These top 10 guides to finding the perfect eco career can help you navigate through the sustainable waters of the environmental job market by providing information on employment trends, job descriptions, salaries and educational requirements for everything from forestry to green architecture to public policy to renewable energy. If you’re thinking about ways to make a living while making a difference at the same time, you’re sure to get something out of these excellent resources below.

1. The Complete Guide to Environmental Careers in the 21st Century
By The Environmental Careers Organization
Presents a thorough consideration of environmental trends for the 21st century and the likely impact of those trends on future career opportunities. Provides an overview of environmental professions including a statistical review of the private sector environmental industry, state and local government, federal government, academia, and nonprofits valuable tips on career search strategies along with information about education, volunteering, and internships case studies of representative work and individual profiles that give readers an up-close and personal look at a variety of environmental professionals, what they really do, and how they arrived at their current positions resources for further information.

2. Saving the Earth as a Career: Advice on Becoming a Conservation Professional
By Malcolm L., Jr. Hunter, David Lindenmayer, Aram Calhoun
Written in an informal and engaging style, Saving the Earth as a Career is an ideal resource for students and professionals pursuing a career in conservation. Written in an informal and engaging style that introduces all the important steps to becoming a conservation professional, from making the right career choice to finding a position in the field. Examines a number of professions, from environmental lawyer and civil engineer, to ecologist and environmental scientist.

3. Careers for Nature Lovers & Other Outdoor Types
By Louise Miller
Would you prefer a forest outpost to an office cube? Do you have an easy rapport with animals? Are Grizzly Adams and Mother Nature among your idols? If you answered yes to any of these questions, your career choice has already been made. Now you need to choose an occupation. Careers for Nature Lovers & Other Outdoor Types provides all the information you need to launch a career as a pump-station engineer, bioscientist, animal rehabilitator, botanist, plant ecologist, agricultural scientist, cartographer and geologist. Inside you’ll find practical advice on deciding which calling is for you, along with firsthand accounts of everyday routines, information on working conditions of selected jobs, and a list of resources to help you get your foot in the door.

4. Making a Living While Making a Difference, Revised Edition: Conscious Careers in an Era of Independence
By Melissa Everett
Making a Living While Making a Difference is a timely and highly informative guide to a working life built on principled choices and an entrepreneurial attitude. It’s about greener enterprises and technologies, socially responsible business, innovative nonprofit work, and reinventing government. It’s really about putting the pieces together with creativity and hope. Working people everywhere are realizing that personal success is interconnected with healthy communities and the environment. We are all looking for our unique “creative edge” with work that allows us to make an impact close to home and in the world.

5. Careers in Renewable Energy: Get a Green Energy Job
By Gregory McNamee
Numerous job opportunities await in the fast-growing field of renewable energy. Grab this handy book and discover how green energy can be a part of your future. Job sectors include solar and wind energy, biofuels, hydrogen energy and fuel cells, geothermal energy, hydro energy, green building, climate study, energy management and efficiency, and much more. Various jobs within each sector (engineering and technical positions, project management, R&D and sales/marketing) are discussed, and the appendix is loaded with resource materials for further education and training, professional associations, reference Web sites and more.

6. Career Opportunities in Conservation and the Environment
By Paul R. Greenland, Annamarie L. Sheldon
Conservation and environmental jobs account for between 1 and 3 percent of total U.S. employment, and educational options for this field have grown significantly in recent years. According to U.S. News & World Report, there are now some 515 colleges that offer degrees in natural resources and conservation fields, 266 that offer environmental sciences programs, and 241 that offer environmental studies programs. Career Opportunities in Conservation and the Environment features more than 70 profiles of careers in these flourishing areas. Cutting across several broad industries-such as agriculture, education, engineering, law, and science–jobs in conservation and the environment can be found in such diverse settings as nonprofits, government agencies, educational institutions, hospitals, utilities, and other public and private businesses.

7. Opportunities in Forestry Careers
By Christopher M. Wille
This pocket-sized guide tells you everything you need to know to make an informed career choice in forestry. Includes up-to-date statistics and earning potential, and in-depth information on getting started and succeeding. Presents a brief history of forestry and discusses the qualifications and education necessary to enter the field, career opportunities, and forestry organizations.

8. The ECO Guide to Careers that Make a Difference: Environmental Work For A Sustainable World
By The Environmental Careers Organization
To demonstrate even more clearly what eco-work feels like on the ground, The ECO Guide offers vivid “Career Snapshots” of selected employers and the professionals that work there. You’ll visit government agencies, nonprofit organizations and local advocates. You’ll go inside environmental businesses like Wildland Adventures and Stonyfield Farms. And you’ll learn from academic institutions like the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics. ECO also describes forty specific jobs that are representative of environmental career opportunities in the twenty-first century. It provides dozens of the best Internet resources.

9. Careers in the Environment
By Mike Fasulo, Paul Walker
Our environment is in serious jeopardy and has been for a long time. The difference today is that fewer and fewer people in power are denying the fact–which means that more and more jobs are sprouting up to help solve the problem. This book provides invaluable tips for finding a job in one of the many areas that make up this diverse field. Whether you like to work for a profit or nonprofit company, for government or big business, this guide will help you develop a clear understanding of your career options, and key in on the specialty most suited for you–from air-quality specialist to oceanographer to forestry technician. It will also help you to understand what to expect in an entry-level job, find the education and training you’ll need to stay one step ahead of the competition, and familiarize yourself with current salaries, benefits, and the best job prospects.

10. Outdoor Careers: Exploring Occupations in Outdoor Fields
By Ellen Shenk
Provides job descriptions and information about salaries, employment outlook, and educational requirements for everything from farming to forestry to meteorology. Professionals are interviewed at the end of each chapter, offering a personal look at specific jobs and insight on day-to-day responsibilities. With telephone, mail, and internet sources for job listings and other information, this makes an excellent resource for students and those changing careers.

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