Sustainable Westchester is a non-profit organization whose mission is to implement an array of sustainability initiatives to the industries and residents of Westchester County, New York. My main task was to get the ball rolling with projects in White Plains, NY. This included solar and storage for commercial properties, LED smart lights in the city streets, and electric vehicle purchasing programs. White Plains is a centralized hub in Westchester County, so we worked closely with them in particular to become leaders and set an example for other municipalities in the area to follow. The work being done at Sustainable Westchester is a crossroad between technology, politics and financial analysis. My efforts with White Plains directly aligned with the organization’s mission of brining clean energy to Westchester County. In order to incentivize a transition to sustainable energy, a financial analysis demonstrating actual savings for the property owner was vital. Although installing solar panels and batteries is a long process that can take a few months for large commercial properties, my work was aimed at getting the right people on the same page to commit to development.

At Columbia University, I am studying environmental engineering, focusing on sustainable energy. It was exciting and beneficial for me to be exposed to some of my classroom material in real life. Particularly on the solar and storage side – I took an electrochemical energy storage class that peaked my interest. I learned about storage technologies, their benefits and shortcomings. One of the major projects I worked on was a large commercial property in White Plains called ‘City Square’. Our analysis showed a large dependency on energy storage in order to shave peak demand and save the building management over $600k yearly on their Con Ed bill. Although I learned that lithium ion batteries pack the most energy density, they have a risk of explosion from a short circuit or exposure to air. The next best technology with significantly less risk is vanadium storage. Understanding the chemistry of these systems was instrumental in understanding their overall plausibility and benefits in a real world system. In this case, we were in talks about designing a large battery storage system using Vd batteries – 800 kilowatts!

Every success throughout the summer came with its own set of challenges. In my opinion, the greatest challenge I faced during my work with Sustainable Westchester was on the people and communications front. One project I was tasked with early on was to reach out to all of the school districts in Westchester County to come up with an inventory of all school buses and vans in each district’s fleet. This would be leveraged in reducing costs by way of bulk purchasing electric buses. Communication was done by means of email and phone calls. Much of my time was spent on research in finding the correct contacts to reach out to. Once I got a hold of someone, I learned it is best to give a brief pitch to engage the contact. Many people who were not aware of the organization were reluctant to show interest at first. This challenge transformed into a great learning opportunity for me! The employees at Sustainable Westchester were very helpful in teaching me how to approach communication with stakeholders from a non-profit perspective.

Overall, working at Sustainable Westchester this summer was an amazing opportunity that I am grateful to have experienced! This was my first real world involvement in the sustainability field. Although I tried to come in with no expectations, my understanding of the industry has completely changed since the beginning of the summer. I view sustainability as a field with many passionate innovators, and open-ended solutions to our current energy problems. I’ve learned that there is no conventional track to becoming an environmental engineer. I also learned about the vital role politics plays in the industry. Furthermore, being in New York, I’ve witnessed the importance of financial benefits to implements change on the large scale. For the most part, people want to help create a healthier environment, but most do not want to reach into their pockets to do so. My main goal for this internship was to get a feel for the sustainable energy industry in the states. The connections I made and experiences I had with Sustainable Westchester have only motivated me more to pursue a career in sustainability.