GREEN BUSINESS VIEWS

It struck me that indoor air quality is a critical part of any Green home or building.  During a recent trip to examine a new home for my family, we looked into an REO (Real Estate Owned) that was price very attractively.  The house had been one of the infamous foreclosures, and had been vacant for over a year.  Frankly, the house was beautiful and seemed like a real possibility.  But, remember that I am super-concerned about an environmentally-safe home as well.

During the vacancy (maybe before), the house had a mold problem.  The bank had tried to get the problem solved by “Painting Over” the mold with a moldicide paint.  It did a good job of covering the mold, but whoever had taken this job was trying to fool everyone.  There are certain things that must be done to solve a mold problem, and they had forgotten the cardinal rule.  They did not identify and remove the source of the mold.  So, I knew that not only was this house “Toxic” and dangerous to my family, I knew that the mold would come back.  How many other homes have a mold problem?  The truth is sadly impressive.

This brings me to the point.  In all the discussions about Green jobs, there seems to be very few other ideas than solar panel installers.  Well, I have big news for everyone.  Mold remediation can be a Green job!  If you can take a toxic home and make it healthy again, then this is a basic Green concept.  This would be only a little different from the Detoxification services that are out there.  People are being paid to go in and remove or change out the toxic sources in buildings and homes. 

Mold is a toxic as seen on the EPA website.  However, getting rid of mold is not as easy as changing out your cleaning products.  This takes some skill, training, and construction experience.  Does the convergence of these ideas mean that we have discovered one of those elusive Green jobs that no one has discovered?

It occurs to me that there are a lot of construction people out of business.  Construction experience is crucial to mold remediation services.  Add some training to a skilled construction person, and the ability to transition to a new, Green career is pretty obvious.  Of course, every job like this needs a market that allows a person to make a good income.  Well, think about it!  The enormous volume of repossessed and vacant homes are a literal breeding ground for mold.

Anyone who is ready to take their skills to the next level will find that there are thousands of homes that are in need of mold inspection and remediation.  Banks have the money.  We game them billions in the folly of the stimulus package, so why not get some of your money back?  Banks cannot sell these toxic REO’s and there are a lot of people out there with the skills that can be reshaped to address this problem

I recommend the Certified Mold Technician course is the easy way to get the training.  This course is offered online, and the price is modest.  Frankly, this is one of those jobs that isn’t expensive if you already have some tools and skills.  Take the training and present yourself as the much-needed solution to a big, big problem in your community.  You may well have to call up the old crew to keep up with the work.

Tough times does mean that anyone needs to give up.  Sometimes the next opportunity is merely a matter of retooling your skills and finding a new opportunity that will propel you into the next successful phase of your life.  It seems entirely logical that some of the unemployed construction people in this country should be the perfect solution for a serious mold concern for all these vacant homes.

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