Vicky’s internship at the Carbon Trust

MSc Energy and the Environment student, and former LEC Earth and Environment student, Vicky Hudson spent her summer working for the Carbon Trust. Read about her experience below, which is a good example of exploiting the chance connections you can make at university!

What did you do this summer?
This summer I spent two weeks doing a student placement for the Carbon Trust at their head office in London. I worked on a variety of different projects, managed by different members of staff. My first project was doing a gap analysis to compare how a client’s competitors reported their scope 3 emissions so they could improve their own sustainability policy. (These are greenhouse gas emissions emitted indirectly by an organisation, such as through suppliers or customers.)

After summarising my findings, I helped produce some slides for the presentation which would be given to the client. I also worked on a project focusing on carbon sequestration. I researched ways to quantify how much this reduces a carbon footprint and wrote a report to summarise the different techniques. Another project was creating a model on Excel to predict a company’s future carbon emissions for a section of their scope 3 emissions up to 2030. I also conducted market research for several other projects.

How did you find out about it?
I have been a member of LUDanS (the university dance society) since first year, and was chatting to a friend I met through the society when she mentioned her dad worked for the Carbon Trust. Her dad is a senior consultant and he managed to arrange the work experience for me.

Did you have to apply?
Not exactly, I had a phonecall so they could learn more about my background and interests and then I emailed them more information about my modules I had done in my undergraduate (BSc Earth and Environmental Science). If I had done an internship for 3-6 months I would have had to apply.

Has it helped you think about what you want to do in the future?
The placement was a lot of fun and I got to work with different people in the company and expand my technical knowledge such as learning about the stages of carbon footprinting and about scope emissions. Overall it was a enjoyable experience which has given me a valuable insight into consultancy work, which is what I hope to do after I finish my masters in September. However I have learnt I do not want to do a 90 minute commute to and from London every day!