Student Case Study: South Devon Care

Name of Student:  Kari Webb

Degree Subject: BSC Biological Sciences with Prof Placement

Type of Internship: Green Consultants Scheme

Company Name: South Devon Care

Job Title: Green Consultant

Description Of Company: We are a local company offering a range of care services through our high-quality care homes in beautiful South Devon. Our aim is to improve the lives of the people we care about.

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

My main responsibility was looking at the company’s energy efficiency and suggesting potential improvements they could make to save energy using the Carbon Footprint’s Energy Efficiency Test. I highlighted the need for better staff engagement and proposed a few strategies including an online quiz that calculates an individual’s carbon footprint. Additionally I looked into the feasibility of installing solar panels at each of their sites using a solar energy calculator.

What outputs and outcomes did you deliver for your employer?

I produced a 3-page report with sections on energy efficiency, staff engagement and solar panel feasibility including graphs and tables I generated on excel to visualise the results from the multiple online tools I utilised.

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

Learning to work independently and taking sole responsibility for fulfilling a project to a client’s specification.

What did not go so well on your internship? How did you overcome any challenges?

The manager was very busy, and difficult to communicate with because of the requirement to work online due to COVID-19. His instructions weren’t clear, and it took a long time to get information from him.

To overcome these challenges, I would collate all the question I had throughout the day into a single email so that I wasn’t sending lots of little emails throughout the day limiting the amount of time the client had to take out of their day to respond to me. In addition, whilst waiting for their response I would conduct work that didn’t require the information e.g. researching staff engagement techniques.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Ability to Work Under Pressure
  • Organisation
  • Decision Making
  • Researching
  • Time and Workload Management

Attributes Developed:

  • Initiative
  • Perseverance
  • Professionalism
  • Confidence
  • Motivation

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

If you have a flexible and creative mind, a passion for sustainability and the environment, and want to be involved in developing strategies which have real impact on the way a business conducts itself you’re gunna love it.

Also my top tip is to get involved in as many activities and experiences as you can it is only by trialing new things that we find out what we are truly passionate about : )