Welch Environmental Innovation Fellowship

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is the nation's most effective environmental action organization. We use law, science and the support of 1.3 million members and online activists to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things. Founded in 1970 by a group of law students and attorneys at the forefront of the environmental movement, our people helped write some of America's bedrock environmental laws. Today, our staff of more than 300 lawyers, scientists and policy experts work out of offices in New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Beijing.

The NRDC's Center for Market Innovation (CMI) advances market mechanisms that channel capital toward environmentally sustainable and economically profitable investments. Our goal is to help finance the shift to a green economy. We do so by engaging with the business community, articulating and implementing value propositions in 3 areas: energy efficiency in the built environment, stormwater management financing and regenerative grazing.

CMI is seeking a 2 year fellow who will work with our building efficiency team, with a focus on commercial building retrofits. In particular, the selected candidate will play an integral part of a priority initiative, the High Performance Demonstration Project ("Demonstration Project"). The objective of the Demonstration Project is to help scale demand for high performance commercial tenant build outs and base building central system retrofits.

By working directly with a diverse group of major tenants who are executing new leases, to help them incorporate high performance measures into the build-out of their leased premises, and by tracking the savings from those measures, the Demonstration Project aims to develop replicable, scalable processes for the design and installation of high performance tenant improvements, and to document and commercialize the business case for doing so.

Through the Demonstration Project we are working with a set of industry leading partners to:

• assist tenants during the build-out design phase to suggest potential indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and energy conservation measures (ECMs), providing return on investment (ROI) and payback period analyses;
• develop a baseline energy usage model and cost estimate for hypothetical business as usual code-compliant build-out;
• apply best practices for (i) measurement and verification of energy savings produced by the ECMs, utilizing continuous commissioning to optimize savings; and (ii) tracking productivity impacts from incorporating superior IEQ measures;
• work with property owners, where possible, to pursue an integrated building approach to incorporate a high performance retrofit of the building's central systems;
• develop replicable models that present tenants and owners with compelling business opportunities in, and a blueprint for executing advanced measures for, energy efficiency;
• produce case studies showcasing economic and environmental returns from the high performance measures, and in the case of build-outs undertaken in high performance buildings, quantify and emphasize the added economic benefit that flows through to the tenant from the building's more efficient central systems.

The selected candidate will receive a 2 year fellowship with CMI commencing in May 2012. The Welch Fellow will be responsible for producing detailed business case studies for each of the tenant projects, analyzing the financial returns of potential efficiency measures for tenant build outs, and developing a blueprint for streamlining the process of integrating high performance measures into standard tenant build-outs based on the aggregated lessons learned from the range of tenant projects. This will be a full-time staff position based in NRDC's New York office.

The Welch Fellow will:

• draft detailed business case studies for a series of high performance tenant space build-outs, integrated with base building central system retrofits, where applicable, including documenting the modeled baseline energy consumption of each project, the expected reduction in energy consumption from installing efficiency measures, and the actual energy performance results of each project post-implementation.
• calculate the projected ROI of various packages of ECMs for tenant space build-outs, and refine and update a tool to determine the lease cycle cost of various efficiency measures.
• work with both the internal and external team members to provide detailed analysis of cost effective energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality opportunities, and ensure a comprehensive understanding of the costs and benefits of incorporating efficiency and improved IEQ measures in tenant projects.
• develop guidance to be used by the real estate industry as a blueprint for incorporating energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality as an integral part of any new tenant fit out.
• assist with the execution of other initiatives of the CMI building efficiency team, with an emphasis on landlord/tenant collaboration opportunities, and development of various energy efficiency financing mechanisms.

We are looking for a real estate or financial sector professional with strong quantitative and writing skills and an understanding of energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality practices. In addition the ideal candidate would have:

• At least 3 years of relevant work experience in real estate management, finance, architecture, engineering, or construction.
• Demonstrated excellence in both verbal and written communication.
• Demonstrated strength in quantitative analysis.
• Knowledge of the real estate industry and LEED / high performance retrofit processes with a focus on energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality.
• Familiarity with metrics used to measure productivity gains resulting from improved indoor environmental quality is a plus but not required.
• Familiarity with energy modeling tools such as DOE's eQuest is a plus.
• Masters Degree in Business Administration with a focus on Real Estate, Masters Degree in Building Science, Master of Science in Real Estate, or equivalent.

Compensation: We offer competitive salaries, excellent benefits, and a pleasant working environment. Salary is based on a nonprofit scale and commensurate with experience.

To Apply: 

To apply please go to NRDC/Jobs. Once you complete the initial application page, please attach a formatted copy of your cover letter and resume. Please include salary requirements in your cover letter.

No phone calls or faxes please. Please reference where you saw this posting. NRDC is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

For further information please visit NRDC and NRDC's Center for Market Innovation.

NRDC is committed to workplace diversity and inclusion. We are equal opportunity employers and do not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.