The Rainforest Alliance is an international nonprofit organization that works to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behaviour. Based in New York City, with offices throughout the United States and worldwide, the Rainforest Alliance works with people whose livelihoods depend on the land, helping them transform the way they grow food, harvest wood and host travelers.
Position Summary:
Under the supervision of the Coordinator, Office of the President, s/he will provide administrative support to the President and Executive Office team. The Assistant will need to develop a strong understanding of the Rainforest Alliance’s mission and conservation issues.
Responsibilities:
• Maintain appointment schedules by scheduling meetings, conferences, phone calls, speaking engagements, and travel logistics for the President; s/he will also be responsible for providing administrative related support to the Sustainable Finance Director;
• Coordinate all aspects of meeting preparation, including communications with relevant staff, logistics, agendas, materials preparation, as well as meeting follow-up, including minutes and correspondence;
• Manage President’s phone calls and contact information;
• Generate expense reports for cash reimbursements and monthly American Express invoices for the President and Sustainable Finance Director;
• Generate Executive Office monthly updates and calendar reports;
• Maintain paper and electronic filing and retrieval systems including management of the Salesforce database for Executive Office;
• Provide support for Executive events such as the annual staff meeting and the Marketing Sustainability & Certification Workshop, including communications with relevant staff, logistics, and materials preparation, as well as meeting follow-up;
• Assist President and Coordinator with stakeholder outreach including coordination of stakeholder events, minute taking, logistics and other tasks;
• Assist Coordinator with research projects and provide facilitation on cross-program and emerging initiatives (i.e. Water research, PES);
• Assist Coordinator with Campus Outreach including campus correspondence, meeting preparation and follow-up;
• Facilitate logistical needs of senior staff when requested by the President as well as remote senior staff and partner NGOs when in New York office;
• Assist in the preparation of presentations, draft letters and documents; and
• Other duties as assigned.
Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree in required;
• 1-2 years’ administrative experience supporting a senior level executive in a professional work environment;
• Must have excellent computer skills (Microsoft Office and Internet) and comfort working with database programs. Knowledge of PowerPoint software preferred;
• Must have excellent writing and verbal communications skills;
• Verbal and written fluency in Spanish language a plus;
• Candidate must have strong verbal and written communication skills and display a high level of diplomacy and professionalism;
• Must be able to work independently, multi-task and work under tight deadlines; and
• Demonstrated interest in conservation, corporate social responsibility and/or international development issues.
Salary:
Commensurate with experience. Competitive benefits package provided
To apply:
Send resume, cover letter and salary history to Human Resources, Rainforest Alliance, 233 Broadway, 28th Floor, New York, NY 10279; Fax: 212-677-2187. If emailing, use the following format in the subject line: first name and last name, job title and position you are applying for.
NatureBridge.
CA – California, San Francisco
About NatureBridge Founded in 1971 and based in San Francisco, NatureBridge is the largest residential environmental education partner of the National Park Service. Its mission is to inspire personal connections…
Last week, President Obama nominated Sally Jewell, CEO of the outdoor gear giant REI, to head the Interior Department — the branch of government that manages national parks, monuments, and rangelands spanning from Ellis Island to Yosemite, and is currently overseeing an epic oil and gas drilling spree. Environmental groups are tripping over themselves to praise the president for his impeccable taste.
“In Jewell, President Obama chose a leader with a demonstrated commitment to preserving the higher purposes public lands hold for all Americans,” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune gushed in a statement. Mike Daulton with the National Audubon Society called her “a strong leader who understands that protecting our natural world goes hand in hand with a strong American economy.” Bob Irvin, president of American Rivers, beamed that “she knows how important fishing, boating, and hiking and the great outdoors are to our families, to our future, and to our heritage as Americans.”
You get the picture. Why do the greenies love her so much? For starters, she’s a card-carrying conservationist with a long record of working to protect the wild places where she and her customers like to play. But there’s another reason Sally Jewell is the darling of Big Green groups: Her industry has given conservation cachet in Washington that it hasn’t enjoyed since the 1970s.
Much has been written about how environmentalists have failed to get substantial legislation through Congress since the golden age of the Clean Air and Water Acts. The particulars of their many failures are varied, but it basically boils down to this: Their opponents always manage to dumb the debate down to “jobs vs. the environment” — and when that happens, you can guess who wins. In Washington, as they say, money talks.
Not long ago, Jewell’s industry — made up of companies that manufacture and sell tents and backpacks and kayaks and such — was having similar problems. Frank Hugelmeyer, CEO of the Outdoor Industry Association, a trade group, remembers huddling over drinks at the Hyatt in Washington, D.C., after a frustrating day of lobbying on Capitol Hill in 2004. The industry was growing by leaps and bounds, but “in the halls of Congress, we were still being treating as tree-huggers,” he told me last spring as I was reporting a story about the industry for High Country News. “I remember saying, ‘We need to quantify this — the real true impact of outdoor recreation.’”
The notes they scribbled on a napkin that evening would inspire two years of work, funded by REI, aimed at putting a price tag on outdoor recreation nationwide. The resulting report, published in 2006, estimated that the outdoor business generated an astronomical $730 billion annually. The figure included everything from gear manufacturing and sales to hotel rooms and restaurant tabs, but if you start throwing numbers like that around, politicians’ ears perk up, Craig Mackey, the OIA’s director of recreation policy, told me. “That report has gained us an enormous amount of traction in Washington, D.C.”
The most recent industry report — released at a press conference last summer where Jewell stood side by side with the president of ORV manufacturer Polaris and the governors of Utah and Washington — put the figure slightly lower: $645 billion a year. But still, if you believe the industry, that number dwarfs what we spend annually on pharmaceuticals, cars, gas, or household utilities.
Under the Obama administration, OIA bigwigs and outdoor company CEOs have become regulars at D.C. press conferences unveiling initiatives to get more Americans recreating on public lands. (The industry’s interests dovetail conveniently with the Obamas’ fight against childhood obesity.) And now Jewell might be unveiling those initiatives herself instead of smiling silently off to the side.
And the environmentalists who love her so much? After decades of being blown off as dirty hippy backpacker types, they can finally declare, with a straight face and data to back them up, that protecting the public lands from oil and gas drilling and other ecological insults is not just the right thing to do — it’s also good for business.
Turns out that the argument has traction. In 2009, at the urging of outdoor industry leaders (among many others), Congress passed, and the president signed, the Omnibus Public Lands Act, protecting more than 2 million acres of new wilderness and more than 1,000 miles of newly designated wild and scenic rivers, and expanding the national parks and monuments system. Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) both cited the OIA’s numbers in speeches supporting the bill.
Since that time, of course, we’ve seen the Tea Party revolution and a return to congressional gridlock. But now comes Jewell and the hope that, with her business savvy and the might of her industry, we might see more progress yet.
But will Jewell really be the answer to all the greenies’ prayers? If the Senate confirms her — and it’s hard to imagine that it won’t, despite flailing from right-wing pundits who say the one-time petroleum engineer is too green — she will be the first Interior secretary in at least 30 years who doesn’t wear a cowboy hat. This bodes well for those who value the public lands for things other than grazing cows, logging, and mining: Jewell is, above all, a business woman, but her loyalties clearly lie with those who view the public lands as a playground, not the source of commodities like minerals or meat.
Some have raised legitimate questions about whether the interests of Jewell’s industry line up with what’s best for the land. Off-road vehicle riders love nothing better than tearing up the virgin (and extremely fragile) deserts managed by Interior. And while “human-powered” recreation nuts like myself aren’t drilling and fracking the heck out of the public domain, we burn a fair amount of the resulting fuel in order to get to our favorite recreation areas. As Jewell herself quipped at the press conference last summer, “I don’t know anyone who walks to the trailhead.”
But the biggest unknown surrounding Jewell’s abilities to effect change is her boss-to-be, President Obama. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are sure to block any conservation measures from passing through Congress, and while Jewell can steer the department toward more eco-friendly land management, there is a limited amount that she can do from inside a government juggernaut like Interior. That means that her most powerful tool is to work through the president, via executive fiat.
President Clinton used his executive powers to create a pile of new national monuments at the encouragement of his Interior secretary, Bruce Babbitt. So far, however, Obama has shown little appetite for such action. He has made it clear that he plans to continue to continue the oil and gas drilling orgy that his predecessor started. Meanwhile, he has protected less public land administratively than each of the four presidents who preceded him — even George W. Bush.
Can Jewell convince Obama to create a substantial conservation legacy, even if it’s only to shore up her beloved “recreation economy”? It might require getting him off the golf course and out onto the Potomac in a kayak — but then, I suspect that Jewell knows people who could provide the necessary gear and instruction.
Change usually happens very slowly, even once all the serious people have decided there’s a problem. That’s because, in a country as big as the United States, public opinion moves in slow currents. Since change by definition requires going up against powerful established interests, it can take decades for those currents to erode the foundations of our special-interest fortresses.
Take, for instance, “the problem of our schools.” Don’t worry about whether there actually was a problem, or whether making every student devote her school years to filling out standardized tests would solve it. Just think about the timeline. In 1983, after some years of pundit throat clearing, the Carnegie Commission published “A Nation at Risk,” insisting that a “rising tide of mediocrity” threatened our schools. The nation’s biggest foundations and richest people slowly roused themselves to action, and for three decades we haltingly applied a series of fixes and reforms. We’ve had Race to the Top, and Teach for America, and charters, and vouchers, and … we’re still in the midst of “fixing” education, many generations of students later.
Even facing undeniably real problems — say, discrimination against gay people — one can make the case that gradual change has actually been the best option. Had some mythical liberal Supreme Court declared, in 1990, that gay marriage was now the law of the land, the backlash might have been swift and severe. There’s certainly an argument to be made that moving state by state (starting in nimbler, smaller states like Vermont) ultimately made the happy outcome more solid as the culture changed and new generations came of age.
Which is not to say that there weren’t millions of people who suffered as a result. There were. But our societies are built to move slowly. Human institutions tend to work better when they have years or even decades to make gradual course corrections, when time smooths out the conflicts between people.
And that’s always been the difficulty with climate change — the greatest problem we’ve ever faced. It’s not a fight, like education reform or abortion or gay marriage, between conflicting groups with conflicting opinions. It couldn’t be more different at a fundamental level.
We’re talking about a fight between human beings and physics. And physics is entirely uninterested in human timetables. Physics couldn’t care less if precipitous action raises gas prices, or damages the coal industry in swing states. It could care less whether putting a price on carbon slowed the pace of development in China, or made agribusiness less profitable.
Physics doesn’t understand that rapid action on climate change threatens the most lucrative business on Earth, the fossil fuel industry. It’s implacable. It takes the carbon dioxide we produce and translates it into heat, which means into melting ice and rising oceans and gathering storms. And unlike other problems, the less you do, the worse it gets. Do nothing and you soon have a nightmare on your hands.
We could postpone healthcare reform a decade, and the cost would be terrible — all the suffering not responded to over those 10 years. But when we returned to it, the problem would be about the same size. With climate change, unless we act fairly soon in response to the timetable set by physics, there’s not much reason to act at all.
Unless you understand these distinctions, you don’t understand climate change — and it’s not at all clear that President Obama understands them.
That’s why his administration is sometimes peeved when they don’t get the credit they think they deserve for tackling the issue in his first term in office. The measure they point to most often is the increase in average mileage for automobiles, which will slowly go into effect over the next decade.
It’s precisely the kind of gradual transformation that people — and politicians — like. We should have adopted it long ago (and would have, except that it challenged the power of Detroit and its unions, and so both Republicans and Democrats kept it at bay). But here’s the terrible thing: It’s no longer a measure that impresses physics. After all, physics isn’t kidding around or negotiating. While we were discussing whether climate change was even a permissible subject to bring up in the last presidential campaign, it was melting the Arctic. If we’re to slow it down, we need to be cutting emissions globally at a sensational rate, by something like 5 percent a year to make a real difference.
It’s not Obama’s fault that that’s not happening. He can’t force it to happen. Consider the moment when the great president of the last century, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was confronted with an implacable enemy, Adolf Hitler (the closest analog to physics we’re going to get, in that he was insanely solipsistic, though in his case also evil). Even as the German armies started to roll through Europe, however, FDR couldn’t muster America to get off the couch and fight.
There were even the equivalent of climate deniers at that time, happy to make the case that Hitler presented no threat to America. Indeed, some of them were the same institutions that are opposing climate action today. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for instance, vociferously opposed Lend-Lease.
So Roosevelt did all he could on his own authority, and then when Pearl Harbor offered him his moment, he pushed as hard as he possibly could. Hard, in this case, meant, for instance, telling the car companies that they were out of the car business for a while and instead in the tank and fighter-plane business.
For Obama, faced with a Congress bought off by the fossil fuel industry, a realistic approach would be to do absolutely everything he could on his own authority — new EPA regulations, for example; and of course, he should refuse to grant the permit for the building of the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline, something that requires no permission from House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) or the rest of Congress.
So far, however, he’s been half-hearted at best when it comes to such measures. The White House, for instance, overruled the EPA on its proposed stronger ozone and smog regulations in 2011, and last year opened up the Arctic for oil drilling, while selling off vast swaths of Wyoming’s Powder River Basin at bargain-basement prices to coal companies. His State Department flubbed the global climate-change negotiations. (It’s hard to remember a higher profile diplomatic failure than the Copenhagen summit.) And now Washington rings with rumors that he’ll approve the Keystone pipeline, which would deliver 900,000 barrels a day of the dirtiest crude oil on Earth. Almost to the drop, that’s the amount his new auto mileage regulations would save.
If he were serious, Obama would be doing more than just the obvious and easy. He’d also be looking for that Pearl Harbor moment. God knows he had his chances in 2012: the hottest year in the history of the continental United States, the deepest drought of his lifetime, and a melt of the Arctic so severe that the federal government’s premier climate scientist declared it a “planetary emergency.”
In fact, he didn’t even appear to notice those phenomena, campaigning for a second term as if from an air-conditioned bubble, even as people in the crowds greeting him were fainting en masse from the heat. Throughout campaign 2012, he kept declaring his love for an “all-of-the-above” energy policy, where apparently oil and natural gas were exactly as virtuous as sun and wind.
Only at the very end of the campaign, when Hurricane Sandy seemed to present a political opening, did he even hint at seizing it — his people letting reporters know on background that climate change would now be one of his top three priorities (or maybe, post-Newtown, top four) for a second term. That’s a start, I suppose, but it’s a long way from telling the car companies they better retool to start churning out wind turbines.
And anyway, he took it back at the first opportunity. At his post-election press conference, he announced that climate change was “real,” thus marking his agreement with, say, President George H.W. Bush in 1988. In deference to “future generations,” he also agreed that we should “do more.” But addressing climate change, he added, would involve “tough political choices.” Indeed, too tough, it seems, for here were his key lines:
“I think the American people right now have been so focused, and will continue to be focused on our economy and jobs and growth, that if the message is somehow we’re going to ignore jobs and growth simply to address climate change, I don’t think anybody is going to go for that. I won’t go for that.”
It’s as if World War II British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had declared, “I have nothing to offer except blood, toil, tears, and sweat. And God knows that polls badly, so just forget about it.”
The president must be pressed to do all he can — and more. That’s why thousands of us will descend on Washington, D.C., on President’s Day weekend, in what will be the largest environmental demonstration in years. But there’s another possibility we need to consider: that perhaps he’s simply not up to this task, and that we’re going to have to do it for him, as best we can.
If he won’t take on the fossil fuel industry, we will. That’s why on 192 campuses nationwide active divestment movements are now doing their best to highlight the fact that the fossil fuel industry threatens their futures.
If he won’t use our position as a superpower to drive international climate change negotiations out of their rut, we’ll try. That’s why young people from 190 nations are gathering in Istanbul in June in an effort to shame the U.N. into action. If he won’t listen to scientists — like the 20 top climatologists who told him that the Keystone pipeline is a mistake — then top scientists are increasingly clear that they’ll need to get arrested to make their point.
Those of us in the growing grassroots climate movement are going as fast and hard as we know how (though not, I fear, as fast as physics demands). Maybe if we go fast enough even this all-too-patient president will get caught up in the draft. But we’re not waiting for him. We can’t.
Conservation Services Group (CSG) is the leading provider of residential energy efficiency programs in North America. CSG has helped Americans make smart energy use decisions an important part of the way they live and work since 1984. The company designs, develops, and delivers innovative, results-driven programs. CSG employees are committed to a mission of delivering these comprehensive programs to help people use energy more wisely. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are our sole business, not one of a hundred departments in a large corporation. CSG provides proven expertise to utilities, state agencies, trade allies and homeowners, tenants, and property owners seeking to improve home durability, safety, air quality and comfort while saving money. We bring creativity and commitment to our goals of championing the development and use of safe, clean energy.
Position Summary:
CSG provides a range of energy efficiency program management services to our clients in the West Coast. We are looking for a Regional Vice President, to report directly to our Executive Vice President of Regions, to manage our program operations in the West Coast. This Regional VP position would ideally, but not necessarily, be based out of our El Segundo, CA office. Frequent travel across the region will be required.
The Regional VP will provide day-to-day leadership and direction to all West Coast operations including key client account management and oversight of program delivery in meeting client commitments. The Regional VP will be capable of
working in a matrix organization where teams supporting program needs for information technology, central business operations, product and program development, call center services, and other support services work hand-in-hand
to meet client and end-use customer needs. This person will play an integral role in maintaining existing contracts with clients and expanding CSG's services to new clients in the region.
Program management and client deliverables:
Meet or exceed client goals by successfully executing programs that build client relationships and result in new business for CSG
Assume P&L responsibility for the West Coast region
Working with program directors and managers, ensure that the appropriate operational structure is in place to meet company and client needs. Provide direction, guidance and support to direct reports in daily operations.
Specify KPIs for each program in the region and correlate those measurements to business unit effectiveness. Analyze production and financial data to track progress, identify issues and trends, and communicate and implement changes as necessary.
Develop and maintain collaborative working relationships with CSG peers, program partners, and colleagues on other project teams
Key Account Management:
Establish and maintain relationships with utility clients, program partners, policymakers and influencers, and other stakeholders.
Understand client concerns and ensure the resolution of issues in a timely manner
Study market trends and know how they may affect our key clients.
Pursue opportunities for organic revenue growth with current clients
Identify new opportunities and expand CSG's market share in the region
Support corporate business development efforts in preparing and presenting proposals to current and prospective clients
Qualifications:
Requires 4-year college degree and a minimum of 10 years of management experience in the energy efficiency industry (or equivalent)
Experience in managing multi-location operations
Demonstrated experience in developing and nurturing client relationships and managing large contracts
Exceptional interpersonal skills including presentation, verbal and written skills. Outstanding customer service orientation and ability to influence using a consultative approach.
Strong organizationalskills – ability to demonstrate a systematic approach in leading a management team, create a collaborative work environment, motivate employees to generate results, set and prioritize goals, and report results.
Able to manage up, sideways, and down through all levels of a matrix organization
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 401K retirement plan.
Conservation Services Group (CSG) is the leading provider of residential energy efficiency programs in North America. CSG has helped Americans make smart energy use decisions an important part of the way they live and work since 1984. The company designs, develops, and delivers innovative, results-driven programs. CSG employees are committed to a mission of delivering these comprehensive programs to help people use energy more wisely. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are our sole business, not one of a hundred departments in a large corporation. CSG provides proven expertise to utilities, state agencies, trade allies and homeowners, tenants, and property owners seeking to improve home durability, safety, air quality and comfort while saving money. We bring creativity and commitment to our goals of championing the development and use of safe, clean energy.
People who work at CSG say that it's a unique kind of organization — one that nurtures individual talents and inspires dedication. We share a commitment to our work and our mission. CSG has a collegial atmosphere, where people respect and encourage each other to help the environment and change the way our country uses energy. How about you; do you see yourself as a part of our team?
Position Summary:
CSG provides a range of energy efficiency program management services to our clients in the Midwest. We are looking for a Regional Vice President, to report directly to our Executive Vice President of Regions, to manage our program operations in the Midwest. This Regional VP position would ideally, but not necessarily, be based out of our Lombard, IL office. Frequent travel across the region will be required.
The Regional VP will provide day-to-day leadership and direction to all Midwest operations including key client account management and oversight of program delivery in meeting client commitments. The Regional VP will be capable of working in a matrix organization where teams supporting program needs for information technology, central business operations, product and program development, call center services, and other support services work hand-in-hand to meet client and end-use customer needs. This person will play an integral role in maintaining existing contracts with clients and expanding CSG's services to new clients in the region.
Program management and client deliverables
Meet or exceed client goals by successfully executing programs that build client relationships and result in new business for CSG
Assume P&L responsibility for the Midwest region
Working with program directors and managers, ensure that the appropriate operational structure is in place to meet company and client needs. Provide direction, guidance and support to direct reports in daily operations.
Specify KPIs for each program in the region and correlate those measurements to business unit effectiveness. Analyze production and financial data to track progress, identify issues and trends, and communicate and implement changes as necessary.
Develop and maintain collaborative working relationships with CSG peers, program partners, and colleagues on other project teams
Key Account Management
Establish and maintain relationships with utility clients, program partners, policymakers and influencers, and other stakeholders.
Understand client concerns and ensure the resolution of issues in a timely manner
Study market trends and know how they may affect our key clients.
Pursue opportunities for organic revenue growth with current clients
Identify new opportunities and expand CSG's market share in the region
Support corporate business development efforts in preparing and presenting proposals to current and prospective clients
Qualifications:
Requires 4-year college degree and a minimum of 10 years of management experience in the energy efficiency industry (or equivalent)
Experience in managing multi-location operations
Demonstrated experience in developing and nurturing client relationships and managing large contracts
Exceptional interpersonal skills including presentation, verbal and written skills. Outstanding customer service orientation and ability to influence using a consultative approach.
Strong organizationalskills – ability to demonstrate a systematic approach in leading a management team, create a collaborative work environment, motivate employees to generate results, set and prioritize goals, and report results.
Able to manage up, sideways, and down through all levels of a matrix organization
Salary Range: Commensurate with experience
Compensation package includes a base salary plus bonus and paid holidays, 80% paid medical, 50% paid dental, paid life & AD&D and paid STD & LTD insurance coverage, plus employer matching retirement plan
A little less than four years ago, I was a bright-eyed intern in the Obama White House. The halls buzzed with hope, and optimistic predictions that we would tackle health care and then move on to the more challenging issues of climate change and immigration reform.
It wasn’t long, however, before the realities of the recession and extreme partisanship set in. The public’s disillusionment with politics grew almost as fast as the president’s gray hairs.
Obama’s victory on Nov. 6, though narrow, has offered a chance to reframe the debate. He has already promised that immigration reform will be introduced soon after his inauguration. Here’s why a climate bill should follow soon after:
1.Clean energy will grow our economy
Solyndra might have failed but solar is clearly here to stay. I know this firsthand. I work at Mosaic, an online marketplace for investing in solar, and I live in Oakland, Calif., which is rapidly emerging as a solar hub. I can’t get a beer without running into an orange-clad Sungevity staff member or a Brightsource employee giddy on the company’s recent $83 million raise.
But it isn’t just an Oakland, or even a California, phenomenon. The solar industry is one of the fastest growing industries in America, employing over 100,000 people. Employment in the solar industry grew by 13 percent in 2012. (Employment in the overall economy grew just 2 percent during the same period.) Wind energy, meanwhile, has provided 35 percent of all new U.S. power capacity over the past five years.
As my colleague Erica Etelson recently outlined, there are a number of things President Obama could do to support the clean energy economy, including following through on his proposed National Clean Energy Standard, supporting the creation of Clean Energy Victory bonds, and pushing for a carbon tax as part of the fiscal cliff negotiations (though this is unlikely). He could also push for the extension of the Production Tax Credit for wind power, without which we could lose 37,000 American jobs.
The bottom line is that clean energy is an emerging, rapidly growing industry that is producing quality jobs right here in America. Republicans like jobs, Democrats like jobs — really, who doesn’t like jobs? And while not everyone loves government subsidies, the truth is that America subsidizes the hell out of mature, slow-growth industries like fossil fuels and big agriculture. Why not move some of those subsidies into an industry that actually gives us some economic bang for our buck?
2. Americans of all stripes want action on climate
As a post-election survey by the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) showed, voters in key swing states said that energy was a “very important issue” in their vote decision. The majority of voters in Ohio, Iowa, Virginia, and Colorado wanted to move away from fossil fuels and toward solar, wind, and natural gas.
It’s not hard to see why. As Matt Kasper and Kiley Kroh explained in a recent piece in Climate Progress, voters in Colorado understand that the Mountain West “boasts nearly unlimited renewable energy resources like wind, solar, and geothermal,” enough to create 71,872 direct jobs [PDF]. Voters in Iowa are thrilled with their booming wind industry that provides 20 percent of the state’s electricity and creates around 7,000 jobs.
And this isn’t just a swing state thing. Polls have consistently showed that the majority of Americans believe that our climate is changing (67 percent) and that global warming should be a priority for the government (77 percent). These polls were conducted before the Hurricane Sandy wake-up call that broke the climate silence that permeated this election and even led to Mayor Bloomberg’s endorsement of Obama.
Apparently the president got the hint, as he acknowledged climate change in his victory speech, saying, “We want our children to live in an America … that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.” (He also spoke about it at length in his first post-reelection press conference.)
But acknowledgement is one thing, action is another. Obama’s speech put forth goals of deficit reduction, tax code reform, immigration reform, and “freeing ourselves from foreign oil.” Though the last goal will hopefully include the aforementioned clean energy boons like extending the production tax credit for the wind industry, it will no doubt be a continuation of Obama’s “all of the above” energy strategy.
3. It’s the right thing to do
The problem with picking an “all of the above” energy strategy is that some of the options are, quite simply, bad. Dirty energy pollutes our air, poisons our water, and heats up our planet. How many devastating storms or widespread wildfires do we need to suffer through before our politicians realize that taking action on climate change is “worth it”?
I’ve traveled from Copenhagen to Rio de Janeiro and a lot of New York in between with SustainUS, a delegation of young Americans working towards sustainable development. But now, even as many of my friends prepare for the upcoming climate conference in Qatar, I’ve decided I’m done with U.N. conferences.
Mostly, they’re too depressing. I don’t have a good answer when people from around the world ask why the United States refuses to significantly reduce our carbon emissions. How do you tell someone from a small island state on the verge of submersion that tackling climate change isn’t politically popular enough in the U.S. to merit concern?
President Obama is a brilliant man who has managed to accomplish a lot in his first term, despite unprecedented levels of partisanship in Washington. This second term presents a historic opportunity to take action on climate change to grow our economy, address the concern of the American public, and ensure the continuation of life as we know it.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals/Norfolk, VA (Hampton Roads Area)
Position Objective:
To work on specific projects, as assigned by the president, to help promote the goals of the organization
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Primary Responsibilities and Duties:
• Conduct research, prepare analyses, and suggest strategies
• Maintain accurate and up-to-date files and briefing papers
• Draft correspondence and respond to inquiries and requests, utilizing discretion and independent judgment
• Oversee Web content related to assigned projects
• Travel within and outside the U.S. on assignments
• Write speeches, give talks, and attend functions
• Perform any other duties, as assigned by the supervisor
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Requirements:
• Degree in a related field or equivalent experience
• Minimum of two years of research experience
• Proven ability to handle confidential information with discretion
• Demonstrated excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Demonstrated ability to organize and manage multiple projects
• Proven ability to exercise independent judgment
• Strong working knowledge of animal rights issues and PETA campaigns
• Proven ability to work well under pressure and meet deadlines
• Professional appearance and adherence to a vegan lifestyle
• Previous public-speaking experience and the ability to comfortably create and deliver presentations
• Ability and willingness to travel
• Must be at least 21 years of age and have a valid U.S. drivers' license, a minimum of three years of driving experience, and a satisfactory driving record
• Ability to lift and carry 20 lbs.
• Support for PETA’s philosophy and the ability to professionally advocate PETA’s positions on issues
• Commitment to the objectives of the organization
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals/Washington, DC
Position Objective:
To work on specific projects, as assigned by the president, to help promote the goals of the organization
Primary Responsibilities and Duties:
• Conduct research, prepare analyses, and suggest strategies
• Maintain accurate and up-to-date files and briefing papers
• Draft correspondence and respond to inquiries and requests, utilizing discretion and independent judgment
• Oversee Web content related to assigned projects
• Travel within and outside the U.S. on assignments
• Write speeches, give talks, and attend functions
• Perform any other duties, as assigned by the supervisor
Requirements:
• Degree in a related field or equivalent experience
• Minimum of two years of research experience
• Proven ability to handle confidential information with discretion
• Demonstrated excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Demonstrated ability to organize and manage multiple projects
• Proven ability to exercise independent judgment
• Strong working knowledge of animal rights issues and PETA campaigns
• Proven ability to work well under pressure and meet deadlines
• Professional appearance and adherence to a vegan lifestyle
• Previous public-speaking experience and the ability to comfortably create and deliver presentations
• Ability and willingness to travel
• Must be at least 21 years of age and have a valid U.S. drivers' license, a minimum of three years of driving experience, and a satisfactory driving record
• Ability to lift and carry 20 lbs.
• Support for PETA’s philosophy and the ability to professionally advocate PETA’s positions on issues
• Commitment to the objectives of the organization
Name of Organization: R2 Solutions, Inc.
Title: President of R2 Solutions
Location: Anywhere in the US: frequent travel required
Salary: Negotiable, based on experience
Type: Full Time – Experienced
Background
R2 Solutions is a growing non-profit organization created to administer and promote the R2 Standard, a comprehensive set of best management practices governing the environmental, health, safety and security aspects of the electronics recycling industry. The R2 Standard aims to help raise the bar on environmentally responsible practices in the global electronics recycling industry. R2 Solutions is responsible for promoting the standard to the information and communications technology industry, encouraging electronics recyclers to become certified to R2 in the US and around the globe, and educating the public about responsible electronics recycling. R2 Solutions also devotes significant resources to updating and improving the R2 Standard, and assuring its open, transparent, and balanced governance. For more information about R2 Solutions, please go to www.r2solutions.org.
Current Circumstances
In the two years since its founding, R2 Solutions has grown to be the most successful certification in the electronics recycling marketplace, with over 250 facilities certified.
Today, R2 Solutions is seeking an Executive with the skills and standing to take this organization to the next level. Key challenges facing R2 Solutions are: 1) increasing and diversifying the income sources for the organization so that it can provide better services to certified recyclers and their customers; and 2) expanding uptake of the R2 standard globally through more visible and public leadership in this certification space.
 
Qualifications
Knowledge of voluntary industry standards development and certification programs is desired.
A minimum of 5-10 years of managerial or other senior level experience in the business, government or non-profit sectors is desired.
Knowledge of the electronics recycling industry is preferred but not necessary.
Other Attributes Sought:
Ability to work well with and balance a diverse array of interests in an even-handed and fair manner and help facilitate consensus
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Demonstrated integrity
Fund-raising experience and skills
Ability to manage and motivate staff
Availability to travel frequently
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals/Norfolk, VA (Hampton Roads Area)
R2 Solutions/Anywhere in the United States