Green Careers that are Certified to Stimulate the Economy and Planet

There are a lot of jobs being lost but with a $100 billion green initiative soon to roll out from the government clean-tech careers will be in high demand. Careers in home building and industrial plants will shift to jobs in wind and solar power, mass transit, and a modernized green infrastruc-ture. Here, you will find Fast Company’s list of green jobs and initiatives that are expected to rise in the coming years.

1) Energy Efficient Construction. Buildings account for up to 48 percent of US energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. LEED, is the major green building certification available today and a tactical way to get ready for the coming requirements. A study by the Apollo Alliance recom-mended an $89.9 billion investment in financing to create 827,260 jobs in green buildings -- an initiative supported by the Obama stimulus package.

2) Wind Turbine Fabricator. Wind is the leading and fastest-growing source of alternative energy with more than 300,000 jobs worldwide. Turbines are 90% metal by weight, creating an op-portunity for autoworkers and other manufacturers to repurpose their skills.

3) Conservation Biologist. The urgent quest to preserve the integrity of ecosystems around the world -- and to quantify the value of ecosystems services leads to opportunities in teaching, re-search and fieldwork for government, nonprofits, and private companies.

4) Sustainability Systems Developer. The green economy needs a wide array of specialized software developers and engineers who design, build, and maintain the networks of sensors and stochastic modeling that underpin wind farms, smart energy grids, congestion pricing and other systems substituting intelligence for natural resources.

5) Urban Planner. Strengthening mass transit systems, limiting sprawl, encouraging use of bi-cycles and de-emphasizing cars is only part of the job. Equally important is contingency plan-ning, as floods, heat waves and garbage creep become increasingly common problems for me-tropolises. Employment in this sector is projected to grow 15 percent by 2016.

For Fast Company’s complete list visit http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2009/01/best-green-jobs.html