Ideas for Clean Energy Volunteers and Interns

I’ve already received several dozen wonderful responses to my request for volunteers and interns; it certainly is gratifying to see the level of enthusiasm that so many of you have for this fascinating and vitally important subject. I thought I’d take a minute or two and jot down some thoughts about some specific ideas for projects that I’d love to get done, to initiate a conversation on exactly what some of you may want to do.

Writing.  If you enjoy writing, I’m sure our readers would appreciate articles on any of the many facets of clean energy, electric transportation, and sustainability more generally. The sum of topics within the technology, the economics, and the politics – here in the U.S. – or anywhere around the world – is limitless.  I’d be happy to make suggestions and offer hints if you need them.  

Research.  We’re constantly developing content that would benefit from a deeper and richer gathering of the facts. If you’re good with Google (or any other research tool), we’d love to have your help in unearthing key data points to be folded into our evolving stream of articles, reports, white papers, infographics, etc.  Again, I’ll work with you to focus this on areas of particular importance.  

Helping to Establish “Corporate Role Models.”  2012 will see us rolling out a blog called “Corporate Role Models,” based on interviews with senior executives in the Fortune 500 with respect to their organizations’ sustainability programs. I need someone – or a team of someones – to reach out to top levels of U.S. commerce and set up telephone-based interviews — then, perhaps, write up the highlights.  This is a great opportunity to make contacts in industry, and learn about the workings of hundreds of different large enterprises.

In addition to these three main ideas, I’m sure we’ll come across others in the course of the year.

I hope you’ll let me know if any of this seems exciting to you. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.