Tomorrow the Province of Ontario, in Canada, will publicly introduce the Green Energy Act. There are a number of goals for the act. First and foremost, the act is to aid the Province in relying less on non-renewable energy. Secondly, Ontario hopes to create at least 50,000 new jobs over the next three years which has seen a significant increase in jobless claims over the past twelve months as the once strong manufacturing sector has been decimated due to the global economic collapse. Dalton McGuinty, the Province’s Premier, is quoted on his personal website as saying that it is his intention to harness Ontario’s renewable energy, specifically solar and wind energy. Ontario’s Minister of Energy, George Smitherman publicly states that the Government of Ontario wants to create numerous smaller renewable energy projects across the Province instead of relying on the fewer large energy generating stations.
The Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) has tirelessly been promoting a green energy act and it looks like their wish is now reality. The economic benefit to the province cannot be underestimated. The bill will increase the Province’s investment in the creation of renewable energy as well as making it easier to get new wind and solar farm projects started, while helping protect the environment. The growth in renewable energy in Ontario has been impressive. There were a total of 10 wind turbines in the province in 2003 – currently the number is closer to 600, coupled with Ontario’s newly formed task force, instructed to help meet Ontario’s goal of one hundred thousand new solar-energy systems in homes, the Province is well on its way to becoming an industry leader in alternative energy. Although the current goal of the Province is to become self-sufficient in providing renewable energy to its citizens, it is simultaneously building a vast alternative energy infrastructure. With Ontario’s commitment to alternative energy it is reasonable to predict that in the future the Province will one day be a significant player in selling renewable energy to other provinces and even perhaps many States in America, specifically those located in the North East.
If you have never heard of CleanSkies.tv you must visit their website and watch some environmental television. Offering both live and recorded newscasts focused on energy and the environment, this channel has taken a major step in presenting green issues in an entertaining and informative way. If you are looking for the latest news about green technologies CleanSkies.tv is the channel for you.
Clean Skies broadcasts live Monday through Friday from 9 AM until 4:30 PM EST.
Green.tv offers its viewers newscasts about the environment. It also has a channel dedicated to green investing and green business. Some of the channels at Green.tv that are focused on green business includes: Cantos Green, and Green Design.
With the immense popularity that social media is seeing on the internet I thought it might be interesting to see how subscribers at Twitter are doing their part. We have an account at Twitter and we are fortunate enough to have a number of followers there. When we post an article at Green Business our followers immediately receive a message regarding this. It is an amazing web of focused information at the ready for anyone interested in green business. Please feel free to visit some of our followers.
Investing in green technologies has become the most logical way to stimulate the economy on a mass scale by creating green jobs by the millions. The effects of this will be felt well into the future as the infrastructure of all of these cities will be green. The short-term benefit is job creation while the long-term benefits will be environmental. We are witnessing the greatest example of what green business truly is and are prospering from it. This is an amazing time in our history.
This video from Linktv.org brings together news footage from around the world. It showcases how governments such as Turkey and Germany are investing in green technologies and products to help jump-start their economy while helping save the environment.
I was dumbfounded when I discovered the following environmentally friendly toy. Made from 100% soy bean fiber by Aurora , this teddy bear perfectly illustrates how a business can make steps towards becoming greener. Aurora is coming out with a ‘green’ plush line of toys to meet the demands of consumers and at the same time shifting their business to meet the demands of Mother Nature.
The time has come where businesses can make the kinds of choices that Aurora is making and be financially successful. I hope other companies think about adding an environmentally friendly line of products. Small steps add up to big changes for our environment and if it is profitable, why would not a company, at the very least, look into the financial prospects of adding a ‘green’ line of products to their inventory.
We have forgotten about those businesses that were green businesses before the term was even part of the average person’s vocabulary. A green business that has been around a long time that most people do not give a second thought to is organic seeds. Sellers of organic seeds focus on the primary building blocks of today’s family – food. By planting organic vegetable and flower gardens we respect the earth and the environment, sustainability is key.
I have randomly picked Seeds of Change as an example of one of these green businesses.
In my opinion the biggest question entering 2009 is will Barack Obama be true to his word and invest in green technologies to the extent he promised he would during the presidential campaign? If he is a man of his word and billions upon billions of dollars are invested in the ‘greening’ of America it would easily change the landscape of the U.S. economy as we know it. The expansion of existing companies that create energy in an environmentally friendly way would be enormous and new companies would surely be formed to support this expansion. Not only would millions of jobs be created, but the entire infrastructure of the United States, which needs a much needed upgrade, would benefit. It simply is a win-win situation.
The CEO of Nestle Waters NA, Mr.Kim Jeffery, and his peers in the bottled water industry have been under intense scrutiny in the media recently over the effects bottled water is having on the environment. With most empty bottles ending up in landfills, Mr.Jeffery seems to be on a campaign to turn around this negative press. As he points out in this video, courtesy of Advertising Age, only a few short years ago bottled water was being recognized for its health benefits, now its negative enviro-impact is being targeted. Mr.Jeffrey does list a few ways Nestle Waters is attempting to lessen its impact on the environment:
Who is responsible for all of the empty plastic bottles in the landfills, the companies who make them or the consumers who put them there? I think the responsibility is shared.
An interesting fact that not many people look to can be found in Google Trends. Scanning the number of web searches using the keyword term ‘green jobs’ reveals a major jump in the year 2008. By reviewing the graph below one can see a leap in search queries for ‘green jobs’ from the end of 2007 to the start of 2008 – unscientific perhaps, but it does illustrate the point that people who are looking for a new career are adapting to the times and are searching a job market that barely existed a few short years ago. The importance of the web in searching for new careers has dramatically increased over the past few years. Google has been keeping track of search term queries since 2004, only four short years ago. What has caused this dramatic increase in search queries? Perhaps the answer lies in the average persons vocabulary. How long has the term ‘green jobs’ been apart of our everyday conversation? Personally, I only heard of the term no more than two years ago. As the green job market has expanded so has my knowledge and use of such terms. I suspect that most people can say the same. Where does one start on their journey to find a green jobs?
Job Boards
Advertising green jobs on the internet has sprung up and can easily be found. One of my favorites, though I have yet to mention in previous posts, can be found at AlternativeEnergyNews.info. This website has been one of my all time favorites, and their job board is a great resource. The site also has a chat room, so networking is also an option at Alternative Energy News. The key is to get out there, talk, surf the web, go to chat rooms in websites that focus on green energy and other sites that offer environmentally friendly products and services.
An example of a job that would be categorized as green job can be found at Toyota. The company is looking for a Fuel Cell Vehicle Planner. One of the listed qualifications of the position is the candidate must have a strong interest in energy or alternative fuels fields. This job opportunity would not have existed a few years ago, now car companies like Toyota are scouring the nation to fill this wonderful position.
The Future
The Political Economy Research Institute from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst have created an extensive report documenting the incredible machine that is the green economy. The gist of the report states that if investments were targeted to the greening of America two million new jobs would be created. The potential for massive growth is present but investment is needed to speed up the process. You can view the entire PDF report by clicking the report’s cover below.
A wonderful place to start if you want to learn and expand your knowledge of green and sustainable businesses is Wikipedia. The user moderated website offers a number of important websites on the topic.
There were a total of 10 wind turbines in the province in 2003 – currently the number is closer to 600, coupled with Ontario’s newly formed task force, instructed to help meet Ontario’s goal of one hundred thousand new solar-energy systems in homes, the Province is well on its way to becoming an industry leader in alternative energy. Although the current goal of the Province is to become self-sufficient in providing renewable energy to its citizens, it is simultaneously building a vast alternative energy infrastructure. With Ontario’s commitment to alternative energy it is reasonable to predict that in the future the Province will one day be a significant player in selling renewable energy to other provinces and even perhaps many States in America, specifically those located in the North East. 
