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On the eve of high-level policy discussions about the federal role in job creation, university technology transfer, and regional clusters, the Association of University Research Parks (AURP) releases "The Power of Place 2.0: The Power of Innovation--10 Steps for Creating Jobs, Improving Technology Commercialization, and Building Communities of Innovation". 

Innovation assets for creating jobs

"The Power of Innovation," an update to "The Power of Place: A National Strategy for Building America's Communities of Innovation," outlines the role the federal government can take using research parks and other innovation assets for creating jobs and remaining a front-runner in the global technology competition.

"In 'The Power of Place,' AURP demonstrated how geography and connected communities play a large role in innovation," said Brian Darmody, AURP President. "In 'The Power of Innovation,' we offer ten steps, from policy changes to selected investments, that Congress and the President can take quickly to leverage existing federal assets to create jobs, technology companies and communities of innovation, without creating new bureaucracies."

AURP releases "The Power of Innovation" shortly after the Senate Commerce Committee passed Senate Bill 583: Building A Stronger America Act, sponsored by Senator Mark Pryor. The bill will now be considered by the full Senate. Its companion bill, H.R. 4413: The SPRINT Act, has been referred to the House Committee on Science and Technology.

"Science parks provide a launch pad for economic activity in a community. They have a strong record of fostering talent, high tech innovation and job growth. Providing seed funding to create or expand these parks is a necessary investment for our economy as well as our global competitiveness," said Senator Mark Pryor.

The key to moving forward? According to Darmody, connectivity and flexibility in the federal government's investment in research spending, infrastructure support and other programs.

"The federal government, invests billions of dollars a year in research and development at universities and federal labs, and technology led economic development programs. We need better alignment among research universities, university research parks, technology incubators, sponsored program offices, and technology-transfer officials to meet better our nation's global technology competition," said Darmody.

About AURP: The Association of University Research Parks is a professional association of university related research and science parks. AURP's mission is to foster innovation, commercialization and economic growth through university, industry and government partnerships. For more information, visit AURP's Web site at www.aurp.net or contact Chelsea Simpson at chelseasimpson@aurp.net.

LEED certification and standards have taken the building design and building fields by storm. While not a perfect system by a long shot, LEED is the leading system that is used by government construction, large corporate construction and even a growing number of residential developers. 

As electricians become "energy contractors" who balance upfits of electrical systems with new renewable energy loads, additional training and duties apply.

Here are some of the LEED standards that point to the role of electricians and energy contractors in the green building sector.  ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standards are growing in importance for electricians and energy contractors.

Title	Credit	Requirements
Alternative Transportation -- Low-emitting and Fuel-efficient	Sustainable Sites (SS) Credit 4.3	Install alternative-fuel fueling stations (e.g. stations for charging electric cars) for 3% of the total vehicle parking capacity of the site.
Light Pollution Reduction	Sustainable Sites (SS) Credit 8	Internal lighting - Reduce input power (by automatic device) of interior lights by at least 50% between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Electrician will select and install fixtures and controls to meet requirements. External lighting - Light areas only as required for safety and comfort. Lighting power densities must not exceed ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007 and must meet lighting control requirements from ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007. Electrician will perform photometric analysis to validate compliance of credit requirements.
Optimize Energy Performance	Energy & Atmosphere (EA) Credit 1	Demonstrate a percentage improvement in the proposed building performance rating compared with baseline building performance rating. The higher the building energy efficiency level, the more LEED points are awarded. Electrician will work with utility company to assess energy performance and identify most cost-effective energy efficiency measures.
On-site Renewable Energy	Energy & Atmosphere (EA) Credit 2	Install and use on-site renewable energy systems (solar, wind, etc) to offset building energy costs.
Green Power	Energy & Atmosphere (EA) Credit 6	Engage in at least a 2-year renewable energy contract to provide at least 35% of the building's electricity from renewable sources (wind, solar, wave, geothermal, or biomass). Calculation of two-year expected energy use is required, along with kWH cost of the green power from the serving electric utility. Electrician should provide projected monthly cost required to obtain this point.
Controllability of Systems--lighting	Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) Credit 6.1	Provide individual lighting controls for 90% (minimum) of the building occupants to enable adjustments to suit individual task needs and preferences. Provide lighting system controls for all shared multi-occupant spaces to enable adjustments that meet group needs and preferences.

Electricians Must Prepare for Tightening Standards
With so many green building and renewable energy opportunities on the horizon, electrical and energy contractors need to make sure they're ready to win jobs. To get started, they must gain the skills and knowledge to take on green projects. Both the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) offer education programs for green electrical work. And standards organizations such as ANSI, ASHRAE, IESNA  also offer informtion and training opportunities.

Global Sustainability

As the global conversation on sustainability heats up, this quarter's survey examined what steps companies are taking to become more environmentally responsible, and why they may be taking them.

• The most frequent "green" action among respondents' companies is reducing energy consumption in company facilities (48%).
  
• This was followed by reducing waste in production and packaging (30%) and promoting incentives and initiatives encouraging customers to be "greener" (21%).
  
• Least popular initiatives were reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from factories and plants (6%),
  
• Supporting legislation on environmental issues (7%)

Spur Innovation, Yes.  Regulate Abuses ... no.

While few are actively supporting legislation on environmental issues, sentiment toward governmental regulation of environmental responsibility is split among CFOs. Though nearly half (49%) believe regulation a bad response, more than one-third (37%) support government incentives to spur innovation, 14 percent support limits on emissions, and 9 percent support cap and trade and other financial incentives.

28% of Companies are Doing NOTHING

Perhaps disappointingly, 28 percent of CFOs indicated that their companies are not taking any actions to make their companies more sustainable. With regard to those companies who are taking actions, the survey revealed a number of motivators.

Cost Efficiencies Main Driver

More than one-third cited cost efficiencies as the main driver, 31 percent refer to personal priorities of their leadership as the cause, 29 percent say enhancement of public perception is the reason, and 24 percent point to a desire to emerge as a committed leader in the industry.

Additional Findings:

Other topics examined in this quarter's survey included International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), CFOs' perceptions of Barack Obama's presidency nearly one year after his inauguration, and the impact of the SEC's enhanced disclosures on risk, compensation and corporate governance in annual reports. With regard to IFRS, an overwhelming majority of CFOs (80%) are confident that IFRS will be adopted, but do not know when. CFOs' perceptions of President Obama remain low, with 64 percent reporting their U.S. economic outlook has weakened since he took office.

Full survey results and historical data comparisons are available at www.cfosurveys.com or from Nicole Madison at Nicole.Madison@fd.com. The study is also available online at the Financial Executives Research Foundation bookstore and on the Baruch College home page at www.baruch.cuny.edu.

CFOs looking toward 2010 anticipate positive increases in a number of areas. Key areas of expected increases include:

• Net earnings expected to rise by 22 percent (more than double anticipated Q3 mean increase of 11%)
• Revenue anticipated to grow by 10 percent
• Capital spending expected to grow by 8.9% (compared with an increase of 1.1% in Q3)
• Technology spending anticipated to increase by 6.1 percent
• Inventory anticipated to increase by 2.5 percent (compared with Q3, where CFOs predicted reductions of -1.9%)
• Hiring expected to grow by 2.9 percent (up from 1.7% in Q3)
• Price of products expected to grow by 1.13 percent (up from the Q3 projected increase of 0.7%)

When CFOs were asked this quarter to identify areas for increases in 2010, marketing and advertising and business acquisitions were also top of mind, with 39 percent of CFOs planning to increase marketing and advertising and 33 percent of CFOs planning increases in business acquisitions. In addition, while 37 percent of CFOs reported they will cutback on executive perks, a small number of respondents remain (4%) who plan to increase executive perks in the coming year.

Efficiency is the New Norm

"The return to a place where CFOs are anticipating increased earnings and revenue provides encouragement that those companies that have endured the downturn are ready to come back strong," said Marie Hollein, CEO and President, Financial Executives International. "As far as the new normal is concerned, efficiency is the name of the game."

When asked what their organizations would continue to do as they begin to emerge from the recession, nearly nine out of ten CFOs reported that they would continue process efficiencies put into place during the downturn.

Two-thirds (66%) said they will continue technological efficiencies, and one-third (34%) plan to continue the restructuring of their business.

CFOs Taking Steps to Be "Greener" but Debate Continues Over Regulation

As the global conversation on sustainability heats up, this quarter's survey examined what steps companies are taking to become more environmentally responsible, and why they may be taking them.

The most frequent "green" action among respondents' companies is

• reducing energy consumption in company facilities (48%).
  

This was followed by

• reducing waste in production and packaging (30%)
  

promoting incentives and initiatives encouraging customers to be "greener" (21%).

Least popular initiatives were reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from factories and plants (6%), and supporting legislation on environmental issues (7%).

Support of Environmental Legislation is Split

While few are actively supporting legislation on environmental issues, sentiment toward governmental regulation of environmental responsibility is split among CFOs.

49% believe regulation a bad response,

37% support government incentives to spur innovation,

14 percent support limits on emissions,

9 percent support cap and trade and other financial incentives.

Perhaps disappointingly, 28 percent of CFOs indicated that their companies are not taking any actions to make their companies more sustainable. With regard to those companies who are taking actions, the survey revealed a number of motivators. More than one-third cited cost efficiencies as the main driver, 31 percent refer to personal priorities of their leadership as the cause, 29 percent say enhancement of public perception is the reason, and 24 percent point to a desire to emerge as a committed leader in the industry.

Violence isn't green, isn't sustainbale... and certainly not part of a sustainable community.  But dealing with the potential for violence is a sustainability issue.

"... an Army psychiatrist apparently went on a shooting rampage that left 13 dead and 27 wounded at the Fort Hood army post where he worked.

" An engineer who was dismissed for poor performance two years ago allegedly returned to his former workplace in  Florida and shot and killed one person while wounding five others."

Policies and procedures that ignore anxiety producing workplace issues aren't "best practices" for an organization.

Take a look at your HR policies and procedures and look for abusive loopholes that allow ineffective or corrupt activities to fester or thrive. 

What's NOT there can be an even greater impact than what's THERE.

• Are there ways to report abusive behaviors?
• Are there methods to negotiate conflicts?
• Is training available for non-violent conflict resolution?
• Is there a way to identify and handle employees or customers with mental health problems?
• How is a healthy, sustainable organization visualized for your organization?  Is that ideal spread through the entire group, and encouraged and rewarded when progress is made?

Policies that prevent violence get down to the basic question, "Do you care about your people and their real world problems and needs?"

If you do, you will take the time to find preventive solutions that foster good workplace relationships.  If you don't ... well, you don't belong in a free enterprise environment.  Good citizenship starts with caring about your fellowman...and your community.  Business is about more than money ... it's about being a valued member of productivity that fosters LIFE.

Commenting on the Yale University case, Richard Denenberg, author of the book The Violence-Prone Workplace, said in an interview with Workforce Management that "each workplace should have an intervention system and a system to report untoward incidence or chronic conflict so a conflict can be interdicted."

The USA needs more local job training shops stocked with machine tools.

Some high schools and community colleges currently have woodworking and auto mechanic shops that are open for continuing adult education, as well as student vocational education.

But product fabrication facilities is a new idea that is making progress.  High tech approaches to sensors, controllers, photovoltaics, LED lighting, etc. could spur advancement of innovation, as well as prepare the workforce for these cutting edge jobs.

CNC equipment like mills and lathes and a variety of other advanced tools and processes including biotech systems are needed to prepare people for the current revolution in manufacturing.

These shops might be seen as public extensions of local schools, essentially turning the shops of public schools into a public library of tools.

A few variations on this concept have been developed
Men's Shed,  http://www.mensshed.org/
FabLab,   http://fab.cba.mit.edu/
TechShop,  http://techshop.ws/
100KGarages,  http://100kgarages.com/

And books like David Morris' "Neighborhood Power: The New Localism" propose similar approached to distributed technical education.

A related article is "The Case for Working With Your Hands":
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html

Note from the Australian Men's Shed Association:  "Communities are keen to provide activities, identity and meaning for vast numbers of older, unemployed, job-redundant, 'downsized', isolated, depressed and happily retired, active, creative, enthusiastic men. Men's Sheds are fast being recognized as vital, viable places to fulfill these needs and provide relaxed, happy creative spaces for men to enjoy."

How can we strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness by making government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative?

Participate!

Open Government Dialogue is a website by the National Academy of Public Administration that opens idea contribution to the public.  Read...and share your ideas at: http://opengov.ideascale.com/

Categories include Transparency, Participation, Collaboration, Capacity Building, and Legal & Policy Challenges.

On January 21st, the President issued the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, calling for an unprecedented level of openness in government. In the memorandum, the President outlined three principles for promoting a transparent and open government: transparency, participation, and collaboration. Now, the President is calling on you to help shape how that commitment is fulfilled. This online brainstorming session, open from May 21st to 28th, 2009, will enable the White House to hear your most important ideas relating to open government.

This platform allows you to submit ideas, discuss and refine others' ideas, and vote the best ones to the top. We are seeking innovative approaches to policy, specific project suggestions, government-wide or agency-specific instructions, and any relevant examples and stories relating to law, policy, technology, culture, or practice. The National Academy of Public Administration, a Congressionally chartered, non-profit, non-partisan institution, is hosting this brainstorming session on behalf of the White House.

 

This new report by the National Academies is broad, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary to see how the rapidly developing tehcnologies and masses of data can be merged to address the four key challenges ahead of us:

• Climate
• Food
• Energy
• Health

  What's different is the scale of the challenges and problems facing us, as well as the collaboration in a multi-faceted world. The report is also downloadable for free.

  PDF Summary
  Download executive summary in PDF.
  
  Report In Brief
  Download report in brief in PDF.
  
  Full Text
  Jump to this book's table of contents to begin reading online for free.
  
  

Sustainable homes are about making a living with your work...at home.  I grew up on a similar kind of home.  We farmed 20 acres and supported an extended family of grandparent(s), parents and six children. 

This story touches me deeply because it is about a treasure so fleeting and so powerful... and it is coming back into style after a very long hiatus.

Women always played important roles on the family farm. They kept the books, milked the cows and fed the children, often juggling another part-time job while the men worked the fields. Sometimes, they ran the farm after their husbands or fathers died.

But increasingly, women such as Stinar are turning to farming on their own. According to the 2007 U.S. Census of Agriculture released this year, more than one in every 10 U.S. farms is run by a woman. In Maryland, the number of farms in which a woman is the principal operator jumped 16 percent between 2002 and 2007. In Virginia, female-run farms also grew by 16 percent. (Source: Washington Post)

A growing number of female-focused farming organizations have popped up in Vermont, Connecticut and Maine. In Pennsylvania, membership in the Women's Agricultural Network, which is affiliated with Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, grew from 100 members in 2005 to 1,000 in 2008.

While men tend to run larger farms focused on such commodity crops as soybeans and wheat, women tend to run smaller, more specialized enterprises selling heirloom tomatoes and grass-fed beef to well-heeled, eco-conscious consumers. These smaller enterprises have gotten a boost from the popularity of farmers markets and programs in which people pay in advance to receive weekly produce baskets, as well as renewed consumer interest in buying locally.

Programs designed for small farms and urban farms include programs such as The Farm to Plate (F2P) Initiative.  They  direct the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, working in collaboration with the Sustainable Agriculture Council and other stakeholder groups, to develop a 10-year strategic plan to strengthen Vermont's farm and food sector.

Here are a few of the women's agriculture resources scattered across the US:

California farming organizations for women include:
California Women for Agriculture
www.cawomen4ag.com/

California Women for Agriculture Salinas Valley
Serving Monterey County regarding agricultural issues in the state and county, and helping with agriculture education and scholarships.
www.salinascwa.org/

Women on U.S. Farms Research Initiative
http://agwomen.aers.psu.edu
These vivid maps and reports make it easier to interpret the ways that American women are involved in farming.

Women and Sustainable Agriculture: Interviews with 14 Agents of Change
By Anna Anderson, 2004, McFarland Publishers
Farmers, researchers, and farm advocates--all the women in this book have dedicated their lives to improving the American food system.

Herstory: Women in Organic Agriculture
Summer 2002 CCOF Newsletter of California's certified organic farmers
www.ccof.org/archives.php

Changing the Way America Farms: Knowledge and Community in the Sustainable Agriculture Movement
By Neva Hassanein, 1999, University of Nebraska Press
Focusing on Wisconsin, this book explores the function and importance of social networks in the sustainable agriculture movement.

MaryJanes Farm
100 Wild Iris Lane, Moscow, ID 83843
888-750-6004;
www.maryjanesfarm.org
Talk about enterprising: here's a stylish magazine that combines home, garden, and farm tips with a catalog of organic farm products.

Women in Winegrowing Calendar
811 Jefferson Street, Napa, CA 94559
707-944-8311, www.napagrowers.org
The Napa Valley Grapegrowers have created a calendar that features 21 community and sustainable farming leaders.

Vermont Women's Agricultural Network
617 Comstock Road, Suite 5
Berlin, VT 05602
802-223-2389
www.uvm.edu/wagn

Maine Women's Agricultural Network
University of Maine Co-op Extension
24 Main Street
Lisbon Falls, Maine 04252
207-353-5550 or 1-800-287-1458
www.umaine.edu/umext/wagn

Pennsylvania Women's Agricultural Network
Pennsylvania State University
302 Armsby Building
University Park, PA 16802
http://wagn.cas.psu.edu

North Carolina State University has been in the forefront of sustainable agriculture at U.S. colleges.
Nancy Creamer, PhD, is director of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS), a 2,000-acre farm near Goldsboro. The research farm is a joint project of NCSU, NC, A&T University, the NC Department of Agriculture, the NC Farm Stewardship Association, and other organizations, farmers, and citizens.

Kristin Reynolds is a research assistant at the University of California Small Farm Center and one of the writers of Outstanding in Their Fields: California's Women Farmers

ATTRA is funded through the USDA Rural Business-Cooperative Service and is a project of the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT),