phrase, but now it looks like it might not get them too far. When gas prices were trending upward earlier this year, Republicans went all out blaming Obama and the Democrats. Now that gas prices have come back down, the Republican messaging has gotten muddled.  Still, the GOP is not quite ready to drop the issue.

Never mind that the president and Congress can’t do a damn thing to control prices at the pump.

Energy subsidies
“Subsidy” is a bad word in Washington these days, synonymous with “taxpayer giveaway” and “crony capitalism.”

If a politician wants to steer money to an industry, s/he’ll instead use words like “investment,” “support,” and “job creation.” See: Republicans defending oil and gas subsidies (an increasingly awkward endeavor), and Democrats defending clean energy subsidies.

If a politician wants to cut off money to an industry, that’s when the word “subsidy” comes out. See: Obama railing against oil and gas subsidies and other Democrats pushing the new End Polluter Welfare Act, and Republicans railing against subsidies for renewables and fulminating about Solyndra (more on that below).

Democrats would seem to have the upper hand with the subsidy buzzword this year, as most Americans are sick of supporting Big Oil and eager to support renewables.

Big Oil
Speaking of, “Big Oil” is a phrase you’ll only hear from Democrats this year. Obama’s particularly fond of it. Republicans don’t have a great rejoinder, as Big Solar and Big Wind don’t yet exist.

Keystone
If you hear a politician say the word “Keystone” this year, you can bet s/he’s a Republican.

Obama has been trying to please everyone on the issue of the Keystone XL pipeline — denying it a permit in January, then praising its southern leg in March. Predictably, he’s just managed to piss everyone off, so expect him to avoid the topic from here on out.

Republicans, on the other hand, are doing everything in their power to keep the issue in the news — and they’re getting help from pipeline builder TransCanada, which recently reapplied for a permit. The GOP argues that Obama’s unwillingness to rubber-stamp the pipeline is hampering the economy and making America less energy secure — even though those arguments are false. Currently the GOP is trying to force Keystone approval into a big transportation bill.

Many Democrats, meanwhile, are walking on eggshells around this one. They don’t want to anger the green wing of the base, which showed its might by elevating Keystone into a national issue last year. But they also don’t want to be painted as anti-job or tick off any of the unions that want to help build the pipeline (the labor community is split on the issue). A poll released by Hart Research in February suggested that the Keystone fight is winnable for Dems if they articulate a clear message — say, that the pipeline would create as few as 50 permanent jobs, according [PDF] to researchers at Cornell University, and that much of the oil it transports would be shipped overseas. But savvy, strategic messaging is not a Democratic strong suit of late.

Solyndra
If you hear a politician say the word “Solyndra” this year, you can know s/he’s a Republican.

Republicans will keep harping on the bankruptcy of solar company Solyndra, which got a federal loan guarantee of more than half a billion dollars. They say it shows the folly of the federal government trying to pick winners in the energy sector and boost the economy through stimulus spending, and recent ads from GOP groups go further with salacious (and bogus) Solyndra-related charges. Romney slipped up earlier this year and said “Solyndra” when he meant “Keystone,” betraying the fact that Republicans see both issues primarily as cudgels with which to bash Obama.

Obama has been defending his administration’s Solyndra investment, albeit without mentioning the company’s name. His first TV ad of the campaign season went after his Solyndra critics. In March, he said, “Each successive generation recognizes that some technologies are going to work; some won’t. Some companies will fail; some companies will succeed,” echoing language from his State of the Union address in January. Other Dems have been less sure-footed in their responses to the Solyndra mess. Expect them to avoid the topic like the plague.

Clean energy
“Green jobs” is soooo 2008. “Clean energy” is now the phrase du jour if you want to talk about shifting to an economy based on renewables and efficiency — and so far, only Democrats do.

Obama is running hard on this theme: “I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy,” he’s said more than once. The president regularly visits cleantech companies and highlights the economic promise of cleantech jobs.

Republicans counter by talking about “energy jobs” — the kind that come from building pipelines and mining coal and fracking. “Drill baby drill” talk continues to resonate with the GOP base, while right-wing groups are trying to spark an anti-wind movement. Still, a handful of Republicans from states with big wind potential are calling for extension of a wind-energy tax credit that’s set to expire at the end of the year, recognizing that clean energy can be a job creator.

Poll after poll finds widespread support from voters across the spectrum for renewable power, so you’d think smart politicians would try to tap that vein.

Climate
In 2008, from the presidential candidates on down the ticket, Democrats and Republicans alike offered up plans for combating climate change. But you won’t be hearing “climate change” or “global warming” in many of this year’s stump speeches — and that absence speaks volumes.

President Obama recently told Rolling Stone that he thinks climate will become a campaign issue, but even he doesn’t seem to believe it. He didn’t even bother to mention climate change in his most recent Earth Day address. The president thinks he’ll reach more independents by talking about clean energy, energy innovation, and an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy (snatched right from the Republican playbook). Many of his fellow Democrats are following his lead and shunting climate into the shadows, still smarting from the ignominious death of climate legislation in 2010.

Mitt Romney doesn’t like to talk about climate change either because he’s flip-flopped on the issue. Most other Republican politicians bring up climate change only if they want to voice their skepticism. Former GOP Rep. Bob Inglis (S.C.) is launching a new group to promote conservative solutions to climate change, but don’t expect that effort to gain much traction this year.

Yes, that’s right, the most critical issue ever to face humanity is getting less attention this election season than dogs.

A version of this post was originally published in SEJournal.

Filed under: Article, Cleantech, Climate Change, Climate Policy, Election 2012, Energy Policy, Fossil Fuels, Green Jobs, Politics, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Wind Power

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By David Roberts

Just one more day to earn $25,000.
Your gift will make all the difference.

Two roads diverged in a greenish wood.
And Grist told stories, multi-part
Of bikes and feet and transport good –
And slayed Big Oil when we could.
We need your help. Here’s a chart:

I shall be telling this with a sigh,
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
That I’m a cranky climate guy
But YOU stuck with Grist by and by
And your gift made all the difference.

Frostily,

David Roberts
Staff Writer

P.S. Giving online make you a wreck? You’re also welcome to send a check: Grist, 710 Second Avenue, Suite 860, Seattle, WA 98104.

P.P.S. If we reach our goal by May 15, Grist will receive $25,000 from a generous donor.

Filed under: Article, Inside Grist

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Ecova/Ohio

Residential Utility Solutions
The Utility Solutions business unit boasts a rock-solid track record of delivering reduced energy consumption on behalf of our utility clients. This business has grown rapidly the last few years and has an extensive network of trusted trade allies, retail partners, manufacturers, and measurement and verification partners. This team leverages those relationships to deliver the energy savings or peak power solutions our clients most desire.

As our utility clients gear up their energy efficiency and distributed generation programs, the opportunities are plentiful for making a big impact while we continue to grow Ecova. The Utility Solutions team has an immediate need for two (2) Field Coordinators, based in Ohio. In this role, you will report to the Technical Director in Portland and experience all the benefits of working for a fast-paced, entrepreneurial company while having a significant impact in energy efficiency, climate and sustainability.

Role Description
• Primarily support AEP client’s Single Family & Multi-Family program performing QA/QC visits and supporting trade ally contractors.
• Assess client qualifications by performing comprehensive audits of potential properties. Audits will involve assessment of qualifying measures for the Multi-Family Direct Install program, identifying opportunities for clients to participate in the Multi-Family Common Area Lighting program, and communicating audit results to the client in a detailed and professional manner.
• Verify Common Area Lighting projects by completing a thorough verification audit of installed measures.
• Assist client through program incentive qualification by managing paperwork flow, verifying accuracy of incentive amounts, and submission of project documents for approval and payment.
• Represent Ecova and our clients to contractors and residential customers of AEP Ohio.
• Ensure program documents are accurate and up to date.
• Serve as the representative for Ecova and our clients at outreach events. Educate customers at events about the energy efficiency program(s).
• Distribute program materials and provide participating contractors with appropriate training on energy efficiency programs.
• Assists in meeting/event planning and organization for program events.
• Convey new and upcoming developments in the program to Trade Allies and customers.
• Gather valuable feedback to help track and measure the Program’s success in transforming the marketplace.
• Communicate program goals and activities to the participating Trade Allies, customers and your team.
• Interface with the public and handle customer issues, complaints and questions.
• Performs related work as required.

Role Competencies
• Associate's degree or equivalent required.
• Minimum 1-3 years of experience, preferably in an external facing customer service role.
• Experience working in cross-functional teams is preferred.
• Experience conducting audits, use of performance testing equipment such as a blower door.
• Familiar with standard concepts, practices, and procedures in efficiency program management.
• Relies on limited experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals.
• A certain degree of creativity and latitude is required.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and conflicting priorities.
• Proficient with using computers to process orders, manage client documentation, submit reports, and updating program database.
• Comfortable with a high amount of driving with access to a reliable vehicle.

Ecova Information
Our salaries are competitive and commensurate with experience. We are a performance-based culture and have goal-based incentive programs and generous employee benefits. Our comprehensive benefit package includes medical, dental, vision insurance, life, AD&D, short- and long-term disability insurance. We also offer flexible spending accounts and 401(k) with a generous employer match.

Ecova is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will be considered without regard to age, race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation or preference, religion, marital status, citizenship, veteran status, or physical or mental disability.

To learn more about Ecova and to apply online, please go to: http://www.ecova.com/about-us/careers.aspx.

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By David Roberts

Please support our fine nonprofit!
Help us with a small deposit.
(Why are we rhyming in phrases so terse?
Grist’s been cursed by verse!)

Not that long ago, some folks were arguing that clean energy — unlike climate change, which had been irredeemably stained by partisanship (eww!) — would bring people together across ideological lines. Persuaded by the irrefutable wisdom of wonks, we would join hands across the aisle to promote common-sense solutions. It wouldn’t be partisan, it would be … post-partisan.

Some day, I will stop mocking the people who said that. But not today. The error is an important one and it is still made regularly, especially by hyper-educated U.S. elites. They think clean energy is different from climate change, that it won’t get sucked into the same culture war. They are wrong.

On clean energy, the material/financial aspects of the conflict are the easiest to understand. Wind, solar, and the rest threaten the financial dominance and political influence of dirty energy. Last week, the Guardian broke the story of a confidential memo laying out a plan to demonize and discredit clean energy, meant to coordinate the plans/messages of several big right-wing super PACs funded by dirty-energy money.

At the bottom of that same piece, though, is one of the best expressions I’ve ever seen of the cultural and psychological aspects of the conflict. Witness:

Opposing Obama’s energy policies was a natural fit for conservatives, said Marita Noon, a conservative activist from New Mexico who was at the meeting. “The American way, what made CostCo and Walmart a success, is to use more and pay less. That’s the American way.” The president’s green policies however were the reverse, she said.

“President Obama wants us to pay more and use less.”

Not for the first time, it strikes me that conservatives understand the stakes of this struggle much better than liberals and centrists do, especially at a gut level. They’re on the wrong side of it, but at least they get it.

Photo by Walmart.

Noon is more or less correct: The American Way has been to carelessly consume high quantities of cheap energy, much of it embedded in disposable plastic crap at Walmart. Conservative leaders are telling their flock that there are endless deposits of fossil fuels all around them, if only those pesky Democrats and their regulations would get out of the way. The message is that the American way of life can continue forever, indeed that it is our patriotic birthright, but that Democrats want to take it from them. That goes deeper than energy. It’s about home and hearth.

And Noon is right that the alternative — barely hinted at by Obama’s policies, but sure to come into sharper relief in coming years — is to use much less, and more expensive, energy. You and I know that even if the per-unit price of energy goes up, consumer bills can go down, through efficiency. You and I know that it’s possible to use less energy while still enjoying the same high quality of life. You and I know that there’s no other choice, that cheap, abundant fossil fuels are a thing of the past.

But Noon and her ideological cohort are hearing otherwise. They’re hearing that American abundance, the bounty available to even the poorest Americans at Walmart, is under threat. They’re hearing that Democrats want to make America, the land of plenty, into Europe, the (imagined) land of tiny cars, cramped apartments, and high prices. Again, that’s about more than prices or watts. It’s about cultural identity.

Clean energy supporters can try, if they want, to convince people like Noon that clean energy can offer the same abundance — “use more and pay less” — that fossil fuels offered, through the magic of technology or innovation or whatever. But it’s dishonest. Reducing emissions enough to substantially slow climate change will inevitably involve being more judicious and intelligent in our energy use. Profligate, heedless consumption of disposable crap is going to have to be reined in. That will mean changing habits and land-use patterns. Insofar as those habits and land-use patterns are viewed as constitutive of a “way of life,” many will view that as a threat.

Remember, unlike wonks, average folk don’t think in terms of discrete political “issues.” They think in terms of broad cultural associations and identities. For the conservative base — about which I’ve written many times, see especially here — the issue of energy is wrapped up in a way of life that they view as under threat from multiple directions.

As I’ve said before, it’s unlikely that such people can be persuaded with evidence and reason. What they will eventually do is die off. In the meantime, the job is to define a new American way of life for young people, so when they take over they won’t view Walmart as akin to church.

Filed under: Article, Energy Policy, Politics, Renewable Energy

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By Sarah Henry

Does Grist food news knock off your socks?
Leave a tip in our farmbox.
(Why are we rhyming in phrases so terse?
Grist’s been cursed by verse!)

HBO has a history of tackling important American healthcare crises. In recent years, the cable network has taken on addiction and Alzheimer’s to much critical acclaim. And now the network has turned its attention to another huge health problem: Obesity and its enormous economic, emotional, social, and health cost on individuals, families, communities, and the country at large.

As Americans have gained weight in recent years, rates of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and other obesity-related health problems have also skyrocketed. Type 2 diabetes (once known as “adult-onset diabetes”) rates are soaring among kids. And this is a generation that may well die at a younger age than their parents, largely because of medical concerns associated with excess weight.

These facts have become commonplace, to those of us who have been paying attention. Still, The Weight of the Nation: Confronting America’s Obesity Epidemic  serves as a clarion call to the country to take action – and fast – to combat this pernicious, complex problem that has myriad root causes.

Despite the familiar territory, this viewer gives the filmmakers points for framing this issue in a fresh, visually compelling way through astute story selection. The first episode recounts The Bogalusa Heart Study in Louisiana – a landmark investigation which found that cardiovascular disease can begin in childhood. And in the final installment we meet a Nashville mayor trying to help his city get healthy and a Latino community in Santa Ana, Calif., whose members spend years advocating for a play space for their children.

A film still from the Weight of the Nation HBO series.

Bigger than individuals

Some critics (including those who have yet to watch the series) worry that The Weight of the Nation only fans fear, stereotypes fat folk, and doesn’t go after the real villain in the war against weight: the food and beverage industry. But from this critic’s perspective, the program doesn’t lay shame and blame at the feet of the overweight and obese people it features. On the contrary, it presents their struggles in a sympathetic and non-judgmental light, revealing how hard the body fights weight loss despite good intentions, and how current social, economic, and government systems sabotage Americans’ attempts to stay healthy.

Yes, there is the question of personal responsibility, and the films address physical inactivity and poor diet as key contributors to this problem. But there’s also healthy discussion of factors outside an individual’s control – including genetic makeup and evolutionary biology (we’re programmed for scarcity in a time of abundance), workplace changes, fast food marketing strategies, federal farm subsidies, changes in American food culture, and the ready availability of low-cost, high-calorie food.

The series also points a finger at the global corporations that are responsible for peddling the unhealthy, highly processed foods at the crux of the problem. It’s hard to imagine commercial television, hugely dependent on advertising by the makers of such food, taking on this topic in the first place.

To produce The Weight of the Nation, HBO teamed up with some major government agencies battling this spreading epidemic — the Institute of Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health — as well as the child-focused philanthropy Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente.

The series doesn’t sugar coat matters, but makes it clear that obesity-related health problems will become an unprecedented, massive crisis with dire consequences if left unchecked. It’s also incredibly expensive: At the current rate of increase, obesity-related healthcare costs are projected to exceed $300 billion by 2018.

In conjunction with the series, HBO also launched a massive social media campaign to spread the word about what can be done about these health problems and reached out to more than 40,000 community-based organizations across the country.

Take that obesity epidemic. And yet, as John Hoffman, executive producer of the series, noted in a discussion after a recent screening in Oakland: One of the first steps that might put a serious dent in this problem would be addressing government subsidies for commodity crops, which have made ingredients like high fructose corn syrup cheap, accessible, and ubiquitous. He suggested changing the date of the Iowa caucus – a step that would give this farm state considerably less political power. (Such creative thinking didn’t make it into the series. But it’s food for thought – as is the hormonal defect hypothesis, detailed in a Newsweek story last week, which argues that refined sugars and grains are the major players in a problem that no amount of dieting and exercise could correct.)

For kids’ sake

A film still from the Weight of the Nation HBO series.

People can argue whether the root problem is corporations and their lobbyists, unfair government subsidies that benefit Big Ag, or cultural forces that keep many of us eating low-nutrient, high-calorie food. But most folks can agree on this much: It’s time to help kids get healthier.

One whole hour of the four-part series is focused on children. School lunch takes a hit, as does a food and beverage industry that preys on America’s most vulnerable population. As Kelly Brownell of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, notes in one episode, food marketing to children is “powerful, it’s pernicious, and it’s predatory.”

One highlight in the HBO effort is a half-hour film titled “The Great Cafeteria Takeover,” which runs on Wednesday. It chronicles the actions of a group of pre-teen reformers in New Orleans, known as the Rethinkers, who set about to improve lunch at their schools. Two other half-hour programs in the children’s’ series will debut in the fall.

Given the severity of obesity-related health problems and their rapid rise among kids, it looks like HBO won’t be the only broadcaster taking on a topic that has caught the attention of everyone from Michelle Obama to Ellen DeGeneres. The Hollywood Reporter recently announced that Laurie David, author of The Family Dinner and the producer behind An Inconvenient Truth, has teamed up with Katie Couric for a feature-length film about childhood obesity titled The Big Picture, which also promises to examine the impact of the food industry and government subsidizes on children’s health. Stay tuned.

Part one “Consequences” and part two “Choices” air on HBO on Monday, May 14. Part three “Children in Crisis” and part four “Challenges” air Tuesday, May 15.

Filed under: Corn, Factory Farms, Farm Bill, Food

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Environmental Defense Fund/Bentonville, AR

For over 20 years the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Corporate Partnerships Program has worked with companies to create transformational change through win-win partnerships with business. Since 2005, EDF has been working with Walmart to reduce its environmental impact and drive improvements and innovations through the retail supply chain. Walmart has taken broad, ambitious goals – to be supplied by 100% renewable energy, to sell sustainable products, and to reduce waste to zero. Using Walmart and the retail supply chain, EDF is working to change the world. EDF’s current areas of focus include supply chain greenhouse gas reduction, energy efficiency, green chemistry, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and through The Sustainability Consortium, product lifecycle assessment and product improvement.

Overall Function
The primary responsibilities of this position are twofold: (1) to provide scientific and technical insight and engage in sustainability metric development and assessment for consumer goods,; and (2) to serve as a scientific resource for the Corporate Partnerships Program of EDF, assessing goals, priorities and strategies used to create environmental change.

Key Responsibilities

Perform scientific and technical analysis based on rigorous environmental research to generate and implement innovative strategies for minimizing the environmental impacts associated with retail operations and purchasing.
Serve as our scientific liaison and coordinate EDF's technical and scientific efforts interacting with The Sustainability Consortium (TSC).
Maintain and build ties with TSC, EDF scientists, and relevant academic/research communities, through project engagement, outreach, presentations at workshops and conferences, informal contacts, etc.
Develop and manage relationships with key Walmart staff, including the sustainability, communications, merchandising, and project team staff as appropriate.
Coordinate the work of other Environmental Defense Fund experts as needed.
Develop and apply appropriate means for measuring the environmental and business benefits of our retail work.
Represent EDF in a variety of settings, including meetings with corporate executives and with other NGOs.
Effectively translate and distill complex scientific concepts and project results into accessible language for EDF donors and members.
Working with EDF's Science Team, advise Corporate Partnerships staff on new and existing scientific perspectives related to EDF's programmatic efforts and help maintain the scientific integrity of CPP's work.

Qualifications

The optimal candidate will have deep knowledge about environmental issues; a strong scientific background in sustainability metrics, life cycle assessment, and other assessment methods to calculate the environmental impact of consumer products; and have an understanding of the broad range of environmental challenges facing retail and consumer product companies.

The qualifications for this position include:

Masters degree or higher in environmental science, engineering, materials science, or other relevant discipline;
A solid educational background or experience in quantification and measurement; experience with life cycle assessment (LCA), consumer products, and supply chains preferred
Familiarity with consumer product formulation and hazard assessment a plus
Strong analytical skills and experience in performing rigorous analysis in support of highly visible work
Demonstrated ability to collaborate with diverse scientists and industrial stakeholders in large-scale, multi-initiative studies
Solid experience in project management
A broad understanding of environmental issues
Understanding of, or experience in, business management or strategy, especially in the retail sector
Excellent written and oral communications skills
Ability to juggle many tasks and deadlines and to respond quickly to changing opportunities
An ability to work both independently and as a member of small teams in a fast-paced, dynamic and creative environment.

Location
The Sustainability Specialist will join a staff of four, working with a team of two based in Bentonville AR, and report to the Corporate Partnerships Managing Director in San Francisco CA.

Environmental Defense Fund is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Women, minorities and the physically challenged are encouraged to apply.

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By Mary Anne Hitt

A version of this post originally appeared on Compass, a Sierra Club blog.

As the director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, I have to do a lot of traveling, which means spending more time than I would like away from my 2-year-old daughter, Hazel. Just the other day, I got home from a trip to find Hazel and her dad pretty exhausted after three days without Mom. I hope that someday, she’ll understand that I had to be away sometimes because I was working hard to protect her from the pollution that is a very real threat to her future.

For Hazel, I hope when she’s my age that the air and water are clean and safe, the mountains of her home state of West Virginia are still standing, and the threat of climate disruption has passed. I think that future is within our grasp, thanks to the work we are doing to move America beyond coal.

In the past year, we celebrated a historic victory that brought us much closer to that cleaner, safer future, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the first-ever national mercury standards for coal-fired power plants. Believe it or not, while coal plants are our nation’s No. 1 source of mercury pollution, until this year, there were no national mercury standards in place for coal plants. None at all! Coal plants could just spew 100 percent of their toxic mercury into the air, which then made its way into our waterways and the fish that we eat.

These protections are long overdue, and will safeguard our families. According to the EPA, every year over 300,000 babies are born exposed to high enough levels of mercury to put them at risk of developmental problems, like lowered IQ and delays in walking and talking — problems that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Babies come into contact with this toxic mercury if their mothers eat a lot of certain species of fish, even before they become pregnant.

I was one of hundreds of thousands of moms and dads who worked hard to secure these new mercury protections, which were finalized in January. Now these safeguards are under attack, and we have to defend them.

Unfortunately, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) is preparing to file a measure in Congress that would not only stop these mercury protections, but would also prevent the EPA from ever taking action on mercury again. Yes, you heard that right.

This Mother’s Day, my wish is that you will join me in taking action to defend these crucial mercury protections. I know all you moms and dads out there are busy, so we’ve made it simple for you — just click here to send a note to your senator. Our kids are counting on us, so it’s time to speak up in defense of these long-overdue safeguards from toxic mercury pollution.

Thank you. And happy Mother’s Day!

Filed under: Article, Coal

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Earth Advantage Institute /Portland, OR

Who We Are:
Earth Advantage Institute is a nonprofit with a focus on literally changing the world for the better. This is not your parents’ nonprofit. We are currently involved in inventing new solutions for the sustainably built environment, as well as building tools to connect global leaders in this space. We have a strong history of certifying green homes and commercial buildings. Now we are leveraging that knowledge to create sophisticated tools and educational programs to further sustainable practices globally.

What You Can Bring:
You are inventive, flexible, and unafraid to question the status quo. You bring several years of progressive experience in design. You are considered a leader in creating compelling identity packages, advertisements, and websites. You are looking for an opportunity to leave your mark on a highly progressive organization that is driven to make positive change and holds design in very high regard. You accept that what you see about us currently is all up for grabs and waiting for someone with vision to reshape and reposition us to match our goals.

You possess 5+ years of experience conceptualizing and designing for both print and web, and experience working in a fast-paced environment. You hold strong aesthetic POV, while retaining the ability to collaborate and cross-functionally integrate a wide range of ideas. You are a self-starter who is highly efficient and organized. You live and breathe design and wish the world was filled with a lot more great design.

Responsibilities:
• Collaborate with the senior marketing manager (SMM) on branding projects and re-design, including collateral materials, email newsletters, retail graphics.
• Lead the redesign of the EAI brand and sub-brands.
• As a key member of the marketing team, you must also be ready and willing to take on a variety of projects and back up the SMM as needed.
• Be a vendor for producing materials for all EAI departments and occasionally outside clients and collaborators.
• Re-design all organizational touch-points to match the rebranding efforts.
• Create graphics, prepare files, and maintain the EAI website.
• Create web banners/online ads as needed.
• Participate in the design development and creation of the EPS software online platform.
• Manage all social networking portals (Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter)
• Video, photography, or interactive experience a plus.

Specific Skills:
• Highly creative designer in identity, print, and web.
• HTML/CSS basic knowledge.
• Must possess strong typography skills and knowledge of contemporary design.
• Must be fluent in Adobe CS5+ (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator) in a Mac environment.
• Must have experience creating web graphics, wireframes, and designs for whole sites.
• Advanced print production experience is essential.
• Must be extremely detail oriented, well organized, and able to thrive in a deadline-driven environment with a high level of time management and project management skills.
• Must have an understanding of corporate branding, brand guidelines, and graphics standards.
• Ability to interact and communicate clearly and confidently with internal clients to determine their visual communication needs, present ideas, and take a project from start to finish.
• Enjoy working in a groundbreaking, fun environment.

How to Apply:
Please submit the following materials to apply for this position (pdf only):
• Resume
• Cover letter
• At least 5 examples showing a mix of both print and web design that you led (link to online portfolio is acceptable)
• Three professional references (can be provided upon request, if preferred).
Please Note: Incomplete submissions will be disregarded.

Submit application materials by email to marketing@earthadvantage.org
Please include salary requirements.
Subject line should read: “Lead Designer – Last name, First nameâ€

NO PHONE CALLS, PLEASE

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By Daniel Klein

Asian Carp are quickly becoming the invasive species to beat. They’re taking over rivers and lakes across the country and threatening native species by competing for the plankton that forms the base of the aquatic food chain. We went out with a fisherman on the Peoria River and took some footage of his latest catch.

Filed under: Article, Food

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