Envirolution’s™ Win-Win Campaign™ is a green economic development program that services the unemployed and under-employed, grad students, career advancement audiences, and engineers by successfully merging education and consulting to drive both the demand for and supply of green products, services, and jobs. Win-Win™ embodies Envirolution’s™ service learning education approach by extending resource efficiency outreach, education, and implementation assistance to designated small business and homeowner clients while providing real world, hands-on job training and placement opportunities to a broad range of green job seekers.
The first implementation of this method is currently active in New York City and focuses on energy efficiency for small businesses and homeowners. Through this innovative hybrid training program that combines in-class instruction with mentoring and fieldwork, participating interns gain invaluable real-world, hands-on experience and concrete energy auditing and project management skills that are applicable across a wide spectrum of career opportunities in the expanding green economy.
So far, Envirolution™ has conducted six sessions of the Win-Win Campaign™. Graduates from the program have been placed on great new career paths, working for premier green industry businesses in New York.
One recent graduate, Mario Cancassi, was able to change his life through the Win-Win program™. Mario Cancassi had more than 20 years as an Operations Manager for commercial printing organizations. Due to a sharp decline in the industry, he realized he needed to change his career direction, so he followed his interest in and passion for the green sector. Over 16 months, he took a wide array of courses to build his experience in green building and be considered as a strong job candidate within the industry. In this time, Mario earned over half a dozen different certifications, but a practical, hands-on component was missing. Mario attended the Spring 2011 session of Win-Win™ as an Intern. He says of that experience: “While I had obtained the classroom training and certifications, I needed the hands-on experience that the Win-Win™ internship offered in order for the businesses to seriously consider my resume and application. Prior [to Win-Win™], I had been consistently sending out resumes, but I was getting little response. Once I completed the Envirolution™ training and began to work with Antuan regarding my job search, I started to receive more interviews and the opportunities started to appear.”
Since April 2011, Mario has worked as a Sales Engineer for Willdan Energy Solutions. At Willdan, Mario is a Project Coordinator for the National Grid Gas Efficiency Program, where he does outreach to small and medium-sized commercial businesses to perform audits and composes summary reports, which illustrate the cost-savings for utilizing the Gas Efficiency program. He also coordinates with contractors regarding timelines for project design and implementation as well as budgeting costs, and he provides strategic consulting in meetings with contractors and sales strategy development.
Another portion of Mario’s job relates very directly to the training he attained through Win-Win™. He promotes the SBDI (Small Business Direct Incentive) program for ConEdison Green Team. The Green Team conducts lighting-focused energy efficiency audits throughout Greater New York area including data collection, system diagnostics, incentive summaries and completed energy audit reports.
In addition, he and his team assist public and private industries with a broad range of services including: building and safety services, energy efficiency, renewable resource strategy, as well as financial and economic consulting for project management. Mario is definitely succeeding in his new career and, more importantly, he’s thrilled: “This new career feels very exciting because it is in its infancy and because of the infinite possibilities it holds.”
Like Mario, and other Win-Win™ graduates, you could change your life for the better—but don’t just take Envirolution’s™ word for it. When Mario was asked why someone should sign up as a Win-Win Campaign™ Intern, he said, “This program is a very comprehensive, well-rounded training that prepares you for the actual working environment in the Energy efficiency industry.”