Ithaca’s Sustainability Office

Equitable Building Heating & Cooling Intern

City of Ithaca - New York logo
THIS INTERNSHIP IS OPEN TO BOTH RETURNING YALE GRADUATE/PROFESSIONAL STUDENTS AND RETURNING YALE COLLEGE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
 
About Ithaca:

The City of Ithaca, home to approximately 30,000 people in the Finger Lakes region of New York, is consistently ranked as one of America’s smartest and healthiest cities, and one of the best green places to live.  

Ithaca’s Sustainability Office is looking for a summer intern to assist them in their innovative approach to equitable municipal-scale de-carbonization, as part of Ithaca’s Green New Deal Resolution and Justice50 Initiative. The primary focus of the internship will be the implementation of Ithaca’s bold goals and timeline for City-wide equitable deployment of electrified building heating and cooling.  

The opportunity:

Depending on the intern’s interests and skills, the work over the summer may include:  exploring the use of ARPA funds or other municipal finance tools to support deployment of electrified heating and cooling, in conjunction with BlocPower and Alturus (the City’s deployment partners); building relationships with a network of leading cities domestically and internationally who are also implementing ambitious, and equitable, de-carbonization plans; investigating the potential for collaboration with neighboring communities within Tompkins County to broaden the reach and impact of Ithaca’s building electrification initiative; engaging Ithaca College and Cornell to harmonize their collective climate action plans, and to leverage technical studies for Ithaca’s roadmap of building de-carbonization; and helping Ithaca develop indicators for benchmarking and measuring progress towards climate justice.

The intern will directly report to Ithaca’s Sustainability Planner, Rebecca Evans, with overall support and guidance from Ithaca’s Sustainability Director, Luis Aguirre-Torres.  

Location:

This will be a hybrid internship – with flexibility for both in-person and virtual participation – with a preference that at least a portion of the summer experience is in-person in Ithaca.  (The Ithaca team can provide a workspace in their offices, and can assist with finding accommodations in Ithaca, and the process of coming to and getting around Ithaca.)  

How to apply:

Please submit:

  • a cover letter (no more than 2 pages) to include:
    • your interest in this project
    • any relevant background/experience
    • why you believe this work is important
    • share any important identity or identities you hold. Note that this is completely optional. Examples of identities that may be important to you might include (but are not limited to): gender, race, ethnicity, political affiliation, generation, education level, cultural identity, occupation, sexuality, family structure, housing status, mental health (health status/ability), incarceration status, institution affiliation, primary language, religion, immigration status, medical history, first-generation, income/ socio-economic class, quality of education, occupation, and/or parent's education.
  • your resume 

Please email the above directly to revans@cityofithaca.org and laguirretorres@cityofithaca.org with “CBEY Planetary Solutions Internship Program in Clean Energy” in the subject line. Please also copy cbey@yale.edu. Application deadline is 11:59 PM ET on April 10, 2022.