Jobs in the clean technology industry are growing twice as fast as the national average. So that's where the jobs are. Walletpop spoke with Ron Pernick, co-founder of West Coast-based Clean Edge and the author of The Clean Tech Revolution, to find out what these jobs are, how to land one, and, most importantly, how much they pay.

Here are some highlights from Clean Edge's recent report, Clean Tech Job Trends 2009, which I highly recommend you read if you want to know if this industry is for you. There are lots of resources for clean tech job trainings, education and job search engines, after the jump.

According to the report, jobs vary from accountant -- there's one we've heard before -- to wind turbine technician. From the report, here's a sample of jobs and their salaries:

• Hardware Design Engineer, Smart Grid $87,700 Mid-Level; requires Engineering Bachelor's
• Welder, Cutter, Solderer, or Brazer, Wind Power; salary: $50,300 Mid-Level; requires: High School/Associate's Degree
• Wind Turbine Technician, Wind Power; salary: $52,600 Entry-Level; requires: Bachelor's Degree
• Construction Superintendent, Wind Power; salary: $74,000 Senior-Level; requires: Bachelor's Degree
• Field Service Engineer, Wind Power; salary: $62,400 Mid-Level; requires: Engineering Bachelor's Degree

But can these jobs be outsourced?

This year, you got paid for tossing out the clunker car. Next year, you'll be rewarded for getting rid of the energy-inefficient washer or fridge. Many states will be sponsoring a "Cash for Appliances" program, similar to "Cash for Clunkers" in that you'll be paid for doing a big spring cleaning of your old appliances and buying those labeled with the Energy Star seal.

This is part of the federal government's economic stimulus plan -- it set aside $300 million in rebates for buying energy-efficient products, and state governments had to send detailed plans to Washington by earlier this month to explain how they would give that money away. So unlike Cash for Clunkers, each state is in charge of its own Cash for Appliances program.

California, for example, will focus on rebates for just three standard appliances. It will give $100 for the purchase of an Energy Star-approved clothes washer, $75 for a refrigerator and $50 for a room air-conditioner. Those rebates are in addition to any additional rebates offered by the state utility company supplying your electricity and the appliance manufacturer you buy from. The program is supposed to start in early spring.

My neighborhood is full of people who drive Priuses to haul their Labrador Retrievers to the park for a run. According to two New Zealand researchers, the beloved pet they are hauling has twice the carbon footprint of a Toyota Land Cruiser. The three cats at home? Each of them mucks up the environment about as much as a compact car. The conclusion the two drew is clear in the title of their new book, Time To Eat the Dog.

As reported in the New Scientist, the researchers, Robert and Brenda Vale of Victoria University of Wellington, based their conclusions on the ecological impact of the food pets consume. To grow the meat and grain needed for a dog's diet leaves a carbon footprint of 2.7 acres. A large dog, they estimated, gobbles up around a pound of meat a day and well as over half a pound of grain.

This is the first in a series of columns on how to help your family live greener -- and cheaper in the bargain. Check back each week for a new topic.

Is it possible to live more lightly on the Earth after starting a family? Yes it is. Is it easy to go greener with kids? Well... let's just call it inconvenient.

Living greener, trying to leave a smaller footprint, comes into ever-sharper focus when you start your family. How many children will you have? What will they wear, play with, sleep on, eat? What will you teach them? How will you ensure that, when we further our species, we're not also hastening the destruction of our ecosystem?

Big questions, and worthy of making an effort. That's why I came up with a 12-step plan to live greener and cheaper ... along with my family of three small boys and an occasionally-reluctant husband.

Let's take a look at the first step. It's a biggie. And with kids, it also takes some determined effort: Reduce your trash.

If you've ever recycled a computer in Canada, you may have a small claim to fame at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.


It's the ultimate in recycling -- saving money while making something beautiful out of trash.

If we can't count on the government to keep us safe from the the Madoffs, coal ash spills that swallow up entire houses, arsenic in our tap water, or E. coli in our hamburger meat, then it's nice to have American D.I.Y.-ness to hold big business accountable.

Meet The Yes Men, two wacky guys who pose as regular corporate executives and say in public the things they wish corporations would. They do this by setting up websites cloned to look like the multinational corporations they want to prank, then wait to get invited to big industry conferences. When the invitations roll in, and they do, it's gloves off.

Their recent acts of hilarity include posing as Exxon Mobil execs and giving a morbid keynote speech on climate change to 300 oilmen at Canada's largest fuel conference. They also stopped by the Wharton School of Business as representatives of the World Trade Organization to tout new exploitation strategies for Africa.

"You learn the difference between right and wrong when you're very young, and somehow most of us forget it when we go out to work. Because we've set up a system where corporations are rewarded for bad behavior as long as they're making a profit," says Mike Bonanno, one half of the key duo of The Yes Men's operation.

Now their exploits have been captured in a movie, "The Yes Men Fix the World," which shows their activist sword-wielding. It is now hitting the road--you can look for a screening near you here.

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The U.S. needs to join the world community and take action on climate change. As Wallet Poppers, you can help make that happen by getting involved in a number of excellent programs to get the word out, and also by investigating ways to lesson your own impact on our planet's climate.

We need to limit worldwide greenhouse gases and build a clean energy economy so we can find a sustainable solution to our global climate crisis. Leaders will meet in Copenhagen this December to negotiate a global response to climate change. The U.S. is the world leader in greenhouse gas pollution as well as clean energy technology. So it is time for the United States to implement comprehensive clean energy policies to curb emissions.

You can easily take the first step by signing a petition and inviting your friends to sign a petition at tcktcktck to ask world leaders to hammer out a global climate treaty in Copenhagen. You can take similar action at Vote Earth. We have less than a hundred days left to get the word out that it's time for world leaders to take bold and ambitious action and work out a fair agreement on climate action in December 2009.

Can green consumers be trusted? Maybe not.

A new study to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science has found that just being around green products can make consumers behave more altruistically. But buying those same products can have the opposite effect.

Researchers found that while consumers who were simply exposed to green products tended to act more altruistically, consumers who actually purchased green products were more likely to "cheat and steal" than those who purchased conventional products.

The research found buying products that claim to be made with low environmental impact can set up "moral credentials" in people's minds that give license to selfish or questionable behavior.

"This was not done to point the finger at consumers who buy green products. The message is bigger," says Nina Mazar, a marketing professor at University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and a self-admitted green consumer. "At the end of the day, if we do one moral thing, it doesn't necessarily mean we will be morally better in other things as well."

Because purchasing green products affirms individuals' values of social responsibility and ethical consciousness, the study predicts that "purchasing green products will establish moral credentials, ironically licensing selfish and morally questionable behavior."

What's next, a burgeoning black market for compact florescent light bulbs and low flow toilets?

Tom Kraeutler is the AOL'S Home Improvement Editor and co-author of "My Home, My Money Pit: Your Guide to Every Home Improvement Adventure." He delivers green home improvement tips each week as host of The Money Pit, a nationally syndicated home improvement radio program. He has never been known to so much as steal an organic carrot.

While the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit is scheduled to expire next month, there are ways that everyone - not just first-time buyers -- can collect thousands of dollars in tax credits by installing or upgrading eco-friendly elements to their homes.

This Wall Street Journal article details several different types of credits available this year and next year for eco-upgrades. For starters, there's a federal credit of up to $1,500 available for switching to energy-efficient doors, windows, air-conditioning, insulation, water heaters and roofing. The credit is good for 30% of the purchase price, up to the $1,500 cap if spread between this year and next year. It's only good for your primary home, so if you have a vacation home you planned to trick out, that still has to come out of your own pocket. The Department of Energy has a webpage with more details about the credit program.

Another, larger credit program, also administered by the Department of Energy, lets homeowners deduct up to 30% of the cost of fuel cells, solar cells or solar water heaters, wind energy and geothermal energy generators. These credits have no cap and are in place until 2016. Also, all but the fuel-cell credit can be used for non-primary residences.

Two caveats to be aware of, the Journal article cautions: The items for which homeowners file for a credit can only be used inside a house, so implements to heat a pool or hot tub don't qualify. Also, keep in mind that some of these credits just let you count the cost of the new items, not their installation. The details of which items qualify for installation credits are available on the Energy Department's website. There are also variations to the rules if you're building a new house as opposed to upgrading an existing one.

To consumers who are overwhelmed by the possibilities, the Journal article offers a bit of sound advice: Start small. Upgrading windows and insulation is almost always a good investment, even without the added incentive of the tax credit. These two relatively quick fixes can even be tackled by a relatively handy amateur.

If the recession has you jobless, overextended, or just plain broke, selling old stuff on eBay can be a fantastic way to raise quick cash.

If you're willing to take it a step further, developing expertise in a specialized area -- e.g. books, old video games, dolls, etc. -- can develop into a fantastic supplementary source of income that doesn't depend on the viability of your employer. All you have to do is figure out what sells on eBay, and buy it for less money at flea markets, thrift shops, yard sales, and auctions.

But in order to make money, you have to buy stuff cheap. With yard sale and flea market season coming to an end in many regions, that pretty much leaves auctions as the primary source of merchandise. But which auction? Here's my advice: the crappiest, least organized one you can find.

Know the way to San Jose? You're not going to be able to follow a paper or plastic trail for much longer.

The city at the heart of Silicon Valley has become the latest in a string of large cities to ban retailers from giving out paper or plastic bags. Bags made of at least 40% recycled material could be used, but only for a small fee.

Nearby San Francisco banned plastic -- but not paper -- bags in 2007.

The city council passed the ordinance Tuesday night, and it won't take effect until 2011, pending legislative and environmental review. But the ban's passing no doubt will embolden other, "green-forward" cities to do the same.

Plastic bags, which have been criticized for taking up valuable space in landfills and killing marine life, are a nearly ubiquitous feature of American retailing. Slowly, that may be starting to change. In many European countries it's standard to bring your own bags to put your purchases in.

Besides the obvious benefits for the environment, perhaps if we had to find a bag for everything we bought, we wouldn't buy quite so much.

Is this a trend you'd like to see more of? Tell us in the poll below.

What does fashion have to do with climate change? When you have new "It: bags and shoes coming out every season, made with toxic dyes, often with leather, flown and driven to stores across the globe, it's safe to say fashion's carbon footprint is a size XXXL.

A growing number of eco-designers are trying to change all that, by using production processes that are gentler on the environment and all natural materials, such as hemp and cotton. (Watch the video below -- this is not your mother's hemp.) And their pioneering efforts are making an impact on the industry as a whole. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

On Tuesday night during New York's Spring 2010 Fashion Week, The Green Shows feted Tiffany & Co. for switching its iconic pale blue shopping bags to environmentally-certified recycled paper versus the rainforest-endangering variety from Indonesia, the largest producer of luxury shopping bags and the third largest contributor to climate change because of its rapid deforestation.

Tiffany & Co. C.E.O. Michael J. Kowalski said it was easy to make the switch, and that more designers need to follow suit -- it's simply an issue of awareness. "Industry has a leadership role to play that requires a social license to operate," says Kowalski. "We try to do what we can in our own sphere of influence." That includes addressing the issue with other members of Jewelers of America, as Kowalski plans to do.

We've ruined the word green by allowing green lipstick to be applied some of our worst ecology pigs. That's why I wonder at Good Housekeeping Magazine's decision to start giving out a Green Seal of Approval now. Will it mean anything? And according to Slate Magazine's Paul Smalera, based on past practice as revealed by the New York Times, the magazine will likely require any company receiving the seal to buy ads, which calls the objectivity of the award into question.

The magazine has hired Brown & Wilmanns Environmental, a California firm that consults on eco-business, to establish criteria for the program. However, these criteria have not been made public, although Rosemary Ellis, Editor-in-chief, wrote in the April issue that "We've spent more than a year developing standards and evaluation methodology, customizing criteria for products ranging from moisturizers to MP3 players."

The relationship between SIGG USA, manufacturer and marketer of hip, trendy aluminum water bottles -- the green alternative to plastic bottles -- and Patagonia, outdoor goods retailer and a company known for its environmental activism, seemed made in heaven.

The two companies sealed their love for one another and the earth by creating a co-branding and co-marketing agreement. The touchstone? An advertisement in Outside Magazine and Backpacker depicting Patagonia founder and owner Yvon Chouinard holding a SIGG bottle with a 1% for the Planet logo on it.

And then, oops. SIGG owned up to its long-held secret: the lining of its bottles was formulated with BPA, one of the plastic chemicals that parents and young consumers were spending big bucks to avoid in alternatives like Nalgene bottles.

I recently saw an incredible documentary about a Manhattan couple who lived "no impact" for a year. This means they did all they could to drastically reduce their carbon footprint, for a whole year.

The documentary, No Impact Man, which opens nationwide this Friday, and the book written by No Impact man himself, Colin Beavan, a historian, shows you easy and challenging ways to reduce your impact on the planet.

Check out Walletpop's interview with Colin and his wife, Michelle Conlin, a reporter for BusinessWeek, on how much money they saved using candles instead of electricity, cutting out their consumerism habits, and buying organic produce from local farms. Colin is now working to help others make sustainable choices in their hectic, modern lifestyles through his No Impact Project. (Can I say "no impact" anymore? Just watch the video to find out.)

If you've ever spent an entire paycheck in a single shopping trip, this video is for you!