Paid Summer Internship - Building Energy Codes or Technology Market Transformation

Are you interested in helping to create a more sustainable future by reducing energy use and carbon emissions? Do you love to solve problems by working with a broad array of industry partners? Are you interested in how policy can help slow climate change? If so, consider applying to Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) for a paid internship.

About NEEP

NEEP is a regional non-profit that works to create a more sustainable future by reducing energy use and carbon emissions from the built environment. NEEP was founded in 1996 to promote the efficient use of energy in homes, buildings, and industry in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region. Our mission is to promote regional collaboration and best practices in energy efficiency so the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region can lower energy bills, reduce air and carbon pollution, create jobs, and improve energy and climate resilience.

NEEP seeks intern candidates interested in clean energy and climate stabilization, and in contributing to a mission-driven organization. This opportunity is open to current students or recent graduates. This is a remote position and interns are expected to work 40 hours per week during the summer session, starting as soon as May 5 and ending as late as August 29, 2025 (with the possibility of extending the internship, either full- or part-time, into the fall).

Responsibilities

We are looking for two interns – one to support our Building Energy Codes and Standards team and the other to support our Technology Market Transformation team. If you join us, you will be assigned to one of these two teams, but to provide you with a valuable learning experience, we’ll ask you to work across a variety of projects. Interns may have opportunities to learn about energy efficiency and business in a real-world setting by participating in staff meetings, educational webinars, and attending industry meetings and conferences.

Building Energy Codes and Standards:

Building energy codes and appliance standards ensure that buildings and homes meet and exceed minimum energy efficiency performance, are low-carbon emitters, are safe and resilient, and lock in priorities like electrification from the outset of a building’s lifecycle. NEEP facilitates state code collaboratives and updates stakeholders and communities about adoption and implementation debates and progress. NEEP provides technical assistance and educational resources on the benefits and cost savings associated with advanced energy codes. NEEP works proactively with states and communities to share regional lessons learned to help them finalize their code updates. NEEP also advances the adoption, implementation, and compliance with appliance efficiency standards. Summer internship work for the Building Energy Codes and Standards team will primarily contribute to the National Rural Codes Collaborative (NRCC), a collaborative of ten member states that NEEP is leading to understand and alleviate barriers to energy code implementation in rural communities.

Technology Market Transformation:

Replacing building technologies that use fossil fuels with those that use efficient electric equipment is critical for states to achieve their greenhouse gas reduction goals. Heat pump technologies offer households and businesses opportunities to reduce and, in some cases, eliminate these emissions. Electrifying heating also improves comfort and indoor air quality, and reduces risks related to combustion. These attributes create safer and healthier buildings. NEEP accelerates market adoption of high-efficiency residential and commercial heat pumps for space and water heating through multi-sector stakeholder collaboration. In the residential sector, we strive for high-efficiency heat pumps to reach 65% of equipment sales by 2030. We help regional stakeholders overcome numerous challenges, including upfront costs compared to incumbent technologies, operational economics that are not always favorable, and insufficient contractor confidence and skill to scale this market. Summer internship work for the Technology Market Transformation team will primarily contribute to the HVAC/Water Heating and Envelope Retrofit Opportunities (HERO) project, a project intended to develop a better understanding of the HVAC, water heating and envelope market in the Northeast and to reduce customer utility bills with high performance HVAC and water heating technologies.

In either of these roles, these are some of the tasks and projects you might focus on:

• Tracking energy code, policy, and program developments and data
• Researching and assessing energy, environmental, technology, economic, or policy issues
• Supporting publications such as briefs, fact sheets, and case studies with research, analysis, writing, and editing
• Helping to build and maintain our partner database
• Writing/editing articles for our blog, www.neep.org/blog
• Helping to plan and coordinate workshops and virtual meetings with partners
• Project management coordination and program status tracking
• Partner correspondence, responding to day-to-day questions, and assisting with outreach activities
• Updating project matrices with the latest policy and program developments in key areas of building energy efficiency
• Conducting research for NRCC member states contributing to a Rural Research Barriers Report
• Assisting with facilitation of rural stakeholder working group meetings
• Contributing to surveys aimed at understanding barriers to energy code implementation and opportunities to improve energy efficiency in rural households.

Qualifications

• Ideally, candidate will be a current student pursuing a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree, or a recent graduate, preferably in a related technology, engineering, energy, environmental, public policy, or business field
• Strong written and/or verbal communications skills
• Ability to take direction, work independently, and coordinate work with others
• Proficient in Microsoft Office (PowerPoint, Excel, Word) and internet tools, website development, and content management systems a plus
• Interest in energy efficiency and the environment
• A passion for NEEP’s vision and mission

Application Process

When you apply:

• Send your resume and a cover letter to: interns@neep.org
• Include your name in the email subject line, followed by which team you would like to intern for, e.g., “Sarah Smith – Codes and Standards Intern Applicant” or “Sarah Smith – Technology Market Transformation Intern Applicant”
• Specify the timeframe you are available to work
• Tell us why you want to work with NEEP and which areas of our work interest you
• We will request references and writing samples at a later date, if needed

NEEP is committed to a policy of non-discrimination and equal opportunity for all employees and qualified applicants without regard to race, color, sex, age, national origin, and physical or mental disability. We apply this policy to assure non-discriminatory practices in recruiting, hiring, training, promotion, compensation, benefits, and all other activities. This also supports our capacity to achieve our mission on a regional scale.