Climate Action and Sustainability Intern, Mandira Shailaj, reflects on the insights and learnings gained from her summer interning at the Sustainable Business Council.

Kia ora, my name is Mandira and I have spent my summer embracing the exciting opportunity to intern at the Sustainable Business Council as their Climate Action and Sustainability Intern.

Although my time at SBC has been short, I have learnt a lot of new things here and met some incredible people!

This internship has allowed me to apply all the theoretical things that I have learnt from university into real-world practical scenarios. I am currently studying a Master’s of Climate Change Science and Policy at Victoria University, and it has been great to see all the amazing things that Aotearoa’s businesses are doing in the sustainability and climate space.

Now that climate mitigation is in our legislation, it is important that businesses turn their ambition into action – which is what SBC is focused on. I was lucky enough to be on the Climate Action and Sustainability team, where I was researching how businesses are implementing nature-based solutions and biodiversity into their frameworks. SBC has a large variety of members, which allowed me to gain a deeper insight into Aotearoa’s business culture and their ambitions for a net-zero future. I was also able to gain first-hand experience from business leaders, CEOs, climate and sustainability teams and so many others! It was amazing to see everyone working towards a common goal and wanting to make a positive impact.

This internship has been very dynamic, which has allowed me to have a lot of experiences in a short amount of time. My favourite aspect about this role, was talking to some of our members and learning what they are doing in the sustainability space. There are some amazing, innovative projects currently occurring in the climate mitigation space and it’s great to see some of Aotearoa’s businesses at the vanguard of it.

Overall, I am very grateful to have spent my summer interning at SBC. The team here has been incredibly welcoming and have helped me each step of the way, especially transitioning from a student to a young professional.

I am really excited to apply all that I have learnt this summer to the next step in my journey, having been selected to be part of the Toitū graduate programme for 2022. Toitū Envirocare is a member of SBC and during the course of my internship I was lucky to have many opportunities where I could attend meetings and presentations to deepen my understanding of what the organisation is doing in the climate space. They are making some amazing progress and helping companies achieve their mitigation targets. My goal is to help others reach their net zero targets and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy, so I am really looking forward to being a part of that team!

I have no doubt I will continue to take my learnings from my time at SBC into all my future careers and endeavours and am excited to continue to contribute to working towards a sustainable future for all Aotearoa.

Contact: Mandira Shailaj, Climate Action and Sustainability Intern, Sustainable Business Council

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