Dear Jay Whitehead (aka, my boss): I hear you say this almost every day–that is, the Corporate Responsibility Officer (CRO) profession is the fastest-growing career track in the hemisphere. And, the industry is spending more boatloads of billions of dollars annually than I can count.

So, I see what you mean.

Check out a few headlines about developments that made me briefly turn away from the New York Mets’ collapse and the Isiah Thomas/Madison Square Garden sexual harassment case (talk about blunders in crisis communications) over the last few days.

Sony announced the other day that it flat-out plans to begin selling flat-panel TVs in December that use Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs), according to a Wall Street Journal article [subscription required].

OLEDs use organic chemicals that require less power in next-generation TVs than classic LCDs, or liquid crystal displays. So, if Sony gets its act together, its TVs using OLEDs will more efficiently use energy when we’re watching Isiah (if MSG unwisely retains him) and the Knicks begin another lackluster season.

Meanwhile, Jay, staying with the technology theme, Dell announced last month that its new OptiPlex 745 PC is indeed PC (politically correct) in that it is powered by Intel Core 2 Duo chips, which are about 40% more energy efficient that the previous rollout of Intel processors.

These technology companies really seem to be on a roll.

And that brings us, Jay, and it’s no spin, to washing machines. I’ve seen pics of your kids muddy up their soccer uniforms. So, I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that Wal-Mart announced about a week ago that it plans to sell only liquid laundry detergents of the concentrated variety in its Sam’s Clubs and Wal-Mart stores in the U.S.

The idea is to save natural resources, including H2O and cardboard. Wal-Mart estimates, for example, that its initiative will save water in quantities that would amount to about 100 million showers annually.

OK, Jay, so we won’t have to get up on any soap boxes, I don’t believe, to convince people that sustainability is going mainstream and that there will have to be universities full of CRO candidates to fill all the CR roles that companies like Sony, Dell, Wal-Mart and others will need over the next few years.

And, Jay, that brings me to a realization that there is another fast-growing profession—CR journalists. We’re going to need a bunch of scribes to keep up with all this stuff.