The Biggest and Best Job Ever

So far as my career choices go, the third time is a charm.

I left IBM in 2008 feeling as if I had fought long enough in the world of information technology. For most of my 25 years there I developed and sold products tailored for use in very specific industry settings, products that were often on the leading, bleeding edge of electronics manufacturing, digital medical imaging, life sciences R&D, paper-making, and so on. Not only were we faced with competition from smaller, more nimble innovators, we often struggled to convince skeptical customers of the product's value based on a very limited history of practical use.

It was a privilege to work at IBM, and I learned just how hard it is to translate the tremendous potential of technological innovation into sustainable businesses.

In 2009 I joined the renewable energy industry, seeing how solar energy seemed poised to take off in Georgia. I loved working in this field and the sense of satisfaction I got knowing how this work will inevitably become an important part of Georgia's energy future.

Fueled by a wave of Federal stimulus funds, solar did take off. At Empower Energy Technology we completed three really excellent commercial projects in 2010. But without further action by Georgia regulators and legislators to create a level playing field for us renewable energy upstarts, the future of solar energy currently lies in the powerful hands of Georgia Power and the state's electric membership cooperatives.

I am thus starting a new career in transportation advocacy with the Georgia Clean Air Campaign. They want me to develop relationships with executives at private and public organizations who employ 100 or more people and to convince them to provide their employees with options for doing their work other than through the solitary daily commute in an automobile.

I'll be speaking the language of alternative commuting, such as employee teleworking, compressed work weeks, commuter shuttles, car pooling, mass transit, and (my favorite) transportation under one's own power. My new boss was worried that this wouldn't interest me as I have been immersed in all the technology of my past 27 years.

What alternative commuting may lack in glitz is more than compensated by its results. Already enough workers in metropolitan Atlanta telework in one week to eliminate an amount of traffic equivalent to what passes through Atlanta's bloated Downtown Connector in one day. And that only represents a small percentage of all the Atlanta workers who can potentially telework.

Talk about making an impact!

Besides, the case for commute options practically sells itself, transcending much of what culturally and politically divides us on other important issues. Who can argue with cleaner air, less traffic congestion, saving money and happier employees through the use of methods that have a long history of success?

Georgia workers need year-round alternatives to the solitary commute by automobile as urgently as they need air conditioning in August. This will become reality through more education and gradually changing people's perception of what constitutes "normal" commuting behavior.

Let me tell you how!