Helping Build a Greener America
I wrote this post immediately after the first day of my internship, June 4th, about a week ago.
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So today was the first day of my internship. I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep last night. This morning I got up and drove there, through the rain and the stop-and-go Route 9 traffic. I was thinking that this seemed frighteningly similar to a real job. I got there, and met Megan, who told me the basic info. Keep reading for more information about what this organization does and what I did on my first day.
Let me tell you about CET (The Center for Ecological Technology). It's a non-profit devoted to providing information and services about energy efficiency, renewable energy, and waste management to the Western Massachusetts area. There are two offices, the main one in Pittsfield, and a smaller one in Northampton, where I'm working. There are only eight people in the office besides myself, though three of them are out on site visits most of the time, and a further two split their time between the two offices.
So what is all that energy and waste stuff, you may ask. Well, CET runs a place called the ReStore in Springfield (down the road about half an hour), where builders can get secondhand (but high-quality) building materials, in a form of recycling. But the main work that goes on in the Northampton office is more related to a different part of green building: certification. Half of the Northampton staff work primarily with EnergyStar and LEED-for-Homes certification. You've probably heard of EnergyStar in relation to appliances, but there's also a version for whole houses. If you haven't heard of it, basically EnergyStar is an EPA-run standard to determine what the most energy-efficient products on the market are, homes or appliances.
What you may not have heard about is LEED. LEED is organized by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It is a rigorous program of standards to determine which buildings are the most environmentally-friendly. It started out just being for commercial buildings, but now encompasses homes, schools, and neighborhood developments as well. It turns out EnergyStar is included in the evaluation process for LEED-H (as LEED for Homes is abbreviated to).
There are different levels of LEED certification. First there's just simple certification, then better buildings are silver, gold, or finally platinum. Where a building falls is based on how many points it accrues in the evaluation process. Points are assigned in accordance with very specific standards about everything from the water efficiency of the toilets to the impact of the construction on the surrounding ecosystem, to the proximity of the building to its neighbors. It's quite an intensive process, involving the builder, many experts, and a specially-trained rater. Those raters are where CET comes in; USGBC-certified raters from CET travel around Western Mass, assessing various building projects and their compliance with the standards.
So what did I do today? I spent the first few hours reading a big packet detailing the whole LEED-H certification process. I got about halfway through the 180 pages. Then I got invited to go with one of the raters up to a site about an hour away and do some tests. We drove up into the boonies and performed just a few tests about the power of the stove-hood fans. Then we came back, and I started some conventional intern work: putting together packets about EnergyStar for builders. Then it was 5 o'clock and time to go home.
I think I'm going to have a lot of fun and learn so much here. Of course I'll have a little boring stuff to do, but that's the price I pay for all the amazing and interesting stuff I'll be doing the rest of the time. Overall a wonderful first day.