Most people would class a Hyundai-Kia alongside special-needs vehicles or pope-mobiles, but the sleeping Korean giant is actually the 5th largest automotive group in the world. And they have ambition: The group has said that it will invest the best part of £2bn in order to make itself one of the four top manufacturers of low-emission vehicles by 2012, in fact the company expects to be able to build fuel cell vehicles on standard production lines by 2015. Korea is cash rich at the minute, so give these chaps a serious bit of thought if you want to work on wheels.

Tags: green car technology, planes trains and automobiles, working with automobiles

You better believe that ethics are big business – as if proof were needed, step forward Cadbury to become the first mass-market chocolate brand to adopt the Fairtrade certification mark. The confectionery group will certify 300m of its Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bars as well as its packaged cocoa, at a cost of £1.5m ($2.1m), by the end of summer. But Fairtrade ain’t cheap, I hear you mutter, so that will explain why the company raised prices last year, partly to absorb the cost of the move. It is good news, that may make other big brands adopt a similar move, rather than claiming its price, not conscience that will drive consumer spending in the recession. After all, nearly three-quarters of British households bought Fairtrade goods last year.

Tags: Fairtrade careers, Food and Drink, green and ethical trading

Here’s something to put a smile on your face for the weekend. Not that. Centrica, or British Gas to you and me, is set to create 1,500 new jobs as a kick-start to plans to invest £15bn by 2020 to ramp up its presence in the ‘green energy’ market. I keep saying that the UK will lead in green industries when all this doom and gloom dies down and at last someone is listening. The new jobs will be in energy efficiency and wind farms. British Gas has got a bit of cash to throw around: you might read profits are down on the previous year by 34% but that still leaves them shy of £500m to play with. While the good news comes amid a bit of restructuring (that always is accompanied by the noise of someone sharpening an axe) its time to get some green credentials on your CV – volunteer; plant a tree; kiss Kermit, anything will improve your standing in the eyes of the employer.

Tags: Careers in energy, jobs in with green credentials

Unilever has been splashing about the PR in the Guardian so who am I not to let them dribble a bit here? They are assessing their environmental impact, reassessing the way it does business and the products it manufactures Hence we have Persil Small and Mighty and Surf Excel which use less water and less electricity to get the washing done. Smaller bottles, less packaging, fewer carbon emissions to transport them around. The firm took the unique stand of looking at the water used in the life cycle of their products – they call this “virtual water� and, remember, get paid for this. This thinking applies to all Unilever products – from the water used in Knorr stock cubes to washing liquid. Now, for detergent around 95% of the water is used by the consumer, mostly for rinsing. And that, apparently is newsworthy. What it does show is how open companies are to flashing their green credentials. If you can highlight any ideas in your application or job interview as to how to improve an employer’s “greenness� you’ll be flavour of the month. Show an interest in environmental projects – join some websites, debate on a couple of forums – a little effort goes a long way in making yourself stand out to an employer.

Tags: being green with your career, Graduate jobs at unilever, Graduate leadership Programme at Unilever

Good news for all you fans of wind farms: a new environmental audit has found that our coasts can handle an extra 7,000 than previously planned without impacting on offshore wildlife – that means enough to supply almost every home in the UK with wind-generated electricity. That’s if the farms are built; rising costs mean that the government and private backers may well get cold feet. The extra stations would also help the government meet their emissions targets, so it’s no wonder that The Environment Report is now the subject of a 12-week period of public consultation, with close attention paid by Friends of the Earth. Seven offshore wind farms have been built in British waters and five more are under construction. A further nine have been approved. Amazingly, if the areas the farms sit on farms are divided into estates which have landlords, just like on dry land. The landlords are known as “masters of the seabed� – imagine how that would look on the old CV! Watch this vid for a way into a career with energy

Tags: Energy and Power, Graduate jobs at EDF, student and graduate jobs with the environment agency