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

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)

Building Science Corporation

Resources on this page provide objective, high-quality information to promote the design and construction of durable, energy-efficient and economical buildings that can prove useful in the development of your green building courses.

Energy 101: A Model Interdisciplinary Higher Education Course for Teaching the Fundamentals of Energy

The Department of Energy (DOE) is leading the "Energy 101" initiative, a peer reviewed course framework for an interdisciplinary fundamental of energy course using a systems-based approach that can be individualized by the nations universities and community colleges. The model course will teach energy from an interdisciplinary perspective in an effort to capture the dynamic role energy plays in our lives -- including relevant scientific, technological and societal aspects. Through this effort, DOE aims to increase the pathways to energy-related degrees and energy careers offered at the nation's universities and community colleges. Such an interdisciplinary course can lead to broadly increasing the energy literacy of students, as well as providing fundamentals which can be used in further energy-related academic or career pathways.

Fishbanks: A Renewable Resource Management Simulation

Fishbanks is a multiplayer web-based simulation in which participants play the role of fishers and seek to maximize their net worth as they compete against other players and deal with variations in fish stocks and their catch. Policy options available to instructors include auctions of new boats, permits, and quotas. This simulation provides the opportunity for students to learn about the challenges of managing resources sustainably in a common pool resource setting, with realistic resource dynamics.

Green Building: Principles and Practices in Residential Construction, 1st Edition

This textbook is for those educating on Green Building and provides information on all aspects of building technologies. From core concepts to innovative applications of cutting-edge technology and the latest industry trends, this text offers an in-depth introduction to the construction of "green" homes.

GreenExpo365: The Interactive Green Community

This web resource serves as a launch pad to training programs teachers can use for credits and certifications in green building. View their extensive resources and the free courses available for curricular development.

National Training and Education Resource (NTER) Platform - DOE

The SEED Center wants to help its members best utilize a new open source clean tech learning technology tool developed by the U.S. Department of Energy. It was designed to revolutionize how online training and education is created, shared, and delivered. NTER offers an easy to use and free distributed repository and specialized search engine just for education and training. SEED would like to help you in determining the best way to integrate this platform into the creation and management of your green-skilled education programs.

Each organization that participates in NTER gains access to a global network of resources and expands the learning community. Along with enabling collaboration, NTER allows authors to reuse existing content which further reduces the cost to institutions developing new materials. Together, these features enable instructors to share, reuse and remix existing works so that students can benefit from rich and immersive educational experiences. Read more here.

Contact us today to discuss how NTER can best serve you in the delivery of high quality green training programs. Also view the webcast recording of the DOE Webinar on NTER from 12/6/12 and read more on this tool at the SEED Center.

Realizing the Energy Efficiency Potential of Small Buildings

This report summarizes two years of research into the opportunities and challenges of delivering energy-efficiency strategies to small buildings. (June 2013)

Regional Energy Efficiency Database

Provides a one-stop resource for your curricular development to readily access energy efficiency program data, including energy and peak-demand savings, costs, avoided emissions, and job impacts.

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.

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More Resources

AWEA Standards Program

Read about the emerging standards for wind power from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).

Best Practices Documents for Solar Instructor Training

The Best Practices documents, a compendium of national curriculum models of solar training, education and workforce development curriculum from The Interstate Renewable Energy Council, Inc. (IREC), are available to help instructors enhance the quality of their existing solar education and training programs.

Biodiesel Workshop - 2010 (CTEP)

Presented at Louisiana State University on July 15, 2010, this presentation covers what biodiesel is, provides an overview of benefits, properties, feedstock & production, as well as quality specifications and industry standards, and information on vehicles, performance, retail and resources. The Clean Transportation Education Project (CTEP) was an initiative that delivered 36 workshops across the United States in 4 subject areas: Biodiesel, Ethanol, Natural Gas and Propane, Fuel Economy/Idle Reduction (Including Electric & Hybrid Vehicles). These resources have been reviewed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and are in the public domain for use by educators in this field.

Biodiesel/Ethanol Workshop - 2010 (CTEP)

Presented in Ann Arbor, Michigan on October 21, 2010, this presentation covers GHG regulations, combustion, the diesel engine, properties and characteristics of biodiesel, fuel quality, handling and use best practices, and renewable fuel standards. The Clean Transportation Education Project (CTEP) was an initiative that delivered 36 workshops across the United States in 4 subject areas: Biodiesel, Ethanol, Natural Gas and Propane, Fuel Economy/Idle Reduction (Including Electric & Hybrid Vehicles). These resources have been reviewed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and are in the public domain for use by educators in this field.

Book - Beyond Green Jobs: Building Lasting Opportunities in Energy Efficiency

California Construction Academy’s new book, Beyond Green Jobs describes how comprehensive, deep green energy efficiency can bring the best benefits to the environment and create good, long-term careers. It demystifies the construction industry, captures snapshots of innovative programs throughout the country, and provides a foundation to bring energy efficiency to scale.
- Available for Free Download

Book - Greening Our Built World: Costs, Benefits, and Strategies

This book reports the results of a large-scale study based on extensive financial and technical analyses of more than 150 green buildings in the U.S. and ten other countries. It provides detailed findings on the costs and financial benefits of building green.

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.

California Ethanol Symposium - 2011 (CTEP)

Presented at Rio Honda Community College in Whittier, California on January 14, 2011, this presentation covers regulations, technologies, infrastructure, safety, and incentives and standards. The Clean Transportation Education Project (CTEP) is an initiative that delivers 36 workshops across the United States in 4 subject areas: Biodiesel, Ethanol, Natural Gas and Propane, Fuel Economy/Idle Reduction (Including Electric & Hybrid Vehicles). These resources have been reviewed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and are in the public domain for use by educators in this field.

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.

Case Study - Freeport LNG Development LP

Read how Freeport LNG Development, L.P. has developed an innovative warming air tower process for re-gasification of LNG that reduces nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions, saves fuel costs, increases natural gas throughput to the market, and does not impact marine environment.

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