Climate Technology

A little time in the lab could teach big business how to help the poor

Recent weeks have seen surprisingly effective demonstrations in support of animal testing in SustainAbility’s home city of London, under the catchy title of “Pro-Test.” Will support for the oft-reviled practice catch on? We aren’t sure, but it made us think. If we humans are animals, is there ever an argument for treating people as laboratory […]

A Spat on the Back

California governator at odds with biz lobby over plan to cut CO2 Arnold Schwarzenegger’s til-now cozy relationship with the California Chamber of Commerce has hit turbulence over the Republican governator’s ambitious proposal to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The chamber has denounced a preliminary report from the California EPA’s climate action team, which predicts that fulfilling Arnie’s […]

Eco-friendly furniture meets the cubicle culture

The email query came not from you, dear reader, but from a staffer at the Mothership: “Grist is moving offices this spring, and we’re looking into environmentally friendly office furniture,” it read. “I’ve been tasked with researching some companies, and it was suggested you might be able to identify good places to look into. Any […]

Repent, Ye Synners

Shady synfuel industry making billions off tax-credit loophole A budget bill currently being hashed out in Congress may help a few dozen coal plants continue to get filthy rich off of taxpayer money. The backstory: In 1980, Congress enacted tax incentives for turning coal into synthetic fuel, requiring only that the coal be chemically altered […]

Ethanol is suddenly all the rage in D.C. and Detroit

It’s as befuddling to see the “Live Green, Go Yellow” slogan splashed across the General Motors ads running throughout the Olympics as it was to hear the term “switchgrass” uttered by President Bush in his State of the Union speech last month. Here we have GM and Dubya, two of the world’s most entrenched and […]

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Remunerate

Eco-entrepreneurs pay people to recycle What’s the best way to get people to recycle? Same way you get them to do anything: pay them for it. Patrick FitzGerald and Ron Gonen founded RecycleBank in 2004 on the notion that economic incentives would motivate recycling more effectively than green principles. Their system rewards households with up […]

Career Window

Advice on taking the first step toward a new eco-career Looking for a job is a daunting task, and just about everyone — from life coaches to library books to your Aunt Edna — has a few tips on how to go about it. But Kevin Doyle of the Environmental Careers Organization says it all […]

Advice on making the move to a new eco-career

As director of program development at The Environmental Careers Organization, Kevin Doyle knows a thing or two about job searching. In a new column for Grist, he'll explore the green job market and offer advice to eco-job-seekers looking to jumpstart their careers.

February is National Mentoring Month. Aren't you psyched? No? Well, consider this column a shout-out to mentors everywhere. If you've had a good mentor in the past, or if you have one right now, celebrate February by calling that person just to say "thank you." (And call your mother, too. She's worried about you.)

In this column, I want to focus on the biggest of big pictures and share three pieces of strategic wisdom I've stolen over the years from people who are a lot wiser and smarter than me.

Just get started!

Take a look at any book about jobs and careers. Inevitably, you'll find the same rigid list of action steps buried in the text. Strip away the detail, and the strategy usually looks something like this: Know yourself (your skills, your preferences, your values, your astrological sign, Chinese New Year animal ...) and understand "your industry" (job titles, public and private employers, salary levels, important trends). Have a plan and develop a vision of your ideal job. Get needed degrees, certifications, and experience, and master the basic job search skills (résumés, interviews, cover letters). Build a good reputation, and develop and maintain a strong career network.

That's a lot of work! Where does one even start? Truth is, it doesn't matter where you start. Trust me on this. Before you're done, reality will force you to deal with all of the career components above. If you're listening to your life at all, each situation will practically scream a good next step in your ear.

So, if you're the planning type, go ahead and plan. If you're a doer, jump right in. If you derive power and energy from self-reflection, by all means, go ahead and gaze at that navel. The important thing is to get started.

Royaling for a Fight

Oil and gas companies set to receive $7 billion taxpayer windfall To supplement their already record-breaking profits, oil companies are set to receive around $7 billion in royalty relief over the next five years — possibly up to $35 billion, depending on the outcome of an ongoing lawsuit — and the feds claim they are […]

What green looks like to the world’s emerging economies

Give a child a hammer, they say, and everything is seen as a nail — or at least in need of a good pounding. Likewise, give an environmentalist a brush loaded with green paint, and she or he may set to turning everything one verdant hue. Pretty, perhaps, but problems can arise when well-off painters […]