Salary: non-disclosed. Date posted: 05/22/2013

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Position Summary:
The Professional Services Manager will manage a team of 7-9 technical and business staff and reports to the Director of Professional Services, Regional IS. Leads and introduces project analysis best practices, ensures adherence to standard project processes and methodologies, and engages client program management as partners in the planning and prioritization of projects. Monitor and provide oversight to meet defined business requirements to deliver projects on time, within budget and with quality results. The Professional Services Manager will display technical competency, business acumen, fiscal maturity, client advocacy at all times, and demonstrate the ability to anticipate, recognize and resolve issues.

- Manage a diverse team of IT professionals including Data Analysts, Software Engineers, and Applications Support staff across multiple offices in the Mid-Atlantic Region fostering a team environment and leveraging skills across the team.
- Plan, manage and assign project work and service requests. Monitor progress, assess issues and risks, and communicate status to IT leadership and business stakeholders. Meet with stakeholders regularly to provide progress updates and re-prioritize as needed. Deliver projects on time and within budget.
- Report project status on a regular basis to management via appropriate delivery mechanisms, project plans, risk/mitigation plans, forecasts, etc.
- Manage project scope and budget, ensuring any changes in scope are quickly communicated and approved by customer.
- Lead personnel management activities including performance management and review, career development, and new employee hiring. Provide hands-on coaching and mentoring of team members.
- Identify and facilitate training and development opportunities for staff to enhance technical and industry knowledge and expertise.
- Serve as primary liaison for communication between the Team and internal program management, regional IS management, and the central IS teams.
- Enforce and communicate company, department, and team policies and procedures including formalized project management methods and tools along with adhering to the company's Agile-Scrum development process.
- Lead ongoing project planning and estimating for future approved projects and service requests, considering current and future resource capacity and availability.
- Assist in the feasibility analysis; initial scoping, and recommendation process for future projects to be approved through IT leadership, steering committees, and standard demand management processes with the business stakeholders.
- Work closely with regions and other central services to address business obstacles internally and externally.
- Provide metric reports to management on key objectives, including compliance on SLA's.
- Support project initiatives, including: Budget considerations, time and resource estimates, defining the project scope and objectives, risk assessments, etc.
- Establish and foster positive working relationships with internal program staff, clients, and other business partners.
- Provide IT presence in client meetings as needed.
- Assist the Director of Regional IS with responses to RFPs and RFIs as needed, focusing on excellence in Statement of Work definition and estimation.

Qualifications:
- Bachelors Degree in business, software engineering, computer science or related field.
- Minimum 3 years of staff or project management experience in an IT department.
- Experience working on mission critical software projects; being the liaison between the business and IS gathering business requirements, or manager of team responsible for gathering business requirements.
- Demonstrated experience in creating and implementing processes and procedures necessary to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction and retention.
- Experience in planning, prioritizing, and managing multiple projects and project teams.
- Strong background in reporting and data analysis.
- Experience working collaboratively with cross-functional and cross-organizational (vendors, clients, partners) teams.
- Excellent customer service acumen.
- Sharp attention to detail and excellent organizational skills.
- Excellent communication skills, both oral and written.
- Some travel.

CSG's compensation package includes comprehensive medical coverage with BlueCross BlueShield Blue Care Elect PPO, dental coverage with Delta Dental PPO, and vision coverage with EyeMed Vision Care; Employer paid life and AD&D insurance and STD & LTD insurance coverage; Plus paid holidays, PTO, and employer matching 401(k) retirement plan.

Please apply online at: http://jobs-csg.icims.com

CSG is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Key Words: green jobs, energy efficiency, utility, conservation, BPI, LEED, weatherization, HVAC, clean energy, energy conservation, csg jobs, energy consulting, energy efficient, green energy, renewable energy

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Canada obviously has a huge stake in the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline. If President Obama fails to approve it — a decision he recently put off yet again – the Canadian oil industry will have a tough time getting its abundant tar-sands crude to seaside ports. Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently came to the U.S. to make the case for the pipeline in person, as did Canada’s ministers of foreign affairs and natural resources and the premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

And now our neighbor to the north is focusing its powers of persuasion directly on the American people. The country just launched a taxpayer-funded, multimillion-dollar marketing campaign extolling the virtues of tar-sands oil to U.S. citizens. From The Vancouver Observer:

To support the government position and its travelling ministers, Ottawa has launched a $16 million marketing campaign that includes a new website and newspaper advertisements in the US to promote Keystone KL. The thrust of the campaign is the promotion of Canada as a reliable supplier of oil and a “world environmental leader” in the field of oil and gas development.

The millions of dollars being spent on marketing efforts and road trips is unsettling to many in the scientific and environment community.

“I think it’s pretty inappropriate for government ministers to be salesmen for particular industries particularly when opinion in Canada is so divided,” Sierra Club of Canada Executive Director John Bennett told The Vancouver Observer in an interview. “We cancelled regulations, we backed out of the Kyoto Protocol, we’ve had four different plans with three different (emission reduction) targets and each time they announced targets they were weaker and further off.”

The federally funded campaign comes two months after the Alberta government purchased a full-page Sunday New York Times ad promoting the pipeline as “the choice of reason.” According to The Globe and Mail, ads “targeted at lobbyists and lawmakers” appeared last Monday, May 13, on Beltway-insider sites The Hill and Politico, and are slated to run later in other influential publications.

Go With Canada, the government’s newly launched website, promotes the idea of the Keystone XL pipeline as a crucial component of the U.S.-Canada alliance. “America faces a choice,” it states. “It can import oil from Canada — a secure and environmentally responsible neighbor that is committed to North American energy independence — or it can choose less stable offshore sources with much weaker environmental standards.”

The Globe and Mail reports:

The taxpayer-funded campaign doesn’t solely focus on TransCanada’s private $5.3-billion pipeline proposal designed to link the vast oil sands reserves with massive refineries along the Gulf coast and thus provide the vital access to major markets that will, in turn, permit further oil sands development. There also is a major effort to portray Canada as a leader in curtailing greenhouse gases and environmentally responsible. Both claims are apparently intended to deflect attacks by anti-Keystone XL groups.

But some of the figures the government’s website touts to back up those claims have already been called into question, says CBC News:

The site asserts that “Innovation and research drives improvement in the oil sands — GHG emissions have dropped 26 per cent between 1990 and 2011.”

In fact, Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions more than tripled between 1990 and 2011. The emissions intensity per barrel of oil fell 26 per cent.

CBC also notes that this “current promotional onslaught has been years in the making,” with meetings as far back as March 2010 between the Canadian government and oil industry to start hashing out their communications strategy.

Will the marketing money work? Obama is, after all, the one with the final say — but it looks like the Canadian government, seeing what a fractious issue the pipeline has become, is counting on the president’s tendency to take what he assumes to be the politically safe route.

But when half of Americans don’t even know what the Keystone XL pipeline is [PDF], any information campaign — for or against — has its work cut out for it.

h/t: Fiona Woo at World Future Council

Filed under: Business & Technology, Climate & Energy, Politics

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Public schools increasingly talk a good game about the healthy stuff they’re serving for lunch. But the meals don’t always match the menu, as Zachary Maxwell discovered as a fourth grader. Maxwell sneakily recorded the gross lunches at his school, and from that footage was born his aptly titled documentary, Yuck.

Getting this footage wasn’t easy, he told The New York Times:

His hidden-camera documentary was almost derailed last year when he was caught filming without permission by a fearsome enforcer — the lunchroom monitor in his school cafeteria.

“She sent me to my teacher, and my teacher told me to delete everything,” said Zachary, who is now 11.

Zachary pretended to delete the day’s shots. After that lapse in production security, he said, “I fired my lookouts.”

But it was worth it: He proved to his parents that the food the school was promising — dishes like lasagna rolls and roasted spinach — weren’t what he was being served (grilled cheese). And the film’s been winning all kinds of accolades. If you live in New York, you can catch it this June at the Manhattan Film Festival.

Filed under: Food, Living

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Are you a talented and ambitious Senior Marketing Specialist looking to make an impact within a growing organization? Conservation Services Group offers a great opportunity for someone who'd like to grow with us, get exposure to key accounts and projects, coordinate a wide mix of marketing tactics, and help shape our position in the marketplace.

CSG designs, develops, and delivers innovative, results-driven energy efficiency, energy conservation, and renewable energy programs. People who work at CSG say that it's a unique kind of organization — one that nurtures individual talents and inspires dedication.

We are seeking a passionate and creative marketer to join our client services team of marketing managers, specialists, and designers. This is a full-time position located in our Westborough, Massachusetts headquarters, under the supervision of the New England Marketing Manager.

The ideal candidate is a seasoned juggler that loves variety. They have experience developing effective marketing plans, combined with a deep understanding of processes and best practices to successfully execute a wide-range of tactics. They possess the drive to understand the nuances of unique programs, goals and audiences. They can write creative and compelling content with the ability to apply across all marketing mediums and formats. They are comfortable and confident working directly with clients, and able to deliver exceptional service that goes above and beyond the call of duty. If this sounds like you, we encourage you to apply!

Resposibilities:
- Supports Marketing Manager in the implementation of integrated marketing communications and advertising programs that drive participation in energy efficiency programs. Project mix includes direct mail, radio, digital, print advertising, email, collateral, case studies, mobile, social, video, media research, and event participation
- Assists with the development, writing, and communication of marketing plans, budgets, creative briefs, project recommendations, and presentations
- Prepares a wide-range of program forms and collateral materials
- Manages cooperative marketing initiatives for participating contractors
- Coordinates the delivery of digital and mobile assets
- Executes email and direct mail campaigns
- Assists with campaign performance analysis and reporting
- Participates in client communications including the review/approval process
- Writes and edits compelling copy for marketing campaigns
- Builds and maintains valued relationships with internal and external clients, regional offices, call center staff, and vendors
- Communicates marketing tactics and timelines to call center staff and operations team
- Assists with other day-to-day marketing tasks as needed

Qualifications:
- Bachelor's Degree in Marketing, Communications, or related field
- Minimum of 7-10 years' related experience required with increasing responsibility

- Agency experience, or client-facing role within an inhouse agency environment is key
- Must be a highly-organized multi-tasker that can juggle a variety of projects, priorities, and timelines
- Excellent copywriting and editing skills specific to direct response marketing campaigns
- Experience with email marketing software, strategies, and best practices
- Familiarity with the print production process
- Ability to manage digital marketing assets and campaigns
- Knowledge of direct mail processes and requirements
- Experience coordinating with graphic designers on the production of materials
- The ability to track, analyze and report on campaign performance
- Strong collaboration, communication and interpersonal skills
- Confidence and polished presentation skills to interact with clients and all levels of the organization
- Self-driven, results-oriented with a positive outlook, and a clear focus on high quality and business results
- Strategic thinker with proven analytical skills
- Strong Microsoft Office skills including Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint
- Team player-committed to promoting the growth and success of CSG

Salary Range: Commensurate with experience

CSG's compensation package includes comprehensive medical coverage with BlueCross BlueShield Blue Care Elect PPO, dental coverage with Delta Dental PPO, and vision coverage with EyeMed Vision Care; Employer paid life and AD&D insurance and STD & LTD insurance coverage; Plus paid holidays, PTO, and employer matching 401(k) retirement plan.

Please apply online at: http://jobs-csg.icims.com. Please include salary requirements to be considered. LOCAL candidates only.

CSG is an Equal Opportunity Employer

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This tornado, guys. This tornado. I mean. I just. I can’t. The whole town! The kids! UGH. I am at the point with national tragedies where I just lose my ability to respond in any coherent way. What do we even DO at that point? Well, one approach is to watch heartwarming animal videos, like this one where a shocked tornado victim discovers during a CBS interview that she didn’t lose everything — she just lost everything except her dog.

If you don’t well up when she says “bless your little bitty heart,” it’s possible that your own heart is malfunctioning. Or it’s possible that you’re too distracted by the fact that the TV news people don’t PUT THE DAMN MIC DOWN AND GO HELP THE DOG. But the pup makes it out of the rubble in one piece anyway, and other footage shows her (I think) walking away with nothing apparently broken. Thank goodness for one little bitty bit of good news.

Filed under: Climate & Energy

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Fueled by the recent fascination with all things DIY, community gardening — like brainstorming clever uses for Mason jars and eating like a caveman– has been popular lately. But on a large plot in inner city Baltimore, gardeners have been working the land for almost 25 years. The Duncan Street Miracle Garden, a lush rectangle crisscrossed by grape arbors and trellises, sits in a desolate patch of East Baltimore where 44 rowhouses once stood. On a recent spring day, the blue sky was visible through the empty shells of neighboring buildings and birdsong competed with police sirens.

“I call it ‘God’s little acre,’” says garden manager Lewis Sharpe, 74. The garden is in fact nearly an acre, and it owes its existence to a core group of dedicated gardeners. In 1988, with Baltimore in the throes of the crack cocaine epidemic, a local men’s group cleaned up what had become a dumping ground after the city razed a stretch of crumbling rowhouses. The gardeners then convinced the city to close the alley to traffic. Decades later, it is dotted with trees, including a mulberry that Sharpe likes to nap under, and row upon row of flower, fruit, and vegetable plants.

A few — the “fruit cocktail tree” and the “strawberry tree” — do sound vaguely miraculous. But the biggest miracle is that the garden is here at all.

A chain link fence surrounds the plot, though it does nothing to thwart the rats, the garden’s worst pests. Instead, it was built some years back to deter a two-legged nuisance: drug dealers. “At one time they was running through here with police chasing ‘em,” Sharpe says. “Now they ain’t got time to go over the fence. They go around it.”

Sharpe joined the farm in 1989, and as founding members passed away or began to garden less, he became its self-appointed manager. He — like famous Milwaukee urban farmer Will Allen — grew up on a farm, in his case in rural Virginia. “During the summer, grandma got us up at 6 a.m. and gave us a hoe or a shovel,” Sharpe says. “We’d go out there and cut the rows, put the seed, put fertilizer down.”

Health problems have kept him from retiring to his ancestral home, so Sharpe has done the next best thing: create an urban facsimile. “It keeps me busy,” he says simply.

In Baltimore, at least, his work fills a unique niche. Sharpe and his fellow green thumbs — there are about 10 — grow much more food than they can eat, so roughly half of the produce goes to local soup kitchens and neighborhood residents. (Sharpe also plants string beans outside the fence for passersby to snack on.) Moveable Feast, a local organization that helps homebound HIV/AIDS patients, has a plot here, as does a neighborhood Baptist church.

Buy-in from organizations like these will likely help the garden to survive in the future, as will participation by younger generations. Anita Stewart-Hammerer’s children have been gardening at Duncan Street for five years, since they were 5 and 8 years old, respectively. “I met Mr. Sharpe at the garden and we hit it off,” Stewart-Hammerer says. She worked in community development for a local organization at the time. “He said to me, ‘I’m gonna make a farmer out of you.’” Stewart-Hammerer is now Sharpe’s right-hand woman, responsible for the paperwork — applying for grants, soliciting donations — that keeps the gardeners in mulch, tools, seed, and plants. (It costs all of $20 to rent a plot for a year.)

Devoted gardeners and some nonprofit support have sustained Duncan Street over the years, but until recently it was living on borrowed time: There was nothing stopping the city from selling the land and evicting the gardeners. Then, in 2010, Baltimore Green Space, a local land trust, purchased the garden from the city for $1 per lot. The trust — which owns three other spaces, including a horseshoe pit — protects the garden from the vagaries of absentee landlords, developers, and the city, if not the ills of the neighborhood.

Land insecurity is a perennial (ahem) problem for urban gardeners. In 2006, after more than a decade, one of the largest urban farms in the country, South Central Farm in industrial Los Angeles, was bulldozed by a developer who wanted to build a warehouse there. Sharpe gazes out over the many species he favors that take years to produce: figs, asparagus, apples, grapes. “We don’t have to worry about that anymore,” he says.

“It’s a much easier sell to a city to say ‘It’s a win win, just give it to us for a dollar,’” says Baltimore Green Space founder and Executive Director Miriam Avins. “Instead of looking at, you’re not going to be getting taxes from this piece of land, think about how it improves property values around it.”

That could be one of the ironies here: Some research has shown that community gardens improve property values [PDF] and lower crime rates, which could, paradoxically, lead to development.

The land trust will be there to protect the garden should that happen, however, and it seems like a distant threat in this stretch of East Baltimore. In any case, Avins says, community gardens like Duncan Street often serve as an organic (a-a-ahem) remedy for a problem that should never have existed. “A lot of our neighborhoods don’t have green space,” she says. “It’s kind of like people are retrofitting their neighborhoods with what should have been there.”

Though there’s always plenty of work to do at Duncan Street, that hasn’t stopped Lewis Sharpe from hatching grander plans. He has adopted at least a dozen neighboring lots from the city — under the program, residents steward a piece of land for a limited time — in order to make sure the grass is mowed and litter picked up. And he’s gardening another swathe of vacant land that borders Duncan Street. As he says of his love for watermelons, “I don’t like a little bit of something. I like a lot.”

Filed under: Cities, Food

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Rides Director

The Cascade Bicycle Club is a 15,000+ member nonprofit organization, dedicated to creating better communities through bicycling, based in Seattle, Washington. Cascade offers riding opportunities for all, advocates for bicycle policy and infrastructure, educates a diverse group of people who ride bikes, and produces world-class cycling events. Cascade produces 13 major bicycle events and offers 1,600 daily recreational rides annually. Cascade is directed by an elected volunteer board and operates with 34 paid staff and thousands of volunteers.

Position Summary

In partnership with Cascade’s volunteer rides committee, the rides director oversees, manages and promotes Cascade Bicycle Club’s rides program, including daily rides, tours, training series, and other rides. This position provides leadership and management to the rides program to meet its expansion and diversification objectives and to support the strategic objectives of the club. The rides director co-chairs Cascade’s rides committee which is responsible for the strategic direction and annual work plans of the rides program and provides direction and support to a volunteer group of over 200 dedicated ride leaders. The rides director is a member of Cascade’s leadership team and reports to the executive director.

Key Responsibilities

Outreach & Programming

• Identify and develop new fun and exciting ride opportunities for cyclists of all types.
• Lead Cascade through a strategic analysis of partnership opportunities with other clubs, related businesses, and rides to encourage growth of cycling in the area.
• Develop and maintain relationships with organizations, community groups, businesses, and others to promote, expand, diversify, and support the rides program.
• In cooperation with others on the Cascade team, oversee the development and execution of a marketing plan to expand the number and diversity of riders participating in Cascade events and rides
• Identify opportunities to collaborate with other Cascade programs such as events, education, and advocacy to advance the mission of the club.
• Help build, implement, and manage an effective system for the recruitment and involvement of volunteers as ride leaders.
• In conjunction with the tours committee, plan and manage Cascade’s tours program.
• Actively engage in daily rides including participating in and leading rides to ensure a close connection with both the ride leader and rider community. Ride participation and ride leader activity are part of the rides director’s formal duties.

Management

• Supervise the club’s rides program coordinator, contractors, and consultants to ensure rides, tours, and training are effectively executed.
• Develop annual rides program plans and budgets in conjunction with the rides committee.
• Partner with club staff to establish systems that support the smooth operation and tracking of the rides program including technology, communications, administration, etc.
• Partner with the rides committee to provide advice and strategic direction including evaluating program effectiveness, ensuring continuous improvement, and monitoring member satisfaction.
• Ensure a robust calendar of daily rides that appeal to a wide range of riders and that expand the geographical reach of the club.

Skills and Experience Required

• Proven management experience with strategic long-term planning skills to chart a path and lead an organization through transition and growth
• Skilled cyclist with the ability and desire to participate in and lead daily rides at a variety of paces, difficulties, and distances.
• Experience working with and inspiring volunteers desired.
• Proven project management and marketing experience desired.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to work independently as well as in teams.
• Ability to meet deadlines, be attentive to detail, and to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, public communication, collaborative style, and can-do attitude required
• Bachelor’s degree required. Advanced degree desired.
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience required.

Employment Specifics

• Cascade is transitioning to a new executive director; the interim executive director will hire and supervise the rides director during the transition.
• Full-time, exempt position with some evening and weekend work required.
• Six-month probationary performance review by supervisor with annual performance reviews at hire date.
• Monetary compensation commensurate with qualifications and experience; benefits package.

To Apply

Submit a cover letter, resume, three professional references and a relevant writing sample (no more than four pages long) to rides.director@cascadebicycleclub.org. Please mention how you heard about the position.
Applications are due June 11, 2013.

Cascade Bicycle Club is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Women, persons of color, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Employment at Cascade is of an at-will nature.

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It was a quiet year for tornadoes — until last week, that is. A string of twisters have ravaged the middle of the country over the past several days, culminating in a two-mile-wide tornado tearing up Moore, Okla., this afternoon. So far at least 37 people have been confirmed dead in Oklahoma, and that toll is expected to rise.

The weather has twisted a few of our fellow greenies on the internet into a tizzy. “Extreme storm, climate change, OMFG!” they cry. We almost had a seizure reading this missive from the Wonkette folks, and we’re fairly sure they had one while writing it.

Wishing the best for tornado victims in OK. Hope this sells at least a few on consequences and importance of climate change.

— Wesley Starnes (@WesleyStarnes) May 20, 2013

But the science on tornadoes and climate change isn’t clear enough to OMFG about it just yet. As Grist’s John Upton reported recently,  the number of twisters has been roller-coastering up and down from year to year. “It certainly feels like one of those boom-bust weather cycles that we expect from climate change. But there doesn’t appear to be any evidence directly linking the recent tornado cycle to global warming.”

Widespread damage in @cityofmoore .#OKCOSO deputies are assisting.#tornado #okwx twitter.com/OkCountySherif…

— Oklahoma Co. Sheriff (@OkCountySheriff) May 20, 2013

The Associated Press wraps it up with this insight: “Will there be more or fewer twisters as global warming increases? There is no easy answer.”

Cars piled on top of each other in Moore, OK. Via KFOR. #okwx #tornado twitter.com/alastormspotte…

— Scott McClellan (@alastormspotter) May 20, 2013

“Most climate scientists believe that clearer answers will be forthcoming with better climate modeling tools — and patience,” according to the Huffington Post.

Worst tornado damage I have seen since Joplin. Picture of what’s left of a daycare in Moore, Oklahoma. Brings tears. twitter.com/StormCoker/sta…

— Georgia Storm Chaser (@StormCoker) May 20, 2013

Post-Superstorm Sandy, we’ve entered a kind of fugue state when it comes to natural disaster, forgetting that there has been a long history of extreme weather events that sometimes have nothing to do with how much carbon is in our atmosphere. For as disastrous as Sandy was, be honest: You relished pointing out that climate change connection.

Horrible. The only word to describe this view in Moore, OK. #okwx #tornado #PrayforMoore twitter.com/alastormspotte…

— Scott McClellan (@alastormspotter) May 20, 2013

We really like to find reason in chaos, though, and we also like to blame things! At one point today there were several little kids trapped in the rubble of a building in Moore, Oklahoma that earlier today was their elementary school. If we can’t blame climate change, who can we blame?

Maybe scientists will conclude that this really is the fault of that atmospheric carbon. Maybe they won’t! For now, at least, the only thing I’ll be blaming for this mess is Sarah Palin. Because, you know.

Filed under: Climate & Energy

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Pack up your temperature sensors, your climate-modeling supercomputers, your tree and ice core sample equipment. Sarah Palin has spoken on climate change, and she says it’s snowing in Alaska, ergo “global warming my gluteus maximus,” Q.E.D. And you know it’s science because she used the Latin word for “ass.”

Prescient Palin only ever backs winning horses like John McCain, Bristol and Levi’s marriage, and her own gubernatorial career, so if she says climate science is a non-starter then by god, we’re just going to throw in the towel. At least until we can get Obama to take inspiration from this completely real and not made up British law:

I suppose if anyone could inspire him to criminalize this kind of idiocy, it’s La Palin.

Filed under: Climate & Energy, Politics

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