Posts Tagged ‘sustainability’

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Back to School: eLearning and Choosing Your Career Path

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

For the past few weeks, we have been sharing a series of articles related to the Back to School season.  We will be wrapping up our Back to School series today with an article about choosing a career path.  Although distance learning, or eLearning, has been around for many years, it is considered to be the most technologically advanced way to earn a degree or certification.  If you have chosen eLearning as your method of obtaining your education or training, chances are you are a forward thinking type of person who likes to keep up with the latest news and trends.  So this week we are going to discuss a few course offerings from Gatlin International that would lead you into a stable and cutting edge career.

Sustainability

One career area that has seen lots of growth in the past couple of years is Sustainability sector.  With the popularity of environmental responsibility for business leaders and consumers alike, it is no surprise that “Green Business” prospects would be on the rise.  Gatlin International offers several eLearning courses for students interested in the Sustainability sector.  One such course is Green Business and Sustainability Professional.  This is a course that will provide students with a working knowledge of green business principles, practices and opportunities.  The course will also provide the foundation needed to be able to integrate environmental sustainability so that it adds value to a company’s bottom line.  Another Sustainability course offered by Gatlin is Green IT – Information and Communications Technology for a Sustainable Future.  This course is designed to prepare working professionals and university-level students to be the sustainability leaders of the future by educating students on the basics of sustainability and technology.

Lean Business

Another very promising career area is what is referred to as “Lean Business” or simply “Lean”.  The Lean Business model almost goes hand-in-hand with sustainable business practices mentioned above in that the goal of a Lean business is to reduce waste and resource usage while maximizing customer benefits.  Courses on the topic of Lean Business offered by Gatlin International Include: Lean Mastery for Manufacturing – This Lean Mastery Online Training Program contains clear, concise information on transforming a business enterprise and making it Lean, Lean Mastery for Healthcare – This course explains the importance of Lean for Healthcare, how to implement it, and why it produces substantial benefits, and Lean Mastery for Administration (Office) – like the Lean Mastery for Healthcare course, this course also explains the importance of the Lean Office, how to implement it, and explains its benefits.  If you are interested in any of these courses, please visit our Sustainability category at http://gatlininternational.co.uk/catalogue/category/sustainability.

ACCA

The last career area we are going to talk about today is Accounting.  Often referred to as a “recession-proof” career, jobs in accounting are relatively abundant and stable.  If you are interested in the field of Accounting, Gatlin International offers a series of ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) courses that would be an excellent investment.  By completing this seventeen course series with Gatlin International, you will have all of the tools and knowledge necessary to earn ACCA membership.  For more information on these courses, visit the Business and Professional link in the Gatlin International course catalogue today.

Sustainability News: Bloom Energy’s “Bloom Boxes” for Alternative Energy

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

These days, companies and organizations all over the world are searching for ways to incorporate sustainable business practices into their operating models.  Efforts can be small scale, such as office recycling programs, or large scale such as zero waste initiatives.  One company in California, Bloom Energy, is offering an energy alternative that many of these green leaning companies may be looking for.

Bloom Energy has developed something called Energy Servers, also referred to as “Bloom Boxes.” The Energy Servers produce energy at the client site.  These Energy Servers can provide approximately 100 kilowatts of power, which is enough energy to serve about 100 average sized homes or one small officer building.  One amazing attribute of these Energy Servers is that they take up about as much room as a standard parking space.  If additional energy is needed, the client would just add more of these Energy Servers.

The Energy Servers function in a manner similar to power generator using Bloom Energy’s patented solid oxide fuel cell technology.  Below is a brief explanation of the technology and it’s benefits, taken from the Bloom Energy company website:

“Fuel cells are devices that convert fuel into electricity through a clean electro-chemical process rather than dirty combustion. They are like batteries except that they always run. Our particular type of fuel cell technology is different than legacy “hydrogen” fuel cells in four main ways:

1.     Low cost materials – our cells use a common sand-like powder instead of precious 
metals like platinum or corrosive materials like acids.

2.     High electrical efficiency – we can convert fuel into electricity at nearly twice the 
rate of some legacy technologies

3.     Fuel flexibility – our systems are capable of using either renewable or fossil fuels

4.     Reversible – our technology is capable of both energy generation and storage”

Many companies have already decided to give Bloom Energy a try.  Some of their customers include notable corporations such as The Coca Cola Company, Google, Wal-Mart, FedEx, and Adobe.  Most recently, AT&T has joined Bloom Energy’s list of clients when they decided to use Energy Servers at 11 of their locations in the state of California. If you would like to learn more about the technology behind Bloom Energy’s Energy Servers, you can go to their website for more in depth information.  Bloom Energy can be found online at www.bloomenergy.com

If you are a business professional who is looking to take the company you work for in a more environmentally responsible direction, you should look into Gatlin International’s Sustainable Business eLearning courses today.  Gatlin International offers several courses on the topic of Sustainable Business including Green Business and Sustainability Professional and Green IT – Information and Communication Technology for a Sustainable Future.  Both of these courses are well suited for any business professional wishing to take his or her company to the next level in Sustainable Business practices.  Visit Gatlin International’s website at www.gatlininternational.co.uk today for a complete listing of courses and to view course descriptions.

Sustainable Business News: Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town To Be Built Near Tokyo, Japan

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Last month, nine prominent companies announced that they would be working together on creating an environmentally responsible town called Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town (Fujisawa SST).  The companies involved in this collaboration are Panasonic Corporation, Accenture, Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd., Nihon Sekkei, Inc., ORIX Corporation, PanaHome Corporation, Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co., Ltd. and Tokyo Gas. Ltd.  This smart town will be built on the vacant lot of one of Panasonic’s factory sites and it located about 30 miles west of Tokyo, Japan.  The vision for this smart town is, “to build an innovative smart town deploying services and energy systems based on Panasonic’s Eco Ideas for green lifestyles,” according to the Panasonic Corporation’s May 26th press release.

Plans for the Fujisawa SST include, “an advanced model of a town demonstrating efficient use of energy by promoting widespread use of energy-saving devices and proposing new solutions that integrate measures for energy creation, storage and management. Specifically, the company plans to preinstall its solar power generation systems and home-use storage battery systems across the town, including homes, various facilities and public zones, which would be the first of its kind in the world.” If you are interested in the specific role of each of the nine companies involved in this collaboration, click on Panasonic Corporation’s press release link above for a detailed description of the project responsibilities for each company.

The homes in the Fujisawa SST will be designed to showcase Panasonic Corporation’s “entire solutions” business model by including various environmentally responsible features.  The planned features included solar powered systems and battery storage devices in each home, as well as several other features designed to save energy like energy efficient heat pumps and air conditioning units, and LED (Light Emitting Diode) lighting.  In the community at large, there are plans for wind power parks, public charging areas for shared electric vehicles, and a town layout that encourages walking to destinations.  Developers with Panasonic Corporation anticipate these eco-friendly features will assist the Fujisawa SST in producing approximately 70% fewer carbon emissions than comparable towns of the 1990’s.

The Fujisawa SST will have approximately 1,000 homes and provide living space for about 3,000 people.  The cost of this town is estimated to roughly $742 million.  Developers hope to open the new town around March of 2014.  The Fujisawa SST will hopefully be a successful smart town model in which Panasonic Corporation intends to reproduce in other parts of Japan as well as other countries.

If you are interested in working on a project like the Fujisawa SST, you could sharpen your Sustainable Business skills by taking an online course at Gatlin International.  Gatlin International offers several Sustainable Business courses including Green Business and Sustainability Professional, Green IT – Information and Communications Technology for a Sustainable Future, Principles of Green Buildings, and Solar Power Professional.  Head over to Gatlin International’s course catalog to read the detailed descriptions of these courses today.

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