Understand Nature to Grow Green Jobs

David Schejbal, a dean at the University of Wisconsin Extension, argues that we need to think more broadly about what it means to be green, and gather a better understanding about how to integrate environmentally conscious thinking into our daily processes.

"Understanding the intersections of the systems at work - natural systems, social systems and business systems - is critical to every aspect of how we live and work. For instance, if we recognize and understand that the Earth is a closed system, then we must look at manufacturing very differently; we must look at the making of stuff (whatever it might be) as a loop, not as a line.

...Green economy skills - or, more appropriately, the green economy literacy - must include this 'systems understanding' of the world in which we live. As we grapple with the consequences of our past consumptive practices and try to adjust our future practices to be less destructive of our children's futures, we have to understand how the world - in the fullest meaning of that term - works."