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Employee Profile: Vanessa Robles Bedeaux

December 3, 2024/in From the Blog /by starkravingingboston

RENEW’s Employee Profile series highlights our team members who make us great. This month we interviewed our intelligent and hardworking Vice President of Finance, Vanessa Robles Bedeaux.

Q: How long have you worked for RENEW Energy Partners?

A: I’ve been with RENEW for two years as of January 2024.

Q: What sort of work do you do for the company?

A: As VP of Finance, I manage the full accounting cycle, including audits and taxes, and reporting for Renew and all of our project companies.

Q: Where are you from? What is one aspect that you enjoyed about the place where you grew up?

A: I’m from Juncos, Puerto Rico, a small but mighty town that’s home to companies like Amgen, Becton Dickinson, and Medtronic. Growing up, I enjoyed the beautiful rivers and beaches and the strong sense of community spirit.

Q: What activities/hobbies do you enjoy in your daily life? How do you relax?

A: I like going to the gym at least twice a week for weightlifting and bootcamp sessions. This routine fits my schedule best and helps me feel accomplished and refreshed during the week. The other days, I always carve out time during lunch for a power walk.

Q: Have you ever worked in another field? What was it, and why?

A: Due to the nature of my skills, I’ve had the opportunity to work across various industries, including consumer products, IT, and solar.

Q: What is one fun fact about you?

A: I’ve visited around 40 countries for both work and leisure. Wherever I go, I make it a point to visit McDonald’s to explore their unique establishments and menu items.

Q: Why is sustainability/decarbonization important to you? How did you get started in this career/field?

A: Regardless of the sector I worked in I’ve always been drawn to companies that prioritize the environment, whether through innovative packaging solutions or by data centers that belong to companies committed to reduce their environmental footprint. That interest grew while I transitioned to SolarCity, which later became Tesla.

Q: What sustainability practices have you seen that have surprised and/or excited you?

A: What excites me most is how often I’ve noticed the resurgence of old ideas becoming new norms. For example, I recently heard about a Belgian city that gives households chickens to eat food scraps, produce fresh eggs, and fertilize the land. It’s such a simple but effective way to tackle food waste and encourage sustainable living.

Q: Why do you choose to work with RENEW?

A: I believe in the leadership at RENEW. Our leaders are committed and respectful to their teams. RENEW is also the type of workplace where I truly feel I can bring my whole self to work, balancing my role as a mother and my career while staying authentic to who I am. Across all disciplines, RENEW embodies honesty and integrity, which makes me proud to be part of this team.

Q: What are you most excited about for the future of the energy industry?

A: I’m most excited about advancements in energy storage and the potential to rely less on the grid. Having grown up experiencing hurricanes that left us without running water or power for months, I find the concept of self-sufficient energy truly remarkable.

To be continued next month. We are lucky to be growing our team with exemplary individuals. The previous RENEW employee profile featured Peter Kuhn.

RENEW Energy Partners specializes in funding energy saving retrofits for your commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings. For more information contact us today!

Employee Profile: Peter Kuhn

November 12, 2024/in From the Blog /by starkravingingboston

RENEW’s Employee Profile series highlights our team members who make us great. This month we interviewed our intelligent and hardworking Project Engineer, Peter Kuhn.

Q: How long have you worked for RENEW Energy Partners?

A: Since June 2023

Q: What sort of work do you do for the company?

A: I work with the business development team to create initial financial models so that we can explore viable options to maximize customer value and decarbonization potential. I also work with the engineering side of the house on projects that are further down the pipeline.

Q: Where are you from? What is one aspect that you enjoyed about the place where you grew up?

A: I grew up in Asheville, NC. While it’s currently famous for flooding, back in 2000, we got a write-up in Rolling Stoneabout a guy known around town for hanging out wearing nothing but a thong. He ran for mayor on a platform of legalizing marijuana, which gives you an idea of the kind of place it was back then.

Q: What activities/hobbies do you enjoy in your daily life? How do you relax?

A: I like racing bicycles of all kinds, and occasionally doing triathlons—although I generally consider running to be a bad idea. I also enjoy rejuvenating old European cars that probably don’t deserve it.

Q: Have you ever worked in another field? What was it, and why?

A: I walked dogs and cleaned cat cages when I was a kid because my parents were veterinarians, and the commute and pay were decent. It beat working retail.

Q: What is one fun fact about you?

A: I have two of the world’s loudest children.

Q: Why is sustainability/decarbonization important to you? How did you get started in this career/field?

A: A large part of my network after grad school was involved in clean energy companies. I think that climate change is the most challenging issue of our time and something that must be solved if we want to ensure a bright future for our kids, future generations, and the non-Americans of the world.

Q: What sustainability practices have you seen that have surprised and/or excited you?

A: I think some of the most interesting green energy ideas are also some of the simplest. For example, there’s a company building an energy storage facility in China that’s just a massive building full of weights. When they want to store energy, they pick up the weights. When they want to release it to the grid, they put them down again.

Q: Why do you choose to work with RENEW?

A: I believe in the mission, but the best reason to work here is the people and the culture, which have a big impact on how fulfilling it is to go to work every day.

Q: What are you most excited about for the future of the energy industry?

A: There seems to be an increasing amount of political will to solve the problems that are facing us. Technologically we seem to be making a lot of progress, but that only helps if we have the will to implement it.

To be continued next month. We are lucky to be growing our team with exemplary individuals. The previous RENEW employee profile featured John Luleich.

RENEW Energy Partners specializes in funding energy saving retrofits for your commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings. For more information contact us today!

Employee Profile: John Luleich

November 30, 2023/in From the Blog /by renew

RENEW’s Employee Profile series highlights our team members who make us great. This month we interviewed our intelligent and hardworking VP of Project and Asset Management, John Luleich.

Q: How long have you worked for RENEW Energy Partners?

A: Since January 2023.

Q: What sort of work do you do for the company?

A: VP of Project and Asset Management. I am responsible for managing active projects and long-term operations and maintenance (O&M) of Renew’s assets, focusing on optimizing operating efficiencies and maximizing carbon reduction.

Q: Where are you from? What is one aspect that you enjoyed about the place that you grew up?

A: Rockport, MA. Rockport is a small coastal town on the North Shore of Massachusetts where I grew up with access to beaches, fishing, and cliff jumping at the local granite quarries.

Q: What activities/hobbies do you enjoy in your daily life? How do you relax?

A: I enjoy boating, kayaking, scuba diving, and in the winter, I enjoy skiing.

Q: Have you ever worked in another field? What was it and why?

A: United States Navy Nuclear Power. I left college after my first year and spent 10 years in the Navy before going back to school and completing my Engineering degree.

Q: What is one fun fact about you?

A: While in the Navy, I went to school and received a B.S. in Human Resources Management. After leaving the Navy, I went back to school and received my B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology which was better suited to my career path.

Q: Why is sustainability/decarbonization important to you? How did you get started in this career/field?

A: Climate change is impacting everyone, and we have the means to do something about it. I have always had an interest in energy efficiency measures, but while working in manufacturing, the facilities group was always competing for capital with the manufacturing needs. Here at Renew, energy and decarbonization are our core investments.

Q: What sustainability practices have you seen that have surprised and/or excited you?

A: I recently had the opportunity to visit the construction site of a district geothermal pilot project being installed by a local gas utility. To learn how multiple gas utility companies are piloting district geothermal as an option to replace their natural gas business is exciting.

Q: Why do you choose to work with RENEW?

A: I worked with RENEW as the customer during the design, construction and commissioning of a Combined Cooling Heating & Power plant with a Battery Energy Storage microgrid, and the experience working with RENEW was terrific. When the opportunity presented itself to join the RENEW team, I had no reservations.

Q: What are you most excited about for the future of the energy industry?

A: I’m excited about new technological advances in the energy industry and the ability scale up systems to have a greater impact in reducing emissions.

To be continued next month. We are lucky to be growing our team with exemplary individuals. The previous RENEW employee profile featured Emily Robertson.

RENEW Energy Partners specializes in funding energy saving retrofits for your commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings. For more information contact us today!

Intern Spotlight: Minh Mai

September 28, 2023/in From the Blog /by renew

RENEW’s Intern Spotlight series highlights the excellent members of our internship program. This month we interviewed our ambitious and thoughtful market communications intern, Minh Mai.

Q: How long have you worked for RENEW Energy Partners?

A: I have been with RENEW Energy Partners for almost three months.

Q: What sort of work do you do for the company?

A: I am a market communications intern. My role is to assist the marketing team in creating material for client use and to help educate our audience on energy efficiency via targeted blog posts.

Q: Where are you from? What is one aspect you enjoyed about where you grew up?

A: I am from Boston! Although I love many things about this city, I immensely like the diversity of communities and its proximity to other states. For instance, on a good day, you can catch a train down to NYC for $30 or a flight for $50. Also, if you have a car, you can quickly drive up to Maine or down to the Cape for the beaches!

Q: What activities/hobbies do you enjoy in your daily life? How do you relax?

A: Outside work, I love to hike and explore new things alone or with friends. Blue Hills Reservation, near Boston, is one of my favorite places for simple hikes.

Q: Why is sustainability/decarbonization important to you? How did you get started in this career/field?

A: For me, sustainability and decarbonization go hand in hand. It is extremely significant to me because I have seen it affect my community. For instance, when I first moved to Boston, we would have constant snowstorms and multiple inches of fluffy white snow. Nowadays, this has changed significantly. We have high temperatures in the nineties in summer and very low snowfall in winter.

Q: What sustainability practices have you seen that have surprised and/or excited you?

A: I find it interesting how sustainability can be approached multifacetedly. For instance, we can modify how we live and spend our money to align with our social goals. I have personally switched to using bar soap and wool balls to try and combat single-use plastics, but these changes can only go so far. Real change should come from government regulation and corporations being environmentally responsible in their business practices. One way they can do this is through an environmentally conscious supply chain. Nevertheless, these innovations are expensive, and I am excited to see that firms like RENEW are trying to provide funding for these projects.

Q: Why do you choose to work with RENEW?

A: In researching how I wanted to spend my summer, I knew I wanted to impact my community in a positive way. I also wanted to explore the finance field and new ways to approach sustainability. I am majoring in Business and Political Science at Northeastern University, and when I read about the business model of RENEW, I was immediately sold on the vision. In short, RENEW’s business model is: 1) providing funds for companies to go green, 2) modeling and engineering a tailored solution for the partnering businesses, and 3) maintaining and monitoring the project. The best part… I love that RENEW does not base its income on a fixed rate but solely on the savings they provide.

What are you most excited about for the future of the energy industry?

A: What I am excited about most about the energy industry in the future is that, at this rate, I would be able to see the impact of these investments in my lifetime and be a part of seeing how the world could be.

To be continued next month. We are lucky to be growing our team with exemplary individuals. Last month’s employee profile featured Emily Robertson.

RENEW Energy Partners specializes in funding energy saving retrofits for your commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings. For more information contact us today!

Emily Robertson - Business Development Lead, RENEW Energy Parnters - Photo by Ben Gebo Photography bengebo.com

Employee Profile: Emily Robertson

August 17, 2023/in From the Blog /by renew

RENEW’s Employee Profile series highlights our team members who make us great. This month we interviewed our talented and knowledgeable business development lead, Emily Robertson.

Q: How long have you worked for RENEW Energy Partners?

A: I have been with Renew since May 2023.

Q: What sort of work do you do for the company?

A: I am a Business Development Lead. Regionally, I am focused on projects in the South since I am based out of Saint Augustine, FL. In terms of markets/verticals, I am focusing on Microgrids nationally. Much of my focus is on bringing in channel partners who are doing Microgrid work so that we can provide the funding piece to deploy projects with those partners.

Q: Where are you from? What is one aspect that you enjoyed about the place that you grew up?

A: I am born and raised in Western, NY. I grew up in a suburb of Rochester, NY and my family also has a summer house in Northern NY on a small lake. I absolutely love NY in the summertime – being on the water, seeing gardens in bloom. I loved being exposed to a lot of outdoor activities because of growing up there. Skiing (downhill and x country), sledding, snowshoeing in the winter and waterskiing, kayaking, canoeing, camping in the summers – I loved it all. I believe that exposure to outdoor activities is part of why I am so passionate about taking care of our environment.

Q: What activities/hobbies do you enjoy in your daily life? How do you relax?

A: I have a few hobbies. I am active – training for a triathlon – so I spend my time outside of work running, biking, swimming. I also love hiking and camping as well as gardening. When I am being sedentary, I am either reading a book – historical fiction – or watching TV – I love watching sports or crime dramas.

Q: What is one fun fact about you?

A: I have a Border Collie named Huevos Rancheros. When my husband and I had just moved in together our kids (I have two, he has two) really wanted a dog! We were at breakfast, and they were begging again, and my husband was looking at the menu and said “Ok, we’ll get a dog, but if we do, we have to name it Huevos Rancheros!” They all chimed in agreement and then when we finally got a dog a couple of months later, they couldn’t believe that we were holding them to it. He’s famous in our neighborhood and I sound ridiculous calling for him to come inside.

Q: Why is sustainability/decarbonization important to you? How did you get started in this career/field?

A: I stumbled into the Energy/Sustainability/Decarbonization field. I started my career in marketing and communications. I started in Non-Profit, then moved to a local company doing web development, and then serendipitously ended up in a job with marketing for a distributed energy resources firm. I was there for almost 8 years and moved into various roles during that time. That was my introduction to the energy industry, and my passion for energy and sustainability grew from there.

It wasn’t until COVID when it really triggered in me how important decarbonization was. As we all hunkered down in our homes, I saw images of the skies before and after lockdown. It really was eye-opening for me to visibly see change to our environment through making changes in our behaviors and use of resources. Before that, I knew it was important, but it seemed like such a huge problem that it would be impossible to influence and change.

Q: What sustainability practices have you seen that have surprised and/or excited you?

A: I love seeing the growth of the microgrid market. For both decarbonization and resiliency, it makes so much sense and seeing that take hold has been exciting to see.

Q: Why do you choose to work with RENEW?

A: The number one reason I work with RENEW is because of the people. We are a small but growing team. The very clear mission and vision as well as the support and encouragement from everyone on the team as we work to achieve decarbonization goals together inspires me every day.

Q: What are you most excited about for the future of the energy industry?

A: I am very interested in hydrogen and what role it is going to play in the energy transition. As hydrogen hubs are implemented and tax credits come into play for production of hydrogen, it will be exciting to see how that plays into our net zero future.

To be continued next month. We are lucky to be growing our team with exemplary individuals. Last month’s featured employee profile included Aurora Fernandez. If you are interested in joining RENEW, you can find our current career opportunities here.

RENEW Energy Partners specializes in funding energy saving retrofits for your commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings. For more information contact us today!

Employee Profile: Aurora Fernández

July 14, 2023/in From the Blog /by renew

RENEW’s blog Employee Profile series highlights our employees who make us great. This month we interviewed our compassionate and analytical business development associate, Aurora Fernández.

Q: How long have you worked for RENEW Energy Partners?

A: I have been with the company since February 2023, so just over six months now.

Q: What sort of work do you do for the company?

A: I am a Business Development Associate; part of my work is to develop and execute strategic marketing programs to generate leads and reach our target audiences. On the other hand, I also work directly with client support, both leading and supporting business development efforts on active projects, as well as engaging in relationship management with our channel partners.

Q: Where are you from? What is one aspect that you enjoyed about the place that you grew up?

A: I am originally from Venezuela but have now lived in the US for many years. One of the main aspects I enjoyed from where I grew up was the sense of family and community. Even outside of my own family, I would always feel like family at my friends’ homes, or with work colleagues, or even sometimes with complete strangers on the street. People in Venezuela may not know you, but will usually treat you as a lifelong buddy; so that is something that I grew up with and I see it as a great quality for handling relationships in my current life.

Q: What activities/hobbies do you enjoy in your daily life? How do you relax?

A: I have multiple hobbies I like. I really enjoy working out as much as I can during the week. In the winter I love to go skiing, it’s a hobby I’ve picked up in the last few years and I truly enjoy how free I feel coming down a steep mountain. I also really enjoy photography; I will sometimes go out on long walks while taking snaps of people on the street. I like to read, and watch shows to relax. I love going to concerts, shows, festivals and dancing my legs off!

Q: Why is sustainability/decarbonization important to you? How did you get started in this career/field?

A: I got started in this field in Venezuela, right out of college. I worked for an LED lighting and solar energy company that was doing great work, very similar to Renew, but at a much smaller scale and without the financing portion. I learned a lot about the meaning of sustainability during that experience and fell in love with the definition of it; “the ability to be maintained over a long-term period of time”. I see sustainability as finding solutions to sustain life and community, and to avoid depletion or otherwise unnatural endings. So, to me, sustainability is sort of a foundation for all beings that just want to live and thrive alongside each other. In today’s world, we’re bringing this concept into business, where people and nature are the main resources in any sort of industry. We can choose to continue viewing and doing things as we always have; consuming and utilizing until complete exhaustion or take a turn towards sustainability and change processes that will guarantee the ability to sustain over time.

Q: Have you ever worked in another field? What was it and why?

A: I have. I worked for about five years in the legal industry doing marketing and business development. I became a part of the industry while getting on my two feet in New York City after migrating from my country. I especially enjoyed the last year of my time working at law firms since I was able to pivot back into sustainability while working directly in a social impact and pro bono position. It was a great opportunity to learn from incredibly talented people and view business and relationship management from a very different lens than I was used to while on the marketing side.

Q: What sustainability practices have you seen that have surprised and/or excited you?

A: I think the practice of waste-to-energy is something that I have always found incredibly fascinating. I had the opportunity to visit Stockholm in 2022 and found out about how the city’s complete heating system is powered by waste incinerators. They send only 1% of all the city’s trash to landfills, and the rest goes to a central plant for incineration and power generation. Nordic countries need a lot of heat, especially since their winters are so long, so it’s understandable that they would come up with these systems. However, I always scratch my head about why we are not there yet over here on the Western side where we generate SO much waste. The US generates 270 million tons of waste every year and about half of it goes to landfills! What would happen if we burnt it all into energy instead?

Q: Why do you choose to work with RENEW?

A: I choose to work with RENEW because of its people. Absolutely and no doubt that is the reason I choose to be part of the team, and of course because of all the incredible work we do to help clients decarbonize their systems.

Q: What are you most excited about for the future of the energy industry?

A: I’m excited to see how technology develops to make energy more affordable and accessible for people. Energy is the base for everything that we do, we can’t really survive without energy in today’s world, and when you really think about it, energy is the one resource that doesn’t deplete – it just transforms. It’s not like land, minerals, or water, that do end -giving us a completely other set of issues to deal with in the sustainability world- energy is transformed from one source to another. As I mentioned with waste incineration, that is just heat-energy stored and transformed into electricity. It equally happens with solar, hydro, nuclear, and other energy sources. We live in very exciting times for the energy industry, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it and see the technology unravel over the years to come.

To be continued next month. We are lucky to be growing our team with exemplary individuals. Last month’s featured employee profile included Nathan Montgomery. If you are interested in joining RENEW, you can find our current career opportunities here.

RENEW Energy Partners specializes in funding energy saving retrofits for your commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings. For more information contact us today!

Employee Profile: Nathan Montgomery

June 2, 2023/in From the Blog /by renew

RENEW’s blog Employee Profile series highlights our employees who make us great. This month we interviewed our diligent and creative business development associate, Nathan Montgomery.

Q: How long have you worked for RENEW Energy Partners?

A: I have been with RENEW since October 3^rd, 2022.

Q: What sort of work do you do for the company?

A: I am a Business Development Associate. My focus is on internal sales support, outbound marketing, and research and development.

Q: Where are you from? What is one aspect that you enjoyed about the place that you grew up?

A: I grew up in Denver, Colorado. I did not know until I moved away how lucky I was to grow up in such a sunny place with an abundance of hiking and skiing trails that I got to take advantage of with my family and friends.

Q: What activities/hobbies do you enjoy in your daily life? How do you relax?

A: I have a music degree and play guitar, bass, piano, drums, and voice as a creative outlet. It feels like a relaxing and meditative practice at this point. I also enjoy training in tai chi and kung fu, as well as exploring new places with my partner Allie.

Q: Have you ever worked in another field? What was it and why?

Previously I was a high school Spanish teacher during the most intense years of the pandemic. I am a fluent Spanish speaker and enjoyed helping children expand their knowledge and navigate a stressful public health crisis.

Q: What is one fun fact about you?

I was born in Hong Kong and have lived in Mexico and Spain.

Q: Why is sustainability/decarbonization important to you? How did you get started in this career/field?

A: RENEW is my first foray into the sustainability field. I was motivated to take a role in mitigating the climate crisis directly, rather than just feeling anxious about the impact of global emissions on the sidelines.

Q: What sustainability practices have you seen that have surprised and/or excited you?

A: I am very interested in geothermal and hydrogen. They seem to be technologies that are still developing and have a lot of potential to be harnessed more efficiently and affordably.

Q: Why do you choose to work with RENEW?

A: I choose to work with RENEW because I work with a great team, it provides me with more work-life balance than my previous jobs, and it fulfills a positive mission because we are directly working towards decarbonization in North America.

Q: What is one success you have had at RENEW that you are proud of?

I am proud to produce the Green Beers Podcast! I also enjoy workshopping our messaging and talking to prospective clients about our services.

Q: What are you most excited about for the future of the energy industry?

A: I am excited for new technologies that facilitate greater amounts of carbon reduction. I am also hopeful that emissions regulations will continue to be updated on the state, federal, and international levels so that driving sustainability projects becomes a greater priority across all industries.

To be continued next month. We are lucky to be growing our team with exemplary individuals. Last month’s featured employee profile included Charlie Tryon. If you are interested in joining RENEW, you can find our current career opportunities here.

RENEW Energy Partners specializes in funding energy saving retrofits for your commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings. For more information contact us today!

Employee Profile: Alexandra Carroll

March 23, 2023/in From the Blog /by renew

RENEW’s new employee profile blog series will be highlighting our employees who make us great. This month we are featuring our ambitious and intelligent Business Development Lead, Alexandra Carroll.

Q: How long have you worked for RENEW Energy Partners?

A: I’ve been on the RENEW team since November of 2022.

Q: What sort of work do you do for the company?

A: As a Business Development Lead, I am tasked with originating and closing qualified partnerships from our channel partners and other various outbound campaigns. My specific markets are Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and Geothermal Generation and Distribution for the US East Coast and Canadian Markets.

Q: Where are you from? What is one aspect that you enjoyed about the place that you grew up?

A: I’m from Baltimore, Maryland. Growing up I always enjoy going to my neighborhood’s annual street festival which featured plenty of local music, handmade art, live music, a car show, and more.

Q: What activities/hobbies do you enjoy in your daily life? How do you relax?

A: Cooking is one of my favorite daily activities, I love trying my hand at anything interesting I find on Instagram. On winter weekends I like to ski, and in the summer, I enjoy riding my gravel bike.

Q: Why is sustainability/decarbonization important to you? How did you get started in this career/field?

A: I started in this field as an undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where I minored in Sustainability Studies. Notably my capstone project focused on analyzing public opinion of utility scale solar projects on behalf of a scaling solar provider. Sustainability is important to me because at its core, it is a matter of efficiency and optimization–the added bonus is the avoided harm of our ecosystem and communities.

Q: Have you ever worked in another field? What was it and why?

A: Previously I worked in construction management where I oversaw the install of commercial scale mechanical projects.

Q: What sustainability practices have you seen that have surprised and/or excited you?

A: I’m most excited by emergency technologies focused on resiliency. As volatility in our climate and economy continue to escalate, systems such as microgrids and battery storage will help avoid downtime and avoidable premiums.

Q: Why do you choose to work with RENEW?

A: I chose to work with RENEW because of the demonstrated conviction of the leadership team. The ability to scale the adaption of energy efficient technology under the direction of experienced market makers is compelling.

Q: What are you most excited about for the future of the energy industry?

A: I’m most excited to see the technological improvements to lithium-ion batteries. If manufacturers can continue to decrease the footprint of the units and to lessen battery performance degradation, the economics of these projects should encourage deep decarbonization and resiliency.

To be continued next month. We are lucky to be growing our team with exemplary individuals. Last month’s featured employee profile included Carter Kupchella. If you are interested in joining RENEW, you can find our current career opportunities here.

RENEW Energy Partners specializes in funding energy saving retrofits for your commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings. For more information contact us today!

Employee Profile: Carter Kupchella

February 23, 2023/2 Comments/in From the Blog /by renew

RENEW’s newest employee profile blog series features our employees who make us great. This month we interviewed one of our talented Project Engineers, Carter Kupchella.

Q: How long have you worked for RENEW Energy Partners?

A: I started with RENEW in December 2022.

Q: What sort of work do you do for the company?

A: I work as a Project Engineer, so I support all our projects with my technical background. I wear a lot of hats, from helping analyze the potential of projects in development, to supporting our EPC contractors through construction and operation of equipment.

Q: Where are you from? What is one aspect that you enjoyed about the place that you grew up?

A: I grew up on the south shore of Massachusetts, in Scituate. I will always love the ocean, and small coastal fishing towns. I grew up learning to sail, spending summer days at the beach, and eating fried clams and lobster – I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Q: What activities/hobbies do you enjoy in your daily life? How do you relax?

A: I love anything that gets me outside. In the winter that’s usually skiing, and in the summer, I’ll go hiking, mountain biking, or out onto the nearest body of water. I’m also a car nut, and while I don’t have anything to wrench on right now, you can usually catch me researching or browsing eBay for a project. In 2023 I am relocating from Boston to Utah, and I can’t wait to spend even more time outside doing those things I love.

Q: Have you ever worked in another field? What was it and why?

A: I spent a year after college working in construction management for a nonprofit, building housing in a disaster recovery zone. I wanted to build something physical and make a concrete positive impact on the world. I would say I did that, as we built more than 50 homes in that year, and I made a lot of personal connections with the people and families we were able to assist.

Q: What is one fun fact about you?

A: I’m getting married in September 2023, but because of our move out west (which we didn’t have planned when we got engaged) it will be a “destination” wedding for us– to Massachusetts!

Q: Why is sustainability/decarbonization important to you? How did you get started in this career/field?

A: I knew from when I was in college that I wanted to make an impact on the energy economy, but it took some exploring before I found the niche where I could be useful. I worked for a design-build engineering firm for 5 years that specialized in energy reduction and decarbonization projects, and that experience helped me see just how huge the issues we face as a society are. It also helped me learn how to approach projects within operating institutions and businesses, and how implementation is never as simple as having the most efficient design.

Q: What sustainability practices have you seen that have surprised and/or excited you?

A: I get excited about optimized energy systems and eliminating waste. In the past, the projects I’ve worked on that excite me the most involve using “waste” heat for a novel application – like using the heat removed from a chiller to reheat ventilation air, or combined heat and power projects. However, what’s surprised me is that even if you have a really optimized design or idea, it’s typically a financial or administrative factor that can hold up a great project.

Q: Why do you choose to work with RENEW?

A: Being a part of RENEW allows me to be close to major carbon and energy reduction projects and truly measure my impact. I’m also happy to be around people every day who share that feeling of accomplishment associated with helping to save the environment.

Q: What are you most excited about for the future of the energy industry?

A: I’m excited because I feel that progress really is possible and happening around us. The financial incentives are finally aligning with the moral necessity of addressing climate change, and the number of people in this space just continues to grow. It’s an exciting time to be here!

To be continued next month. We are lucky to be growing our team with exemplary individuals. We are lucky to be growing our team with exemplary individuals. Last month’s featured employee profile included Michael Savage. If you are interested in joining RENEW, you can find our current career opportunities here.

RENEW Energy Partners specializes in funding energy saving retrofits for your commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings. For more information contact us today!

Employee Profile: Michael Savage

January 19, 2023/1 Comment/in From the Blog /by renew

RENEW’s new Employee Profile blog series will be highlighting our employees that make us great. This month we interviewed our Director of Business Development, Michael Savage.

Q: How long have you worked for RENEW Energy Partners? Why do you choose to work with RENEW?

A: I have been lucky enough to have worked at RENEW for 5 years now. Before RENEW I was working for a New England based solar development company focusing on commercial and industrial solar PV projects. In that time solar was heavily incentivized by the Federal Government and by the States, some of my projects would be 100% paid by incentives even if the project didn’t produce clean energy. However, all those customers still needed the upfront capital to get the project started, after a few years of having amazing opportunities fall short because of financing, I was excited about the prospect of working with RENEW to solve this capital challenge.

Q: What sort of work do you do for the company?

A: I am a project developer and lead our project development team. RENEW’s third party funding of energy assets makes this work very interesting, as one day we may be building a proposal for a large battery storage system and another we may be working with a corporate sustainability team to uncover sustainable solutions across their portfolio.

Q: Where are you from? What is one aspect that you enjoyed about the place that you grew up?

A: I grew up near Smugglers Notch Vermont. What is probably a tourist destination for many, was a wonderful home to me. One thing that I enjoyed, was just being outside, there was always something to do every season.

Q: What activities/hobbies do you enjoy in your daily life? How do you relax?

A: My hobbies right now are quite limited as my wife and I welcomed twins two years ago. I am looking forward to teaching them how to ski next winter. I also love old cars. I have a 78 F-150 and I am an avid Celtics and Patriots fan.

Q: Why is sustainability/decarbonization important to you? How did you get started in this career/field?

A: My passion for sustainability and decarbonization goes to back to my love for winter sports. Growing up in Vermont, from November to April we would be either up on the mountains or snowmobiling the trails. As the winter seasons became shorter, I was being taught about climate change in school and from there on out I became focused on doing something about it. I went to University of Rhode Island to study the environmental and natural resource economics. I received an energy fellowship there and interned for the Rhode Island of Office of Energy and Rhode Island Renewable Energy Fund. I haven’t looked back since.

Q: What sustainability practices have you seen that have surprised and/or excited you?

A: I have been surprised by the municipal level regulations around carbon emissions. New York City’s Local Law 97 was released in 2019 and caries a hefty fine if the building owners do not decarbonize. Then to see cities like Boston copy that law almost verbatim gives me hope that we can transition to a cleaner future.

Q: What are you most excited about for the future of the energy industry?

A: Electric cars are pretty awesome. I am looking forward to getting one or converting my old truck.

We are lucky to be growing our team with exemplary individuals. If you are interested in joining RENEW, you can find our current career opportunities here.

Our upcoming Employee Profile will feature Carter Kupchella, make sure to check it out!

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