Intern Spotlight: Minh Mai
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!
