Resource Center

Instructions

The Resource Center is a curated collection of information organized around 7 green economy “Sectors” and 7 “Topics.” In time, more Sectors will be added. Topics represent those areas in which educators and workforce development professionals continue to seek direction.

You can search by sector or by topic. Or across all sectors and/or all topics.

You can also perform a keyword search of all resources on the top right of this page.

Overview

Solar

The solar industry is expected to show steady growth over the coming decade largely due to rising energy prices, advances in technology through public/private partnerships and investments, and continued enactment of federal and state policies and financial incentives. more >>

Wind

Wind power is considered a leading source of new electricity generation in the United States, with the potential of providing 20% of the nation’s energy needs by 2030. more >>

Green Building

The green building market has expanded five fold over the last three years to a $48 billion national market—and is projected to triple in the next five years. more >>

Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is considered the foundation of a vibrant and sustainable green economy, and one of the most cost effective ways to lower energy consumption, reduce operating costs, and mitigate carbon emissions. more >>

Sustainability Education

Sustainability education refers generally to learning experiences that enable students to develop the knowledge, behaviors and skills to help create healthier ecosystems, social systems, and economies. For the purposes of the SEED Center, this includes resources to help build non-credit continuing education for the incumbent workforce and integrating sustainability curriculum into existing credit programs. more >>

Sustainable Ag., Food & Land

The Sustainable Ag., Food & Land sector covers the areas of organic farming, horticulture, culinary art, and landscaping. This sector includes organizations and resources that integrate environmental, social and economic factors into land use, food preparation, and land specific practices in an attempt to create a more sustainable future. more >>

General Clean Tech

The General Clean Tech sector is a space for resources that encompass multiple ‘green’ sectors. Many are applicable to the broader clean economy and sustainability-related technology and will serve the general clean tech community. Resources also provide valuable information on sectors that are experiencing substantive development in the sustainability realm, like manufacturing and smart grid. more >>

Transportation and Fuels

The Transportation & Fuels sector covers the area of electric and hybrid vehicle development and maintenance, other forms of alternative and sustainable transportation, natural gas, fuel cells, battery storage, and renewable fuels sources including ethanol, biodiesel, algae, and methane. more >>

Certifications and Industry Credentials

Certainly, one of the biggest challenges facing green educators is the rapid and mostly uncoordinated emergence of green certifications and credentials. more >>

Curricular Materials

These resources and materials have been vetted by industry and education experts, and while not in the form of specific educator tools, will assist in creating quality curricula for your classroom. more >>

You will find more specific educator tools (e.g. syllabi, lab manuals, lesson plans, special classroom projects, equipment lists, etc.) submitted by SEED member colleges in our Curricular Materials Sharing Portal.

Employment Industry Projections

While job training providers have been quite active in past years working with local industry to define the emerging green jobs market and potential job growth areas, most still struggle to forecast accurately regional occupational demand. The U.S. Department of Labor has made recent strides toward classifying green occupations and competencies which will help communities define and track green jobs (and colleges to design appropriate education and training programs). Given the uncertain renewable energy and efficiency industry outlook, and rapidly changing technologies, access to the most up-to-date industry studies and employment projections will be critical. more >>

Innovative Practices & Partnerships

The job creation potential of the green economy has led to some unique job training and economic development partnerships and collaborations. more >>

Professional Development Resources

This section includes promising facilitated learning opportunities, including “train the trainer” programs, standing conferences, and informal learning opportunities situated in practice for faculty and staff seeking to further their knowledge of industry trends and requirements. more >>

Policy & Funding Sources

Included you will find links and descriptions of agencies and organizations that typically fund sustainability and green job training initiatives as well as those that provide important information on national legislation and policies relevant to the clean energy sector. CHECK BACK AS MORE ARE ADDED. This section also highlights resources that provide guidance on how to supply input into program and grant design for certain agency solicitations. more >>

Skill sets, Competencies & Career Pathways

This section includes lists and assessments of skill sets and competencies tied to the green economy – across the broad industry as well as within specific sectors. It also includes some critical resources that colleges can use to align programs and facilitate student transitions. Included are green energy competency models and newly-developed career pathways that allow movement across educational and training programs. more >>

Sector:

Topic:

Featured Resources

ACORE's Renewable Energy in the 50 States

American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) Renewable Energy in the 50 States report provides an executive summary on the status of renewable energy implementation at the state-level. The report is a "living" document that will continue to evolve with updates and periodic revision. (November 2012)

K-12 Sustainability Resources Relevant to Community Colleges

The U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development has developed a rich set of resources, including sites with downloadable learning activities, a beginner’s toolkit for sustainability, standards for K-12, and more.

Biomimicry: 6 Hour Course for Educators

Learning from nature to create non-toxic technologies is a fascinating subject described in this 6-hour course for educators who want to teach their students about biomimicry and give them a good grounding in the subject. Whether someone is completely new to biomimicry or relatively familiar with the subject, this course will provide a solid foundation about what biomimicry is, why it is important, and broad pedagogical considerations about how to teach this subject to students.

Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Resources

AASHE offers numerous resources on sustainability in higher education, from strategic planning for sustainability to curricula, student life, operations and purchasing, community partnerships and more. See the free bulletin and the searchable resource center and digest and review the assessment system called STARS.

Resources for Teaching Sustainability Within All Courses

Discover information on how to teach sustainability in a wide variety of academic discipines, including Biology, Business,Chemistry,Design, Engineering, Environmental Science, Humanities, Mathematics, Psychology, Religion, Sociology and others. Also access interdisciplinary approaches, sustainability learning outcomes that can be related to all academic areas, and some of the journals related to sustainability.

Siting Renewable Energy on Potentially Contaminated Land and Mine Sites

EPA is encouraging renewable energy development on current and formerly contaminated land and mine sites when it is aligned with the community’s vision for the site. This initiative identifies the renewable energy potential of these sites and provides other useful resources for communities, developers, industry, state and local governments or anyone interested in reusing these sites for renewable energy development.

Smart Grid Information Clearing House: Education and Training

A list of the DOE-sponsored workforce training programs for manpower development necessary for the successful deployment of the smart grid at all levels. Programs listed can be browsed by training location and training type. The SGIC team also brings together smart grid related education short courses, webinars, and tutorials offered by various providers.

Smart Growth Network's Building Sustainable Communities Speaker Series

The Smart Growth Speaker Series is sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Building Museum and the Smart Growth Network. Smart growth is development that serves the economy, community, and environment. The series hosts speakers on monthly basis to discuss this approach to development, explore specific growth-related issues, foster dialog, and identify opportunities for positive change in growth and development patterns.

Sustainable Schools Project: Guide to Education for Sustainability

The Guide to Education for Sustainability offers introductory tools, background, and examples to help educators of all grade levels and subject areas use the "lens of sustainability" to strengthen classroom curricula and community projects.

The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy

In this ground-breaking book, leading sustainability educators are joined by literary critics, permaculturalists, ecologists, artists, journalists, engineers, mathematicians and philosophers in a deep reflection on the skills people need to survive and thrive in the challenging conditions of the 21st century.

Displaying results 1-10 (of 14)

|< < 1 - 2 > >|

More Resources

ACORE's Renewable Energy in the 50 States

EPA's Smart Growth Program

Learn about smart growth issues and environmental benefits. Find information about specific topics, resources, and examples of smart growth development, including the National Award for Smart Growth Achievement. Through research, tools, partnerships, case studies, grants, and technical assistance, EPA is helping America's communities turn their visions of the future into reality.

Making Green Work: Best Practices in Green-Collar Job Training

This resource may be of value to the field of adult education as an example of the variety of green sector programs that can be developed, their various funding mechanisms, and the types of credentials they may contain. Its most significant features include a clear and consistent framework for describing programs and a very forthright portrayal of challenges/lessons learned. It is easy to flip through the publication, going from program to program, to compare features. This framework reinforces what programs developers need to address, for example, partnerships and funding, elements of curriculum, instructor,and target participants.

Report - Energy Efficiency Resource Acquisition Program Models in North America

This report provides an explanation of different types of institutional delivery models currently in place across the United States and Canada to acquire energy efficiency as a predictable and reliable resource for meeting existing and future energy demands. This examination and comparison of eight different models yields a new understanding of the benefits and weaknesses states and provinces accepted when making choices during the development of these programs. Although the report focuses on programs targeting the industrial sector, the lessons learned are not specific to one sector or geographic region.

Green Technologies and Practices (GTP) survey

Special survey of business establishments designed to collect data on establishments' use of green technologies and practices and the occupations of workers who spend more than half of their time involved in green technologies and practices.

2012: The Geography of Sustainability - Journal of Sustainability

2012 issue of the Journal of Sustainability Education, a peer-reviewed, open access interdisciplinary e-journal from the Institute for Sustainable Social Change and the sustainability education Ph.D. program at Prescott College (Arizona), is themed "The Geography of Sustainability."

ACUPCC Webinar - Water and Your Campus: Protecting Our “Hidden” Resource

This webinar is designed to organize a diverse group of individuals with expertise in water and sustainability to expose campuses to water issues, programs, and solutions.

Alliance for Sustainability: Building a better life and workforce in rural America

This network builds partnerships with community-based organizations, industry associates, government agencies, and extension services to educate the labor force, communities, and youth about sustainable development.

Book - Sustainability: A Comprehensive Foundation

"Sustainability: A Comprehensive Foundation" is intended for undergraduate students. It was written by staff and faculty from the U of IL system (Urbana, Chicago, Springfield campuses) and you can build on and adapt the content as you see fit for your curricula with few restrictions.

Case Study - Fibergrate Composite Structures Inc.

Read how a small company was faced with a choice to comply with clean air requirements, or ship jobs overseas. By choosing to become more sustainable, the company saved $14,000, and was able to grow market share and help an area recover from devastation.

Displaying results 1-10 (of 104)

|< < 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 > >|

Connect

Sign-in/Register

Additional Partner Resources