Got Green?

Green Jobs

Many people prefer to work outdoors in nature. Others care about what happens to the environment and want to be part of the solution. If you fall into either of these groups, seeking out a “Green Job” may be for you. Many, many websites list environmental internships. This is a great way to get your feet wet and find out if this is an area you’d enjoy working in. For outdoors lovers, it’s a great mix of serving your country while breathing in fresh air! Green Businesses are involved in producing or selling many products that support the environment. Jobs in health food businesses, organic farming, or manufacturing are available. More and more businesses are recognizing the importance of producing goods that are environmentally sustainable. We’ve included several ideas in this section, but you can visit Whole Foods Groceries, for example, and check out the labels for organic products from companies that appeal to you. Then, check out the web to get more information and a phone number.
 

What's a Green Business?

The National Green Pages™ directory says, “Green businesses operate in ways that solve, rather than cause, both environmental and social problems. These businesses adopt practices that improve the quality of life for their customers, their employees, communities, and the environment.” Green businesses sell all types of consumer goods and services. Thousands of green businesses are listed in the National Green Pages™. It's more than a good idea. It's a practical and powerful way to help create an economy that is more just and that we can continue to support in an environmentally friendly way. If a Green Business is something you think would be worth your time and effort to learn about, keep reading. Sustainable business does not have a huge number of jobs yet, but check out some of the examples below, and surf the Internet for more. If you see one you like, give it a call and see if it needs an intern.
 

Green Dream Jobs

One good site for a green dream job is www.sustainablebusiness.com/jobs. Here are a few listings from an October 2005 search of that site:

  • Sundance Solar (Warner, New Hampshire) Ed Bender turned his passion for tinkering into a thriving business that helps keep toxic batteries out of our dumpsters. Around 1990, Ed discovered the wonders of solar power. He played with solar devices, took them apart, repaired them, and even came up with some designs of his own. (see www.SundanceSolar.com)

    In 1995, he turned this skill into a business when he founded Sundance Solar Products, Inc., which distributes rechargeable batteries, solar-powered battery chargers, small solar panels, educational kits, and many other products to customers who want high-quality, environmentally sensitive products that help save energy and keep the planet healthy. For information on how Ed Bender started out call: 603-4562020, or write Sundance Solar, PO Box 10, 2 East Main Street, Warner, NH 03278. Email: sundancesales@sundancesolor.com

  • Pasta and Farm Intern (Smith Meadows Pasta, Meats and Eggs, Berryville, Virginia) Smith Meadows (see www.smithmeadows.com) is a family-run farm In Berryville, VA, one hour west of Washington, DC. The Pritchard family uses sustainable and organic methods to raise beef cattle, pigs, laying hens, sheep, and goats on a 350-acre farm at the top of the Shenandoah Valley.

    The Pritchards bring free-range eggs and meats, hand-made pastas, and fresh applesauce to farmers' markets in the DC metropolitan area. They advertised a fulltime internship starting in Fall 2005. The candidate needs to have some interest in sustainable agriculture and in cooking gourmet foods with sustainably grown products. If you have experience in a kitchen or restaurant, so much the better.

    You will learn gourmet food production, agro-tourism, and direct marketing at farmers’ markets. Stipends include on-site housing and $700/month, plus one meal per market day. (Contact Information: Nancy Pritchard, Phone 540-955-4389 or toll free 877-955-4389. Email: pritchardnancy@hotmail.com.)

  • Sales Associate with Interface Flooring Systems, Inc. (Various Regions, Georgia) Here is a chance to get in on the ground floor in the Sales Development Training program in a company that is known to be a leader in the world of green industries and commercial interiors.

    Interface (see www.interfaceinc.com) hires promising talent from a wide array of backgrounds into an intensive 3- to 6-month training program in Georgia. If you pass the program, you are placed in the region of your choice in a sales position. If you have good communication and presentation skills (written/spoken), can strike a bargain, know computer (Lotus Notes and Microsoft Office Suite), have the capacity to “think globally and locally,” see the “big picture,” want to learn more about environmental issues, and have already done some sales, this may be the program for you. (Contact: Pam Bacon. Phone: 706-812-6451. Email: ifsjobs@us.interfaceinc.com.

  • Natural Building Intern (Heathcote Community, Freeland, Maryland) Heathcote Community (see www.heathcote.org/internships.shtml) in Freeland, MD, offered an internship from April to November, 2005, in a natural building and sustainable community dedicated to a better way of life. A minimum one-month commitment was required. This internship is a way to gain experience with construction and natural building techniques while exploring sustainable community living.

    Interns work 40 hours a week on a new straw bale building. In exchange, they receive room and full tuition to Heathcote’s summer series of workshops on natural building. They pay $150 a month for food and participate in the cooking rotation. Interns are housed in the community’s 150-year-old historic grain mill and integrated into all aspects of community life, including meetings and social events.

    Heathcote Community is located on 110 wooded acres in northern Baltimore County, MD. This community has an organic and vegetarian diet, and practices conflict resolution and consensus decision making. It has several vegetable, herb, and flower gardens; bees; hiking trails; and stream-side hammocks. Interested applicants complete a written application, an interview, and a community visit. (For information call Jette at 410-357-8890, or call Karen Stupski at 410-343-3478. Email: naturalbuilding@heathcote.org. Website: www.heathcote.org)

  • Ecovillage Community Member/Intern (Enota Mountain Retreat, Hiawassee, Georgia) EcoVillage Community (see www.enota.org) is in the North Georgia Mountains. It is looking for community members who value preserving the planet in a sustainable manner. Volunteers can contribute in a number of areas, including organic gardening, hydroelectric generation, community housing, animal sanctuary, and many other aspects of moving the community forward.

    All volunteers receive meals, lodging, and a stipend. Those in areas of responsibility also receive an annual performance payment. (Visit the website or call Dr. Freed at 706-896-9966. Email: enota@direcway.com.)

  • Organic Farming Apprentice (Worden Farms, Punta Gorda, Florida) Worden Farm (see www.wordenfarm.com) raises organic vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers, certified- transitional-organic oranges, and a small herd of grass-fed natural beef cattle. The farm is on the southern Gulf Coast of Florida, in an area of cattle ranches, orange groves, pinelands, and beaches.

    Apprentices are hosted during the Florida winter vegetable season, from September through June. The minimum stay is two months. Work schedule is five and a half days per week. Preference is given to full-season applicants with professional interest in agriculture. Apprentices get hands-on education in organic crop production and marketing, through informal farm skill demonstrations. Tasks include planting, greenhouse management, transplant production, irrigation projects, crop maintenance, harvesting, and direct marketing through farmers’ markets and the CSA (Community Sustainable Agriculture) farm membership program.

    Optional college credit for the apprenticeship is available through an educational partnership between Worden Farm and the University of Florida. College credit can be earned at either undergraduate or graduate level. All apprentices have access to the farm's sustainable agriculture reference library.

    Apprentices receive $500 per month, with a paid vacation of one day per month worked. Housing is provided on the farm in air-conditioned cabins. Apprentices have a shared kitchen and access to the produce from the farm fields for all meals. Smoking, drugs, and alcohol are not permitted. To apply, email a letter of interest and resumé, with three references. Contact information for email is: office@wordenfarm.com)

 

Turn Your Love of the Outdoors Into an Environmental Career

If you love nature and are worried about our environment, jobs and internships are available for getting valuable experience for a future career. You can find many opportunities on the web, and several are listed here.

  • Eno River State Park, Durham, NC The Eno River State Park (www.enoriver.org) offers seasonal positions as assistant park ranger, naturalist, natural resource management intern, park attendant, and general utility worker. Both part- and full-time paid positions are available with wages ranging from $6 to $7.25 an hour. (Phone: 919-383-1686 or Email: eno.river@nc.mail.net)

  • The Student Conservation Association The SCA (www.thesca.org) offers one- to six-month-long volunteer experiences in U.S. national parks. Crews of 6-10 students (high school, college, or others) with two adult leaders build and maintain trails; construct shelters, rock walls, and bridges; restore habitat; and remove invasive species.

    You might be sent deep into the backcountry, to more accessible parklands, or into well-populated communities. Crews live and work out of a base camp, sleep in tents, and share cooking and cleaning.

    SCA provides housing, a living stipend, possible academic credit, AmeriCorps education awards, insurance, and travel to project site. Partners include the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and other federal, state, and nonprofit organizations.

    For a list of current positions, go to http://www.thesca.org/serve/internships. To apply, simply email your resumé, a list of positions you are interested in, availability dates, and current contact information. (Email: joinus@thesca.org. Phone: 603-5431700 for questions)

  • Find Hundreds of Organic Farm Sites in the Southeast, Northeast, and Worldwide

    World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) WWOOF (www.wwoof.org) helps individuals find organic farmers in countries around the world. Students or others join a WWOOF organization in a particular country of interest and are then put in contact with host farms to make particular arrangements. Interns work 6 hours a day, 6 days a week. They receive no pay, but do get room and board with the host family. Responsibilities may include sowing, making compost, gardening, planting, cutting wood, weeding, making mud-bricks, harvesting, fencing, building, typing, packing, milking, and feeding. See listings for organic farms throughout the southeast at www.wwoof.org.

     

    Southeastern Willing Workers on Organic Farms (SEWWOOF) SEWWOOF (http://attrainternships.ncat.org/internDetail2.asp?id=309) is a service linking organic farmers in the southeastern United States with people interested in apprenticeships in farming. It publishes the SEWWOOF Farm List, which describes each farm’s operation, compensation, etc.

    You can download an application directly by email. Complete it and mail it to SEWWOOF with a $6 application fee. They will contact the farmer you’ve indicated; then you and the farmer together can establish your farming work relationship. (Email: sewwoof@crosswinds.net. Mailing address: P.O. Box 134, Bonlee, NC 27213)

    North East Workers on Organic Farms (NEWOOF USA) A list of organic farmers in the northeastern United States is available through the same process through NEWOOF. For more information check the NEWOOF website or write New England Small Farm Institute, PO Box 608, Belchertown, MA 01007, USA. You can also call or email—Phone: 413-323-4531. Email: programs@smallfarm.org)

     

    The Environmental Careers Organization This organization is a clearinghouse for information about environmental internship opportunities and a lot more. At ECO's Career Center (see www.eco.org), you'll find career tips, answers to your questions, links to other sites, and brief information about environmental fields. You can read about several career paths— from water quality to forestry to education.

    ECO's book, The Complete Guide to Environmental Careers in the 21st Century—which you can read right off their website—is a great source of information about environmental, conservation, and sustainability careers. Go to www.eco.org, click on “Publications,” and then click “Read it on-line.”

    ECO Careers places about 700 interns each year in 35 states. On their site they answer all sorts of questions about these internships. Read their frequently asked questions for all you’ll need to know about their internship program.

     

  • Orion Grassroots Network This environmental internship and career service network connects students and professionals with cutting-edge environmental and social change work.

    Orion’s Internship & Career Service (see www.oriononline.org) advertises internships, jobs, apprenticeships, and AmeriCorps opportunities available with 800 members of their network. These organizations do vital, place-based work in conservation, education, restoration, agriculture, and activism.

    One such ad found on the site in October 2005 called for farming and education interns at the Sequatchie Valley Institute in Whitwell, Tennessee. (Email: mediarights@bledsoe.net; www.svionline.org)

  • Appalachian Coal Country Watershed The OSM/VISTA Watershed Team is a partnership between the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) and AmeriCorps VISTA (for details visit its website at www.osmre.gov/vista/vistaintroduction.pdf). The team places full-time VISTA volunteers in community watershed associations throughout Appalachian coal country, which includes 30 sites in 8 states (PA, MD, OH, WV, VA, TN, KY, AL). The majority of the sites are in rural communities with a history of coal mining.

    Full-time interns working 12-month stints are responsible for organizing stream monitoring programs for their watersheds and researching long-term solutions to environmental problems, such as acid mine drainage. They also play a key role in educating young people in their communities about litter prevention, acid mine drainage, and other water quality issues.

    They create newsletters, write press releases, speak one-on-one with members of the community to inform them of important issues, and recruit their help with various projects, such the removal of litter from stream banks and dump site clean-ups.

    Interns earn a small living allowance (approximately $750/month), health insurance, childcare (if eligible), student loan forbearance (interest paid for a year deferment by the federal government), choice of $1,200 stipend or $4,725 education award (upon successful completion of term), training, and an opportunity to make a difference.

    If you can work effectively with a wide range of people, are motivated to identify needs and find resources to meet those needs, have a strong desire to help improve the quality of life for the people of Appalachia, have excellent writing and public speaking skills, and are computer literate, this may be the opportunity for you.

    If interested, submit on-line AmeriCorps application (http://www.americorps.gov/for_organizations/apply/index.asp, and click “Apply Now” on the left). Also, please send your resumé as an email attachment to Jenny Becksted, osm-vista-leader@wv-esec.org.

Others

Lists of Internships

College-Like Environmental Programs

Some colleges offer special programs geared for people who want to do something really different. Here are two such programs:

  • Castle Rock Institute for Wilderness Adventure and the Humanities North Carolina’s Brevard College offers programs primarily for college students but also accepts recent high school graduates who’d like to earn humanities course credit, engage in outdoor adventure activities, and live in a small community setting. Locations include North Carolina, South Carolina and Australia. See Castle Rock Institute at www.castle-rock.org for more information.

  • The Audubon Expedition Institute, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA This is one of the top five Outdoor Education programs. With “the desert Southwest, Alaska, Hawaii and other sweet spots,” for their campus, AEI (Audubon Expedition Institute at http://www.lesley.edu/offcampus/term/nbs_env.html) students explore diverse bioregions living on buses as they pursue environmental studies. High school graduates participate in its experiential ecology programs as a post-graduation year.

 

Niche Farming in North Carolina

Carolina Farm Stewardship To find out about ways to volunteer, and in some cases “earn and learn” on these farms, contact:

CAROLINA FARM STEWARDSHIP PO Box 448 Pittsboro, NC 27312 Phone: 919-542-2402 Fax: 919-542-7401 GROWING SMALL FARMS Chatham County Center North Carolina Extension Service Phone: Employment Coordinator 919-515-2708 Growing Small Farms Debby Roois Phone: 919-542-8202 Website: Growing Small Farms

List of locations: NC A&T State University; NC State University; all 100 counties and the Cherokee Reservation.

Farming in NC takes many forms – from large-scale poultry production to small organic truck farming. No matter what the scale of the farm, though, today’s farmer is using new approaches and business know-how to succeed.

Many NC farmers are pioneering in shaping their businesses to respond to new demands for grass-fed cattle, goat meat and milk, organic fruit, vegetables, flowers, herbs, sprouts, and many other products. Many are exploring “sustainable farming” techniques that produce healthy products and save the earth at the same time.

Numerous farms producing these specialized products are scattered throughout North Carolina. Many can provide internship opportunities if you want to learn the business. You don’t have to grow up on a farm to become a farmer!

 

 

The Land is Your Friend: North Carolina Training in Sustainable Farming

The rich earth can be your best friend. Where else can you be your own boss, eat wholesome food, earn a good living, and refurbish the planet? You can learn to run your own successful small farm by growing top-priced organic produce.

For only $55 to $60 per course you can get hands-on training with successful farmers in the Sustainable Farming Program at Central Carolina Community College (CCCC) in Pittsboro, NC. The CCCC program has its own farm right on campus that serves as an outdoor classroom, led by teachers who are successful farmers themselves. You’ll learn through classroom time and on-site sessions how to grow fruits and vegetables without pesticides and about successful business methods to make your efforts profitable.

The Sustainable Farming Program at CCCC is one of the few programs of its type in the nation, and people come from all over the country to enroll. According to the students, the journey is worthwhile.

Shiloh Avery, a graduate of the program, now runs her own small farm in White Cross, NC. She agrees that CCCC provides the exact combination of class and land work potential farmers need. “It is the most practical thing you can do if you need to build your skills and you want to farm... “Everything is very hands-on with a good dose of classroom science background.” (See the New Farm at www.rodaleinstitute.org/new_farm.)

Avery believes CCCC was a better place for her to learn than a university. “I knew that I didn't want to sit around in a classroom and talk about farming, but that I wanted to actually farm,” she said. “A community college sounded like the perfect mix of handson experience and classroom learning.”

Two Program Options

For the continuing education program you need neither prior farming or gardening experience nor a high school diploma, but you need to be at least 16 years old. To enroll in the two-year certificate program, you will need a high school diploma or GED. The tuition cost for the certificate program is about $600 per semester, but apprenticeships are available to work and learn.

For more informationm contact Robin Kohanowich (919) 542-6495, ext. 229. Website: www.ibiblio.org/farming-connection/localcon/groups/sfpcccc.htm