(Earth-friendly) Bright lights, big city

Both Pink Slipped and In Good Company (Vault's CSR blog) have promoted the environmentally-minded job sector as one of the bright spots of the future, employment-wise. So all you budding experts and green enthusiasts should take our advice and head for the next great energy-efficient hub city. It's called Las Vegas.

Really? The possibly-most-gaudily-wasteful-place-on-the-planet Las Vegas? Well, it certainly has a ways to go, but the city did recently establish Green Chips (a non-profit "meant to channel investment into clean energy and energy efficiency") with the help of local business execs, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. It's only just taking baby steps; possible initial projects include "installing a solar power system at a local charity and building houses to a (LEED) energy efficiency standard." They're gonna need people versed in renewable energy (and whatever that entails) for all those forthcoming plans, right?

A Green Chips' board member cited some examples of Las Vegas' unheralded green-ness; one casino created a water-conserving laundry operation, another decreased its greenhouse gas output after joining an EPA program, and another used materials from a demolished casino in the construction of the local CityCenter complex. Though it'll be powered by grants and donations for now, Green Chips hopes to have a revolving loan account at its disposal to help fund new solar and wind-powered systems in the future.

And the ultimate challenge: those lights! The beacons of Las Vegas -- welcoming? or warning? -- don't run on reflected moonbeams just yet, and someone's gonna get rich on turning them green. It may as well be you.

--Posted by Todd Obolsky, Vault Staff Writer

Associated Press/Darrin Bush