Henry WalkeIntern Insights is a mini-series that spotlights the interns participating in the Sustainability Internship Program (SIP) and their day-to-day activities and accomplishments. The Office of Sustainability partners with the Student Sustainability Council and sustainability-related units from across the University to provide exciting and meaningful undergraduate internship opportunities for UK students. Interns work with a mentor to support a specific sustainability-related unit on campus, develop an independent project, and participate in a professional development series with a full cohort of interns. In this article, we are excited to share the perspective of Henry Walke, one of our Utilities and Energy Management interns.
My name is Henry Walke, and I’m currently a third-year student at the University of Kentucky, double-majoring in Economics and Environmental & Sustainability Studies with a minor in Mapping & GIS. This is my second year with the sustainability internship program; however, this year I’m interning as a lab sustainability intern with Utilities and Energy Management. This change came from having an admiration for the energy industry and an interest in the logistics that go into ensuring reliable electricity and utility use for a campus population of ~50,000.
My primary roles for this year include working with campus personnel on projects that inform individuals in the lab setting on sustainable lab practices, working individually on my independent project, and receiving rebates from Kentucky Utilities. These responsibilities harbor a mix of analytical and technical skills, as well as introducing working in an environment that delivers to thousands of individuals while going largely unnoticed.
My lab sustainability role consists of working with my coworker, Shelby Foxworth, on orchestrating UK User Led Environmental Lab Excellence (UKULELE) meetings that occur once per month. Additionally, we’ve hosted a couple of events for lab personnel so they have resources that can keep them up to date on the current sustainability practices that best suit their lab environment. We also work in distributing this information and helping lab individuals in finding what they need when it comes to a sustainability-oriented inquiry.
My day-to-day work is largely filled with working on my two other big responsibilities with the department, the first of which is coordinating rebates from Kentucky Utilities for equipment upkeep and upholding efficiency standards. The university is tasked with providing proof of service, purchase, and tax documents in order to file for these water-chiller rebates, which is what I’ve focused on as of now. As time progresses, we will expand the type of equipment we file rebates for, which offers a lucrative ceiling for money refunds.
Another large part of my schedule is working on my independent internship project. The project I’m working on this year is making an in-house system that tracks the energy information from the UK’s solar array. The University houses an array with a limit of 85 kWh, which, while not being a huge chunk of the required energy that the University uses, is a valuable teaching tool that is largely overlooked by the campus population.
The goal of this project is to work with campus control engineers and solar installation specialists to create a system that can be viewed from the UK’s building automation system, Tridium. This project will allow for valuable information to be viewed from the control engineers who work to keep campus utilities and electricity running smoothly, as well as be viewed by inquiring students who may be interested in campus sustainability initiatives.
