Posts filed under ‘Business Spotlight’
Business Spotlight – 3 Degrees
As an Outreach Associate with 3Degrees, you will communicate directly with Ameren Missouri customers about Pure Power program with the ultimate goal of enrolling customers in the program. You will interact with the public in a variety of settings, including festivals, storefront tables, community events, and going door-to-door in select neighborhoods.
This is a part time position that offers mostly evening and weekend hours, along with some weekday hours. Training is provided and there are opportunities for advancement.
Mississippi campaign Intern
http://www.stlouisgreen.com/jobs-education/job/1-mississippi-campaign-intern
The campaign’s main recruitment method is to talk to people face-to-face at River festivals, events and workdays where Interns will encourage people to become River Citizens—people who pledge to help protect the River by taking simple actions; each region aims to recruit 1,000 River Citizens in 2013. In addition to attending recruitment events, interns will be required to track the River Citizens recruited, recruit and train volunteers, write 1 blog post per month and submit 2-4 press releases regarding the campaign in their region.
This program will include training opportunities and at least one in-person meeting with other campaign interns from around the country. Through this experience 1 Mississippi campaign interns will develop organizing skills, a unique understanding of values-based communications campaigns, public speaking and teaching experience and the ins and outs of a national environmental campaign.
MRN is hiring a paid campaign intern for one day a week, plus event days totaling an average of 20 hours a week for the duration of the summer, beginning with our training in March until early October.
GIS/Engineering Internship
http://www.stlouisgreen.com/node/863
You will need to have a strong background in GIS software, the ability to integrate complex datasets into watershed modeling software, and a passion for using technology effectively and creatively to the benefit of our environment and quality of life.
The major components/goals of this interns work plan:
• Compile all relevant GIS, flow and water quality data for the Kiefer Creek Watershed Plan
• Process datasets for integration into the following watershed models : ArcHydro, Nature Serve Vista, and TR55
• Integrate processed datasets into the above listed watershed models
• Articulate watershed models for public consumption using Google Earth Pro to create enhanced kmz and kml layers
Software the intern will/may be using: ArcGIS 10.1, ArcHydro 2.0, FME, Manifold, Nature Serve Vista, Google Earth Pro, Basins, Photoshop/Illustrator/Premier, SketchUp
Duration : 240 hours
Send resume, cover letter, three references, and relevant work samples to lcrandall@moenviron.org
Business Spotlight – Energy
This week we get down to green energy itself.
To start things off, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on some recent events. Now as we all have read in the news, Energy Secretary Steven Chu is leaving the administration, overall he’s got some mixed reviews. The case that stood out the most that got grilled over and over before and during the campaign season was the failure of Solyndra bankruptcy — $528 million federal dollars spent on the company only to see Chinese competitors getting more subsidy, producing cheaper solar panels and drying up the market. Not trying to make a political point, I think both sides could agree that a greener, more sustainable energy future is inevitable and the industry will have to experience some birth pain, and it’s not doing too bad when Exxon Mobile and other big oil companies are still getting millions and millions in tax credits.
Mr. Chu once said that he’s confident that hybrids and electric cars were going to play a big role in US transportation in the coming decades, and “we need an infrastructure for charging”, plain and simple, and keep in mind, these words came from a guy who had a Nobel prize in physics before he took the cabinet post.
Now back to green energy in St. Louis. For those of you who courageously attended the Career Fair last week despite the snow, you may have seen Syndicated Solar. They are a perfect example. Something I learned from talking to Mr. Loughridge, basically the way it works it that they come to your home, depending on what kind of roof you have and what the surrounding of the house looks like, they design an individualized plan for installation, and it’s guaranteed for 25 years, once it’s integrated to the grid, you can start saving right away. The mean time, Syndicated Solar is also trying to spread the product by allowing people to buy solar panels at a lower price if they could help make referrals — that’s why we have seen clusters of homes having these solar panels out in some communities in Colorado, apparently people have started to see the benefits of it and it’s only a matter of time that we’ll see a greater proliferation.
As I was reading President Clinton’s book Back to Work, I was humbled by his knowledge on green energy and one suggestion he made was that “at least paint the roofs white” (to safe energy on heating)— ironically after nine other suggestions he acknowledged as unfeasible in today’s political environment, one of which happens to be more federal support on tax credits and deductions on solar panels purchases. As we have four more years of President Obama in the White House, this prospect might not be the top priority, but it is surely covered under a more friendly administration. This could be significant because as the green job report points out, this is an industry that depends heavily on customer demand since it’s still in its infancy compared to big oil, and if people are not willing to buy the technology into their homes than it would be very hard for the industry to be itself sustainable. Therefore employers in this sector are looking for people who have a degree preferably on math, science or engineering, who have the knowledge of how green alternatives work and be able to use persuasion to illustrate the long-term and short-term benefits of using green energy.
Business Spotlight: Green Salvage and Remidiation
This week’s topic? Green salvage and remediation— the process of renewing resources through material extraction, environment cleanup, re-use, and product conversion. Some big names here in St. Louis: Environmental Operations, Inc, it was just named First Place Specialty Contractor in the Environmental Remediation & Demolition discipline at the Associated General Contractors (AGC) of St. Louis 2011 Construction Industry Awards gala. Their projects ranged from the Busch Stadium to the University of St. Louis campus, and their services covers everything from environmental engineering to demolition. Another notable firm in this area would be Hilex, who operates the largest closed loop plastic bag recycling facility in the world, where plastic bags are turned back into resin pellets and then back in to new bags.
The most recent example would be the devastation on the east coast brought on by hurricane Sandy, the efforts went into debris removal and cleanup were tremendous. This is an industry that has a great potential for growth (in St. Louis region) given the obvious shift from waste to recycling, the economic benefits of this shift has encouraged a lot of firms to devote new management into the process, therefore we’ve seen waste turned into end-products like recycled paper — a new market.
This is also a sector that links tightly with green building, green energy, and in the case of hurricane Sandy, it’s also under the regulatory compliance of FEMA — green public administration.
Possible course to look into: Environmental Remediation Technician in St. Louis University.
Business Spotlight: Green Building
Today’s topic is green building. Within St. Louis region just to name a few, Tarlton, HOK and Clayco are pioneers from safety planning and implementation to cost control and variance reporting.
St. Louis has become a leader in green building in the Midwest, the number of LEED certified building grew from just one ten years ago to now over 80 commercial and 50 residential in the region; in the last five years green building projects have gone from 2% to 33% nationally, having a green building is now a serious consideration that could lead to long term benefits for firms and individuals.
The idea of creating a healthy environment while preserving the nature by saving electricity and reducing waste is gaining ground. Below are training opportunities that employers stated are important preparation for a strong green building industry, and the people they employ:
- Sustainable construction
- Sustainability degree programs
- Shadow programs that can build into internships
- Continuing education opportunity for long-tenured workers in the field
- Safety training or certification
- On-the-job training
If interested, the possible programs that we encourage you to look into are the LEED Green Associate Training program in St. Louis Community College and Green Fundamentals of Sustainable Buildings in St. Charles Community College.
Business Spotlight: Introducing Mark Shen!
Happy New Year and Welcome back to all Net Impact members, I’ll start by introducing myself. My name is Mark Shen, freshman in Olin, I’m the current VP for Career Development for the undergrad chapter and I can be reached by markshen@wustl.edu if you have any questions.
This is how my portion of the weekly news letter will be organized in this semester: for the first six weeks we’ll take a close look at the six sectors of the green economy in the St. Louis region—as categorized in the St. Louis Green Jobs Report published by Missouri Career Center—building, Salvage & Remediation, Energy, Agriculture, Manufacturing and Public Administration. In the news letters we’ll delve into the current state of the industry, the hiring status, and the quality and capabilities needed to be a good fit for the job.
Following that, we’ll be introducing specific job/internship opportunities in the St. Louis region for our members both inside and outside of Olin.
Finally, I’d like to wish everyone a successful semester here at Wash U, and I appreciate you being with us here in the Net Impact undergrad chapter.
Bureh Belts
Check out this awesome social venture started by a Grad Net Impact member at MIT!
Unstitched Utilities
Sometimes it seems that in an attempt to be more sustainable, we buy more, instead of buying smarter. Purchasing 1 Nalgene bottle is a smart allocation of resources; purchasing 10 bottles in different colors is wasteful. However, when it’s time to replace current products, there are many sustainable options out there that have a small environmental impact.
Unstitched Utilities is a new shoe company fashioned with 100% repurposed and recyclable materials. They are also vegan-friendly, using no leather or animal products in their shoes. So when your shoes wear out and its time for a replacement, go to http://www.unstitchedutilities.com/ and buy a pair of fresh eco-friendly kicks.
Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch
Business Spotlight – Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch
Do you like to eat seafood and fish? Do you also want to protect the planet? The world-renowned Monterey Bay Aquarium publishes a resource called Seafood Watch that ensures that these two desires never clash. At its core, Seafood Watch divides fish into Best Choices, Good Alternatives, and fish to Avoid. Simply by checking the list, you can ensure that you only eat fish that is sustainable and environmentally friendly.
But it’s more than that. The website provides a bevy of information on different types of fish (and further broken down into species, location, and fishing methods), and gives tips on what consumers can do to help the fight for sustainable seafood as well as a list of restaurants that only serve Best Choice fish.
The sticker labels used in the dining halls here at Wash U are based on the Seafood Watch, but one little sticker only tells part of the story. Learn where your food comes from and truly appreciate what you are eating.
Winslow’s Home
Winslow’s Home and Farm
Do you ever wonder what it was like 100 years ago? Well I do. And to get my fix, I head to Winslow’s Home, a restaurant, general store, and farm located on Delmar Blvd. The restaurant serves local, seasonal, food for breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner, (and catering) much of it sourced from their farm located in Augusta, MO. The highly regarded chef focuses on making delicious food – and in this he could not be more successful.
The general store is part restaurant, part grocery, part beer/wine store, part toy store, part bakery, part coffee shop, and part gift shop and caterer. This store, combined with the amazing locally-sourced food, brings you back 100 years, to a time where you made purchases through neighborhood stores where the people actually cared about you. There is really no proper way to describe it – instead go and see for yourself.
7213 Delmar
St. Louis, MO 63130
Local Harvest Cafe
Do you want to check out some cool neighborhoods in St. Louis? Do you want to support a business that donates to educational and environmental charities and purchases its food locally? Do you like really good food?
If you answered yes to these questions (and I’m sure you did), Local Harvest Cafe is for you. It began in 2007 as a counter within a grocery store and has since expanded to two more locations in Tower Grove (Morgan Ford Road) and Downtown (the Old Post Office). Better yet, Local Harvest serves breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner (only Tower Grove), and does catering (!), so it’ll satisfy your need any time of the day.
Best of all, it’s damn good. It’s been featured in St. Louis Magazine and Sauce Magazine and New York Times as one of the best affordable restaurants in St. Louis, and is deserving of all the praise. Time to stop reading – go get yourself lunch right now.
Tower Grove:
3137 Morgan Ford Road
St. Louis, MO 63116
Downtown:
Old Post Office
9th & Locust St.
St. Louis, MO
