Service Trips – The Enchanting Challenge

A Green U.S.A.

In the words of Thomas Friedman, “Green is the new red, white, and blue” (Hot, Flat, and Crowded, 173).  Everywhere I look, I feel that statement reinforced.  From the President’s inaugural speech to his website, he underscores our need to turn to renewable energy and to stop abusing resources.  Take a little spin around his Energy and Environment webpage and right away you will be struck by its headline and first bullet point:

New Energy for America

• 5 million green collar jobs

The United States’ presidential administration is resolving to solve our energy problems.  Unbelievable!  And it’s not just the US.  A recent BBC headline read, “Tories Plan ‘Energy Revolution’”.  Now, if that doesn’t catch your eye!  The article summarizes the British government’s plans to minimize their gas and oil imports as well as their carbon emissions, while maximizing their energy effectiveness (i.e., harnessing energy and channeling it without wasting it).  This article is not only an interesting read, but also a great reminder that this green movement is international, and will continue to become more and more international as time goes on.

With the new political focus comes an ensuing response from the educational, economic, and professional sectors to face the facts and go green. 

Green College

Let’s start with education.  I found a comprehensive list of environmental academic majors called (appropriately) Enviro Education Majors , and its contents blew my mind.  There is everything from Agricultural Science to Ecotourism to Population Studies to Zoology, and everything alphabetically in-between.  Whatever you are interested in, it now comes in green.  What is also really interesting is that even if you do not major in an environmentally focused field, there are a number of academic courses and programs you can take to give you the tools needed to direct your knowledge and your field of focus towards that of helping the environment.   For instance, for architecture and design majors, there is LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a certification program that teaches students how to design and rate buildings on their environmental efficiency. In addition, for every major, there is the Green Corps, a volunteer organization directed at running environmental campaigns to promote and pass environmental policy.  Any college graduate can enroll in their training school and learn the tools to become an environmental activist.  For more details, visit their website.

Green Careers

As for jobs, well just look at the aforementioned Presidential task: the creation of 5 million green collar jobs.  Just like academic majors, these jobs cover the range of professions, from environmental law to sustainable farming—something for everyone.  And it is not as if you need to be a scientist to have a green collar job.  The environmental era is ushering in brand new products and systems that need to be engineered, manufactured, and sold.  Take for instance, the business of windmills.  Suddenly, a relatively new business like the windmill industry is in demand and thus in dire need for people to make the product and for people to sell the product.  In an article on the online journal Science, Robin Arnette brings to light the fact that “Over the last 2 decades, research and investment in sustainable energy have increased dramatically. Wind power, meanwhile, has become one of the fastest growing sources of electricity generation in the United States and the world” (click here to read the full text).  This means that thousands and thousands of windmill turbines are being installed in the US and abroad, which means that thousands and thousands of people are needed for all the components, from the windmill’s initial building to its final installation (click here if you are interested in either an internship or career in wind energy). 

Such jobs are becoming so necessary and so popular that there are now a number of colleges and universities that offer academic programs in wind research.  In her article, Robin Arnette lists the following programs:

• Texas Tech University Wind Science and Engineering Research Center
• University of Massachusetts Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
• University of Utah Wind Energy Research Program
• MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment
• Illinois Institute of Technology Energy and Sustainability Institute

And we are only talking about wind energy jobs in these examples!  I wanted to give you a little taste of the depth of opportunity behind each green job, as there are literally hundreds and thousands of new careers being created to fit the rising tide (no pun intended) of necessary environmentalism.  For a list of some of the most pressing green jobs and how to become qualified for them, visit the Green Opportunities website. 

A Green Economy

As always comes with booming jobs comes the potential for a booming economy.  Some companies have made enormous profits from producing environmentally sustainable products, such as the wind power company Vestas (visit their site here).  These companies have shown innovation, ingenuity, and dedication to developing what is necessary, and largely still, unavailable; they have filled a desperately needed niche.  Just as there is an untapped green job market, there is an untapped green economy, and it has the power to be great.

Green Service Trips

So with all of this excitement buzzing around the green world, how, you may ask, can you serve in a green way?  If your college or university offers service trips, it probably offers environmental service trips.  If however, your college or university does not offer service trips, or does not offer environmental service trips, I highly recommend that you check out what the Sierra Club has to offer.  The Sierra Club is a national environmental activist group that, among other tasks, coordinates eco-friendly service trips where volunteers are accompanied by Sierra Club aficionados, and together they work to restore natural habitats.  On their website, they describe their service trips as

ranging “from helping with research projects at whale calving grounds in Maui to assisting with archaeological site restoration in New Mexico. Usually, service trip participants team up with forest service rangers or park service personnel to restore wilderness areas, maintain trails, clean up trash and campsites, and remove non-native plants.”  For an up-to-date list of Sierra Club environmental service trips, click here.

Who wouldn’t want to go to tropical Maui and work with exotic animals?  Who wouldn’t want to go to the mysterious deserts of New Mexico and work to restore parts of unbelievable history?  A green service trip will really help to heal the world in an environmental way, and also, it is absolutely fun.  In the end, it could also eventually lead you to a career in one of the emerging green fields, which also can be absolutely fun and absolutely always rewarding.