More than 10,200 Power Utility Jobs were Available in the Last Year; Industry Insiders See Looming Talent Gap



The Power Utility industry is experiencing a massive demographic shift and employees who know both conventional grid and smart grid technology are in demand. With a growing number of retirees and new technologies cropping up, a new generation of power utility technicians is critical for the industry. Ecotech Institute, which focuses entirely on preparing students for jobs in sustainability, has been closely watching the rapidly changing sector and its Power Utility Technician program exists to fill the gap.



Ecotech Institute designed its Power Utility Technician program with input from subject matter experts…

By Suzanne York,  6degreesofpopulation.org.

With over 7 billion people on the planet, demand for water for household, agricultural, and industrial use is increasing even faster than population growth.  Many areas, such as the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico, are already experiencing competing demands on water in a region heavily reliant on this most precious of natural resources.

Specifically, much of that water comes from the Colorado River, and at a high environmental cost.  Nearly 90 percent of the annual flow from the Colorado – 5 trillion gallons – goes to California, Arizona, and five other states in the Colorado River basin.  And while it used to reach the Gulf of California, today the river no longer makes it to the sea.  Mexico gets a paltry 500 billion gallons a year, per a treaty with the…

Want to leave a Handprint?  Restore the Earth is a campaign that is about working to restore the great ecosystems around the planet; forests, oceans, freshwater, tundra, corals and the soils – they are the greatest allies we have for our future, to give us a better quality of life, clean air, food security, pure water and to fight climate change.

The campaign message is simple – we can all do something positive and play our part in the vital effort to restore the planet’s eco-systems; through our positive handprints.

Yes governments, companies need to act, but we are not waiting for them.…

In the movement to "go green" and the increasing demand for products that deliver a sustainable practice to buyers fingertips, a lot has been going unmentioned within the circles of the press. 

The energy used to manufacture and transport products is often hidden, and it can be the prime target when talking about conserving energy. 

Catherine Mohr works on making robots. She is a self proclaimed geek that went green. Someone after my own heart, she set out to build her house in an optimized fashion by looking at the data. Her TED talk describes her process very well, and in it she summarizes how many decisions we make that appear to be small can be the leaders in energy…

Recently I've been watching lots of TED Talks online, and I've been finding lots of inspirational content that deserves to be shared. One of the talks was by author Janine Benyus, who has devoted her time to showcase Nature's genius. Biomimicry is her latest novel in which she proposes that designers should emulate what is seen in nature.

Since her writings she has expanded to developing two organizations, the Biomimicry Guild and the Innovation consultancy, which have recently merged into Biomimicry 3.8, a certified B Corporation. Combined the organizations focus on "biomimicry innovation consulting, professional…

We are happy to introduce to the community new assistant admin Darkin Tanner!

Darkin Tanner joins the SeThInk Media team as our new media director and will be the new assistant admin for this community! 

Darkin is your voice guide in the new video tutorials that have been released to help you get the most from being a member of this online community network and he is happy to be available now to help members of the SOS community with any questions or assistance…

Most of us who grow our own food in small organic gardens know that there is usually always a surplus that is freely shared with friends, neighbors, and whoever is willing to help make sure it does not spoil by taking an armload of veggies.  Many of us also know how nice it would be if it was possible to be able to legally sale some of the surplus canned, baked, or frozen goods that the pantry and freezer gets stocked with after the fall harvest. 

The AB1616 would allow us to do that without having to spend 10k on a legal certified kitchen and jump through confusing hoops that each county health department requires. …

By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org. Original article posted at www.populationgrowth.org

It’s pretty obvious that summer 2012 has been one of the hottest summers in…