Verdant Vocations: An Electrician?

Second in a series of posts about that third of our day spent beavering away at our chosen craft.

[Verdant: green, lush, richVocation: calling, life's work, mission, purpose, function; profession, occupation, career, job, employment, trade, business, line, line of work, métier.]

A Green Electrician might:1. drive a biodiesel vehicle2. encourage the use of smart power strips to avoid phantom loads3. be up-to-date on energy-efficient lighting, heating, air conditioning, etc.4. advise on pay-back periods (or alternative options) for appliances, which are efficient in the long term.6. be experienced at installing the likes of grid-connected photovoltaics and induction stoves7. be certified through a program like EcoSmart Electricians8. be up to speed with occupancy/motion sensors for lighting 9. know about emerging technology, ie, CFL variants, LED downlights, OLEDs, Cold Cathode FLs10. be able to refer customers to other eco tradepersons, likegreen plumbers

and11. in an ideal world also specify and only use Polyvinyl Chloride(PVC) free cabling

As with our previous Verdant Vocations post on Dentists, we went looking to see who might be be actually practising such traits. Strangely, not as many as we thought. But we did find some electricians in the USA, UK and New Zealand that had a leaning in the green direction.

And the National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA) of Australia hope to have approximately 4,000 electricians accredited under their aforementioned EcoSmart Electrician program by mid 2010.

But if finding a green electrician in your neighbourhood is presently a tough act, maybe you can enlighten (so to speak) your current one by sending them the links to our posts on: How To Green Your Electricity, How To Green Your Lighting, Green Basics-Compact Fluorescents.