Phillipe Kenny, a rising Junior majoring in Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainability, is working to create sustainable solutions at his internship at the Curitiba, Brazil branch of S&C Electric, a multinational company that produces electrical equipment for smart grids, energy storage, and power transmission and distribution. "My role as an intern is to assist in the Facilities, Environmental, and Safety department. Since the Brazilian branch has virtually no sustainability initiative in place at the moment, I was given the opportunity to create improvements in that area. As soon as I started working there, I noticed that they did not do any office recycling, and an absurd amount of paper was being thrown away, which surprised me, as I had the impression that all companies of this magnitude did something as simple and effective as recycling paper. Therefore, I proposed to implement a recycling program, which I have been planning almost independently. Although it has been a challenging and sometimes belated process, I’ve enjoyed figuring out all the steps (such as surveying the company’s waste, meeting with the waste collection company, planning the collection of recycling, and designing an informative flyer), on my own, rather than having someone guide me. I believe I have learned more rapidly by the process of investigating and learning from my mistakes and am confident in the impact this project is going to have on the company’s sustainable practices."
