Hi my name is Katie Loyd and I am a sophomore majoring in the ESP program. I just moved to Hopkins, MN two days ago! I travel and relocate often due to my husband’s career in the natural gas field. To give you a good idea, I lived in 19 different houses/apartments and 14 different states in the last two years! Although, my stomping grounds will always be a small town called Champion embedded in the Pennsylvania hills. As an ESP student, I am looking for career opportunities that focus heavily upon sustainability within the community within residential and commercial areas. Due to the fact that I travel a lot and have the chance to see how people within their community respond to their surroundings, I feel that I have gained a great deal of knowledge to what can make a sustainable community. Therefore, I am examining careers in sustainable housing development such as a project coordinator for commercial and residential areas. One of my dream jobs would be to design and construct a “green” community or even my own business that the residents or clients can come to and not only learn how they are contributing to saving our precious fossil fuels but renew the sense of significance that renewable resources have to offer. I have a lot of far-reaching idea’s that probably have too much hope in the clientele; nevertheless, that is why I decided to take this course. I hope to gain an understanding about what makes a business successful in a fossil fuel deprived and uninformed community! I hope that my ideas can become more of a plan and one day turn into reality. I have always thought that man-kind has meant to do good weather in economic or ethical terms. However, I feel that the people need a little push or tug in the right direction when it comes to ecological morals simply for the fact that they are not properly informed.

As you can see, I have some ideas but I’m nowhere near starting my own business; however, it seems that small local businesses could have significant impacts on the renewable energy industry. As I mentioned earlier, people need a push in the right direction for the energy industry is changing at a rapid pace. The local community needs to see what the benefits are with renewable resources before they can truly appreciate the transformation. I believe it can start as simple as solar panels on a local coffee shop with a monitoring screens to show the clientele how much electricity that company is saving. The residential and commercial areas could start with numerous small investments in the renewable resource sector to gain a wider, more distinguished sustainable community. Once the global commitment begins, it should only expand upon the next business or neighbor!