Green Careers grew out of an article Jennifer Power Scott wrote for Canadian Living magazine about young people in environmentally friendly jobs. The book expands on that theme, offering close to 40 interviews with young adults from Canada, the U.S., and around the world who do things like work with bonobos, test air quality, study hurricanes, and design eco-friendly clothing.

The interviews are loosely organized according to 11 general themes such as “Eco-entrepreneurs,” “Wild Things,” and “The Art of Being Green.” Most are presented in a fast-paced magazine style. The few entries written as shorter, point-form features offer a change of pace, but tend to be less successful, being too clipped for any real personal engagement and not focused enough to provide useful career information. (There are also five “Spotlight Features” highlighting “green” professors and schools.)

Peppered liberally throughout the text are sidebars with high-interest information about new environmental ideas. At the back, a “Resources” section provides a useful list of schools, businesses, and websites related to eco-friendly jobs.

Green Careers is meant more as a source of inspiration than a comprehensive guide to environmental jobs. Too bad, then, that the design and layout of the book are not more inviting. The only full-colour images offered are grouped in an eight-page insert, and the densely packed green-and-black pages of text could discourage teen readers who are used to absorbing information visually.

There are also times, especially in the first third of the book, when the author’s perkiness gets out of control (“The wind energy industry is spawning a bunch of bodacious blades”), but this seems to disappear the further one reads.

Despite its faults, there is no denying the breadth and variety of information provided here. That alone makes this a worthwhile volume for aspiring planet-savers and money makers.