My time at RESET Carbon as an intern was nothing short of interesting and fulfilling. I learned a lot about what I wanted to pursue in terms of my future career path and what kinds of people I wanted to surround myself with in the workplace.
An interesting fact about RESET Carbon is that, also it is a small-sized company, it collaborates with multinational conglomerates and companies that are market leaders within their sectors. I personally believe that what has made RESET Carbon so successful is the enthusiasm and strong work ethic possessed by each employee. RESET Carbon is a very closely-knit family and each person’s knowledge is often shared amongst the team. For instance, RESET Carbon holds regular ‘Lunch and Learn’ sessions where at least one colleague shares their knowledge and expertise so that everyone gains more in-depth insight into what goes on in different departments (e.g. engineering, marketing).
The employees of RESET Carbon were extremely welcoming and quickly took me under their wings. Within just the first week, I learned to utilize more complex and advance Microsoft Excel functions that were undoubtedly useful for what I had to do in the rest of my internship, but also for future assignments and projects. I was taught how to leave a clear audit trail which proved to be much more difficult than I initially thought it would be. I was also in charge of large-scale data consolidation from large PR firms. At the same time, I was given the opportunity to work a little on GHG Carbon Accounting and Management. Through this, I was validating my previous knowledge on GHG Protocol and also simultaneously built on my relatively limited knowledge on the three scopes found in the GHG Protocol.
Some new benchmarking standards that I learned during my internship included the Carbon Trust Standard (CTS), a certification that is unlike many other standards in the sense that it requires firms to deliver continuous improvements on the reduction of carbon footprint in order to progress along the ‘maturity curve’ of companies that are trying to work towards a sustainable and green business model. I personally believe that this certification truly encourages firms to think.
Besides learning an abundance of new skills and knowledge, I was also able to contribute to RESET Carbon in numerous ways. I was able to apply my knowledge from the classroom in the workplace. One of the projects involved working for a global coconut water brand, where I looked at the life cycle assessment (LCA) of coconut water production and identified areas along its supply chain that was especially energy intensive. I was also given the responsibility of creating slides for a RESET Carbon workshop – a responsibility that I did not take lightly. I was able to utilize my Photoshop skills to edit the slides to make them more vivid and interesting to look at. I am grateful to my supervisor for giving me this opportunity, and also the opportunity to be part of the Event Management team for the Workshop. Since I had a lot of exposure to event planning from my previous internship as Event Assistant at the HKUST MBA Office, I was able to apply skills I already had. I was involved in the budgeting, preparation and execution of the event. My duties ranged from acquiring quotations for the prices of food and beverages and creating badges, all the way through to providing support on the event day itself, where I was in charge of contributing to the smooth flow and coordination of the event.
Overall, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I was given by RESET Carbon to work alongside a team of specialists in the environmental consultancy field. It was an eye-opening experience and one that I treasure greatly. I am extremely grateful and happy to have worked with such humble people of such high caliber in terms of environmental knowledge. The experience I gained from this internship is something that will definitely shape my future career choice.