Your career in sustainability awaits

The jobs and opportunities that come with building a sustainable world

This past month, I’ve been privileged to speak to several high school and university audiences – in other words, young people facing that first, huge decision: what will I do with my life?  Where appropriate, I’ve tried to impress upon them that the global transition to sustainability will provide a treasure trove of career opportunities – as well as the unique and deep satisfaction that comes with making the world a better place.

So exactly what are those opportunities?  This is far from a comprehensive list, but hopefully the snippets below may inspire career seekers young and old to become the changemakers we need.

Biology: protection of endangered species; preservation of wetlands, forests and other natural areas; restoration of damaged ecosystems; marine biology and reversing ocean acidification; building understanding of the interconnected web of life

Chemistry: helping fix the quagmire that is plastics and plastic ‘recycling’; developing better ways to minimize and manage electronic, toxic and other waste streams

Agriculture: developing cropping systems less dependent on chemical fertilizers; developing heat and drought resistant varieties; reducing food system losses and waste; preserving precious topsoil; carbon sequestration in soils

Arts: creating the next photograph, painting or graphic that will change the world; writing the poem or song that will become the new anthem of hope and resolve; inspiring change through storytelling; championing sustainable fashion design; using social marketing to foster more sustainable human behaviours and actions; developing sustainability policies for organizations, institutions and individuals

Education: teaching a new generation how to reconnect with the natural world upon which we depend; instilling a mindset of resourcefulness, resilience, collaboration, flexibility, creativity and focus; communicating the why, what and how of sustainability; inspiring the sustainability leaders of the future

Engineering: designing and building the renewable energy systems of tomorrow (wind, solar, hydro, tidal, wave, geothermal, biofuels); electrification of everything; conducting credible life cycle analyses; electric vehicles and sustainable transportation, in particular freight; energy storage (batteries, reservoirs, gravity-based, compressed air, molten salt and more); designing and building climate resilient infrastructure; drawing down atmospheric carbon

Technology: making everything related to energy efficiency more accessible and user-friendly; developing apps to increase energy literacy and enable energy management; designing energy management systems for buildings; gamification of sustainability so we can have fun while learning

Trades and technical: residential, commercial and industrial energy efficiency advisor; net-zero building design and construction; wind turbine technician; solar installer; e-bike repair; environmental technician; fixing anything that’s broken

Miscellaneous: landscape architecture that integrates natural systems; sustainable urban planning; environmental law; environmental performance monitoring; corporate sustainability management; sustainable financing

Finally, all careers: please reserve some of your gifts and talents for political engagement and even activism if necessary, because solving climate change will require bold action from local, provincial, national and global leaders – and they need to hear from all of us.

Green Ideas – March 10 – Living within our means, Part 1: Water

Conserving the lifeblood of our existence

Ours is a watery planet, but consider this: 97.5 per cent of Earth’s water is salty; only 0.03 per cent is surface water, the portion most humans rely upon.  Put another way: if a typical trash dolly full of water represented all water on the planet, surface water would amount to just six tablespoons.

And as our population continues to grow, so does our water consumption.  Humans today use three times the water we used fifty years ago.  Worldwide, 2.2 billion people lack access to safe water – including many residents of Canadian First Nations.

Water is essential to our existence, so we’d be wise not to take it for granted.  Here’s how you can reduce your personal water footprint:

• Very good: Install a low flow shower head.  Less water, same satisfying shower.  Then go one better: take fewer and shorter showers.
• Very good: Install a low flow (six litre) or dual flush toilet for big water savings.  Then go one better: ‘when it’s yellow, leave it mellow’…
• Consider a front-loading clothes washer for 50 per cent water savings; do only full loads
• Fix dripping faucets because they can waste 80 litres a day
• Detect toilet tank leaks by putting a little food coloring in the tank and checking if any color seeps into the bowl; most repairs are easy do-it-yourself jobs with inexpensive parts available at hardware stores
• A no-brainer: turn off the tap while brushing teeth
• Avoid watering lawns or washing driveways
• Keep a bottle of drinking water in the fridge so you don’t have to run the tap to get cool water
• Calculate your water footprint here (detailed but US-focussed) or here (international but to my eye less user-friendly).  Both include the water footprints of our food and consumer goods choices, which are far greater than most of us would guess.

March 22 is World Water Day – so raise a glass and appreciate it for the vital, underappreciated essential it is.

A more eco-friendly way to wash your hands

Handwashing with cool water is just as good for killing bacteria

For years we’ve been taught that, when washing hands, we have to use hot water to effectively remove bacteria.  But a new study published in the Journal of Food Protection has found no difference in washing effectiveness when hands were washed in water that was 16, 26 or 38 degrees C.  (Note: for reference, 16⁰C is a bit warmer than the water coming out of your cold water tap, but it’s colder than you’d want to swim in.)

The implication: in the words of one of the study’s authors, “We are wasting energy to heat water to a level that is not necessary.”

So – something to think about the next time you wash your hands.  Cool water is much more comfortable in summer anyway!

PS: interestingly, the biggest factor in washing effectiveness was washing technique; antimicrobial soap had little effect.

Five tips for greener hair!

Simple ideas for more eco-friendly hair care

Hair care is part of most people’s daily routine, but it has more environmental implications than one might realize (for example, water consumption, energy consumption, undesirable chemicals and waste generation).  Here are five ways you can reduce the environmental impacts of your coiffure:

• Resist your shampoo maker’s tease to ‘rinse and repeat’, and shampoo just once (because if you need to shampoo twice, you’ve got to wonder about the quality of the product in the first place!). Plus use as little shampoo as you can get away with.
• Try washing your hair every second time you shower instead of every time
• Use a leave-in conditioner to cut down on shower time
• Let hair dry naturally if you can, or else use the coolest setting on your hair dryer
• Bonus: make your own shampoo! Learn how here.

Happy greener hair care!

Simple laundry savings!

Tips for saving when washing your clothes

Here are four easy ways you can save on laundry day:

• Big savings: choose a cold water detergent (like Dizolve and numerous others) and use cold water instead of hot
• Wait until you have a full load; washing machines are most efficient when operated full
• Don’t overdose with detergent; read instructions and measure carefully. (Many detergents come with measuring cups that hold more soap than needed for a load… sneaky tactic, eh?)
• Big savings: use a clothesline instead of a dryer. No way around it: dryers are huge energy hogs.

The dirt on dry cleaning

Avoid dry cleaning if possible

Dry cleaning isn’t really ‘dry’; it’s just that chemical solvents are used instead of water to remove stains. The solvents work well, but they aren’t very environmentally friendly – particularly to groundwater if they are spilled.

So here are three ideas for using less dry cleaning:

• If possible, buy clothes you can wash in regular laundry
• If possible, seek out a company that uses a newer process called ‘wetcleaning’ which has less environmental impact
• Consider wearing clothes more than once between cleanings

You’ll save money and do a good thing for the environment! (For more information, read this excellent factsheet from the US EPA.)

Manage that rain (or lack of it)

Rain barrels and rain gardens

If, like me, you’re a gardener whose water comes from a well, no doubt you’re reluctant to water your plants during summer dry spells for fear of running the well dry.

Rain barrels to the rescue – park one under your eavestrough, and you’ll be amazed at how little rain it takes to fill it.  You can buy rain barrels at garden centers and other stores, or you can just get a used 40 gallon drum.  If you like, it’s easy to install a tap with a drill and a few parts from the hardware store.  (Send me a note if you’d like a list of parts.)

This is a ‘home-built’ from our home, under the downspout of our garage.  It and two others like it have provided about 99% of the water I’ve needed for my modest flower and veggie gardens over the past several years.

If your problem is too much rain, consider installing a rain garden to help reduce runoff and erosion.  Here’s a great guide from Canada Mortgage and Housing.

With climate change bringing more weather extremes, rain barrels and rain gardens are both great solutions!

The most unproductive crop we grow

Rethinking the lawn

Lawns have been part of our existence for years.  However, in spite of being green in color, they’re not especially eco-friendly.  Consider:

• Over 150 million litres of fuel are burned by Canadian lawn mowers annually
• Mower engines lack the smog-reducing technology of cars so they produce far higher levels of smog-forming emissions; plus they tend to be pretty noisy
• Cosmetic pesticides, which tend to affect a whole lot more than their intended targets, are still in use in many areas. (Surely applying poisons in the places your kids play is worth rethinking.)
• Lawns are often fertilized with energy-intensive chemical fertilizers, and watered (lawn watering can increase summer domestic water use by 50%).  That makes them grow faster, so we can mow them even more!!

Here’s a fun and catchy three minute video on the woes of lawns – and here are some practical alternatives:

• Plant trees and shrubs, which provide many of the same cooling and carbon-absorbing benefits of grass
• Convert part of the lawn to a veggie garden
• Choose a drought-tolerant grass, and don’t fertilize or water it
• Convert some lawn into a wildlife garden to attract birds, bees, butterflies and more
• Consider an electric mower, or if you’re a tinkerer, a solar mower
• Leave clippings on the lawn to recycle nutrients

Summer is way too short to spend it mowing the lawn!

The carbon footprint of a shower

Four ways to lower the environmental impact of that morning shower

Consider this: every 10-minute shower you take under a conventional showerhead adds about 65 cents* to your monthly power bill.  That’s about $20 per month if you shower daily.

Each shower also results in emissions from generating that power: in New Brunswick, over three kilograms of carbon dioxide; in Nova Scotia (where most power comes from coal), over five kilograms.  Ouch!  (You can check out carbon dioxide emissions per KWH of electricity in your province here or in your state here {fourth page}).

Here are four quick ways you can reduce those costs and emissions:

1. install a low flow shower head, a simple installation that will pay for itself in about a month

2. consider taking shorter showers

3. consider lowering the temperature of your shower a little

4. consider showering every second day instead of daily

*6.6 KWH @ 10 cents/KWH

An audacious dare

Here’s a challenge for you: skip a shower sometime this week.

When I issue that dare to audiences, I often hear a snicker and a murmur that sounds a lot like, “uh-uh”.  Yet if truth be told, most of us shower every morning not because we’re dirty; we shower because it feels good.  It’s our wake-up therapy.

But our daily shower habit is one of the reasons we North Americans use more water per person than anyone on the planet.  And – even worse – much of that water is hot water, heated by fossil fuel-fired electricity.  Our morning feel-good isn’t very good for the planet.

So here’s the challenge again: skip a shower this week, and every week.  You can make a big difference for the planet!