Sustainable Ventures: My Journey at Ekwadraat

Lindeman, Róchelle (2024) Sustainable Ventures: My Journey at Ekwadraat. Internship report thesis, Global Responsibility & Leadership (GRL).

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Abstract

Ekwadraat is an independent consultancy bureau that specializes in the energy transition. It aims to accelerate the transition by guiding companies, municipalities and entrepreneurs at realizing sustainable energy projects. They do this in the areas of sustainable companies and sites, sustainable energy initiatives and natural gas free neighborhoods. I first came across Ekwadraat due to the Living Lab descriptions. Unfortunately I did not do my Living Lab at Ekwadraat, but after speaking with an old intern from Ekwadraat and my Academic Advisor I decided to contact them and see if I could do my internship with them. We agreed and were both enthusiastic for me to do an internship with them! Due to some changes in roles and persons working at Ekwadraat, my contact person from Ekwadraat and I decided that it would be best to discuss the exact role of me in the company once I started my internship there. Nevertheless, we did agree that it would be something to do with gas free neighborhoods. Within my internship I had a lot of freedom choosing what I wanted to do and what would be interesting. Of course, it is difficult to say what you want to do for an organization if you do not know it well, this is also why I read a lot of projects and information in the first few weeks while also meeting with people and hearing their opinion about the different projects and subjects. In the first two weeks of the internship my external supervisor (Dirk-Jan) and I agreed that I would first read a lot about what exactly the gas free neighborhood transitions are and how they work. Besides this, I also got to read a lot of projects they had already done or were working on. From this information I was able to say what interested me the most and what I would like to do. We then agreed that I would do some literature research about participation and that I could help my colleague Adriana with her participation and communication strategy. This was conducted in the first part of the internship. The second part of the internship I focused my literature research more on the so called ‘Koppelkansen’ (linking opportunities) within the gas free transition. Besides this I also helped with other, more shorter tasks. During my internship I have learned a lot. The main learning outcome and reason for me to do an internship was to gain experience in project management and gain practical experience in the field of the energy transition. This was achieved by the tasks that I have done, such as looking at how projects are managed by speaking to people and doing tasks for people, such as brainstorming for ideas for the customers in a team. Another learning outcome was the identification of best practices and understanding the challenges and opportunities in the energy transition. This was achieved by the (combination of) research that I did, which focussed on the success factors of heat transition. Here I could also get feedback by discussing it with colleagues, this made me value feedback and teamwork a lot too. I gained insight into project management and (energy) transition management. This made me more aware of my interest and helped me to redefine the direction of my future career. I realize that I would like to learn more about transition and project management, henceforth I have decided to apply to the Master’s program Environmental and Energy Management with the chosen track Energy Management. Nevertheless, it has also made me realize that I like working on crisis projects a lot too. This is why I will also be applying for the Masters program International Relations with the track International Security. Overall, I am really grateful that I opted for an internship due to the many learning opportunities, not only professionally but also about myself.

Item Type:	Thesis (Internship report)
Name supervisor:	Feron, S.C.
Date Deposited:	18 Mar 2024 09:33
Last Modified:	18 Mar 2024 09:33
URI:	https://campus-fryslan.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/391

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