When the world burns, the need for sustainability has to be emphasised in all discussions: from household utilities like a toothbrush to huge projects like buildings. In a conversation with April Ambrose, a sustainability enthusiast focusing on ‘green jobs,’ we come to know about the progress the stakeholders are doing to keep this planet and its dwellers safe.
Early life in a sustainable home
April’s journey is quite unique, she says, “I was born and raised in Arkansas by hippy back-to-the-landers who moved to the state for cheap land, to escape systems that no longer functioned well, and to create new types of innovative communities. So this apple didn’t just fall far from the tree, it hit the trunk a few times on the way down!” Raised in a home her father built where water was collected from the roof into a cistern, attic fan and wood stove for comfort, composting toilets, a large organic garden, and a saw mill on site to build furniture, she was appalled to learn that most people don’t know where their water, energy, or food come from. “Accordingly,” she states, “I designed my own major in Environmental Education at Hendrix College complete with a high-school teaching certificate. After graduation, I worked for my family’s health food store and then a medical doctor to help people understand the relationship between people and their environment, i.e. you can’t have a healthy person in an unhealthy environment. I founded Arkansas Earth Day Foundation, did climate change policy with (what is now) PEW Environment, graduated LeadAR and Leadership Greater Little Rock programs among others.”
April has spent the last 15 years growing Entegrity from two to 130 employees by initiating sustainability certification services, founding their Memphis office, delivering over 500 educational presentations, and selling millions of dollars of green building services. During this growth, she felt the challenges associated with finding, training, and retaining a skilled and diverse staff in this emerging industry of green buildings. “In my previous role, I had started our DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiative. Through that, I was trying to find more diverse candidates for our many jobs to give a wide variety of viewpoints and strategies to our work. When I realised that those with existing skills were sparse and mostly only available in other parts of the country, we realised that we need to home-grow them in AR. In trying to be thoughtful and impactful with the time and energy we had to do so, we wanted to identify gaps that we could fill. So we hosted a state-wide conversation among over 100 stakeholders to understand the green jobs pipeline in the state. We quickly found that there was no contiguous pipeline, and support was needed from exposure all the way to continuing education,” she says.
Leaps in career
April took the next big step this January by taking up the role of Director of Workforce Development for the Arkansas Advanced Energy Foundation (AAEF) and started the Arkansas Advanced Energy Apprenticeship Program as a registered provider with the Department of Labor. They are developing apprenticeships based on employer needs in solar, EV, energy efficiency, sustainability, etc. “The AAEF is the education affiliate to our sister organisation the Arkansas Advanced Energy Association, promoting together greater public understanding of advanced energy in Arkansas through research, public education programs, and economic and workforce development. The Association advocates for long term regulations and policies that help enable the continued adoption of advanced energy technologies. The AAEF’s Workforce Development mission is to develop an equitable pipeline of clean economy career education and skill development,” she elaborates.
This is an unparalleled opportunity for the team to use proven techniques from other industries to shape their future. The responsibilities are diverse, and April works with a diverse people in multiple ways:
- Employers: Survey employers to understand the roles for which they have trouble hiring, training, or retaining. Understand the necessary skills, training, and career progressions for those roles.
- Educators: Work with the K-12, 2 and 4 year colleges, industry trade organizations, and other education and training institutions to offer training, degree, accreditation, and certification programs to support the development of workforce in this emerging industry. Develop speaker’s bureaus and tour opportunities for teachers and professors to help expose their students to our industry.
- Job-Seekers: Provide talent recruiting, career coaching, and apprenticeships for the talent in our state. Enable them to be get hired, receive skills training, and have family sustaining income to contribute to their communities.
- Government and community organizations: Partner to acquire grant and other funding to address challenges and develop a cohesive and contiguous career pipeline for this industry. Work together to knock down barriers like licensure, code, funding, or other issues.
About the challenges faced in this line of work, April talks about the presence of language barriers in the Southern US. “Sometimes sustainability is seen as a partisan construct, but it certainly doesn’t have to be. It can be about economics, jobs, and human health as well,” she states. Continuing, she acknowledges the problem of making people realise the impacts of sustainable actions, and says, “economics for green building projects in this area of the US can be difficult as utility costs are low, but humidity is high and there are extreme temperature differences throughout the year. This means that there is no silver bullet solution to every building.” However, the current state of green industries is quite good, as every sustainability challenge is coalescing with a similar solution. Companies are focusing on biodiversity, indoor air quality and human health as well as energy production. “Historically, buildings have had automation controls that address lights and HVAC. However, now Building Management Controls may include on/off-site solar production, energy usage from the utility grid, and electric vehicle charging. We are positioning buildings to be income-producing assets, where electric school buses can charge off solar installed on the school roof. However, when energy costs are the highest, the bus batteries feed energy back to the grid to gain income. This is a level of interconnection we’ve never seen before at the level of the energy user,” April informs.
Leading as a LEED fellow
The perspective of the youth is also shifting, as they can now get hired first, and then get trained while they are gaining real job experience and getting paid as part of AAEF. Education institutions are learning to adapt in their delivery methods, emerging topics, and connection to employers. The Employers are learning to work together to standardise the career progressions, skills needs, align accreditations, etc. April is at the centre of this change providing industry coordination that no other government, business, or education institution is charged with directly or capable of handling alone. Sustainability is based on the “stable base of People, Planet, and Profit.” She urges newbies in the field to utilise this triple-bottom line focus to help make balanced decisions for their company and for their clients/customers to result in sustainability and resilience. Additionally, she says, “I encourage you to understand the values of your clients and customers to address sustainability from their unique perspective. Taking action on sustainability for marketing only, will not last, but integrating these actions with a focus on their vision and values will ensure success of the project and organisation.”
In addition to so many of her good work, April Ambrose is a proud LEED fellow, and her journey has been enthralling. She expresses immense pleasure in telling us, “If I knew how much work it would be to apply for this, I’m not sure I would have done pursued the paperwork! Ha! Becoming a LEED Fellow is an extraordinary industry achievement. LEED credential holders are a very small percentage of the design, construction, and maintenance professionals, but of those credentialed, only 0.1% are LEED Fellows.” It took her determination and a lot of time, as this accreditation is for those who have made significant impact over at least 10 years and their application is peer-reviewed, highly competitive, and requires statements from many other peers in the industry. “I led or participated in the certification of over 200 LEED building projects, provided over 500 educational presentations about green buildings and sustainability, became a local expert in the integration of a variety of green building strategies to meet the vision of the stakeholders, all while learning and mentoring within the industry as well. I’ve likened it to driving the car while navigating and changing the oil at the same time,” she says with a smile. April continues to work for furthering the future of green jobs and young minds that would contribute to the goal of a truly sustainable lifestyle.
Also read SeaH4: Sustainable Fuel From Algae
