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 >>

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Featured Resources

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.

Education for a Sustainable Future Webinar

This 90 minute presentation covers: What is Sustainable Development? What is Education for Sustainable Development? What are some of the national trends? What are some of the resources available to higher education instiuttions and faculty in a wide variety of disciplines? (Wait about 30 seconds for the audio to start) The presentation is brought to you by the Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium and the Disciplinary Associations Network for Sustainability with information from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

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.

Sustainable Schools Project: Education for Sustainability Starter Kit

This professional development tool prepares educators and schools to start using sustainability as an integrating theme, and to catalyze school change with efficient use of existing resources through a series of self-guided learning opportunities.

Teaching Concepts of Sustainability in Introduction to Psychology

This article, published by the American Psychological Association Education Directorate division in their "Psychology Teacher Network", gives a conceptual framework and specific examples of how to teach sustainability within psychology, although many of the concepts are applicable to courses in many academic disciplines. When you get to the link, scroll to page 21

Webinar: Help Your Students and Their Employers Understand How to Grow Green Jobs

This webinar shares concepts, learning outcomes and learning activities you can easily incorporate in your courses to create more success for your students and for the businesses where they will work. Educating our students for green jobs and careers often requires going beyond the teaching of technological skills and knowledge. A successful green business employee also needs an understanding of how to effectively communicate about the green product and how to help the employer understand and utilize the successful green business models. Yet these items are often missing in our curricula. Standard marketing, sales and business courses do not address this problem.

More Resources

Energy Education & Workforce Development (DOE: EERE)

The Energy Education & Workforce Development website, brought to you by the Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy resource, provides you with clean energy literacy and career information, teaching materials, and information on programs and other topics. Also view the Teach page for many creative lesson plans, labs and projects.

International Society of Sustainability Professionals: Educational Opportunities

This association offers a sustainability certificate and educational events that could be helpful to students in their career pathway as well as faculty learning to upgrade their understanding of sustainability skills and career pathways.

Australian Learning & Teaching Council (ALTC) - Sustainability Education Resources

Australian higher education institutions are implementing a range of learning programs and initiatives addressing sustainability challenges. This emerging site enables academic staff to find effective practice and resources for teaching sustainability, and enables university leaders and policy makers to access resources on implementing programs in sustainability, staff development initiatives and embedding sustainability in policy. Most resources are from Austrailia but some are international.

Biomimicry: 6 Hour Course for Educators

CareerOneStop - Competency Model Clearinghouse

A clearinghouse of competency model frameworks. Includes high-growth industries such as Energy Generation, Transmission, and Distribution and Advanced Manufacturing (including green manufacturing principles). Developed through a collaborative effort involving the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and various industry organizations.

NC Greenforce Conference – Community Colleges Focus on Preparing North Carolina’s Green Workforce

This sumary of a statewide conference demonstrates how colleges can work together to develop sustainability and green oriented education while working to grow the green economy workforce. (November 2011)

Problem & Case Based Learning: Making Learning Real

This site provides informational resources on a desired pedagogy for quality sustainability education - how to educate via real world problem based learning, Education for a sustainable future teaches students systemic thinking and change agent skills so they can help solve societal problems.

E3 Washington: Education Network

Educators can join this Network to connect with people building systems of Education for Sustainable Communities, organizations, and leadership teams. Network members can also search programs, events, curriculum, research & reports, jobs, and more for the classroom.