Graduate intern contributes to growth plans for local business

A North-East enterprise set up to help organisations measure and reduce their carbon footprint has seen its growth plans supported by a graduate internship programme from Northumbria University, Newcastle.

Newcastle-based SmartCarbon Ltd has recently recruited Northumbria Master’s graduate Anindya Chatterjee through the Northumbria Enterprise and Business Support 2 (NEBS2)scheme, which offers financial assistance and expert advice to SMEs thanks to funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Having already spent a placement year with SmartCarbon on a project to help The Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust calculate its carbon emissions, and as a mature student with a wealth of experience and an MSc degree with distinction in Environmental Management, Annidya was seen as the ideal candidate. With funding support through NEBS2, SmartCarbon was able to employ Anindya and pay his salary as an intern.

SmartCarbon was established in 2016 by Chartered Environmentalist and carbon expert Anna-Lisa Mills to support organisations of any size or sector to calculate, report and reduce carbon emissions. It currently has four team members but is looking to expand as demand for its services continues to grow.

Commenting on his internship, Anindya said: “This has been a fantastic opportunity for me, both to develop my own career and to contribute to the work and success of SmartCarbon. My role includes helping clients both understand and resolve technical carbon management issues, and to further develop the SmartCarbon calculator. No two clients are the same; they are from different industries, different backgrounds and have different challenges, so this is such valuable learning experience. I have also been extremely lucky to work with SmartCarbon Director Anna-Lisa Mills, who has acted as my mentor and who was also an Associate Lecturer on my course at Northumbria.”

Anindya is now hopeful that his position as Carbon Consultant at SmartCarbon will be made permanent when his internship completes. “I’m really positive; SmartCarbon is in a great place, the business is growing and demand is high,” he added.

Graeme Mills, Operations Director at SmartCarbon, said: “This is an exciting and busy period for us as more organisations seek advice and guidance to help reduce their carbon emissions. We are working with a diverse range of organisations including large NHS Trusts, social housing providers and construction companies – all committed to responding to the climate emergency. Anindya’s experience and expertise is proving very useful as we support organisations to engage their suppliers in their next zero strategy. Businesses and governments are realising the urgency in responding to the climate emergency and measuring your carbon is the first step on this journey. We are hoping world leaders at COP 26 will show the same sense of urgency and action. Having a talented and highly qualified graduate like Anindya is hugely beneficial for us and our clients – something that was made affordable and really simple to do through the support of NEBS2.”

Available to businesses in Tyne and Wear and Northumberland, NEBS2 will run until June 23 to provide a package of services to enhance the competitiveness and growth of SMEs, and to support the creation of new graduate enterprises. Businesses who are looking at ways to recruit highly skilled interns, are encouraged to apply via our website: www.northumbria.ac.uk/NEBS