Interning at Eco Brooklyn opened my eyes to green building like never before. It was such an amazing experience learning skills that make a difference in the world. An Eco Brooklyn internship is a great opportunity and I recommend it to anyone. Thank you! ~ Jason, Eco Brooklyn intern ~
Eco Brooklyn is an educator as well as a green builder. We offer the New York community a chance to gain exposure in the best green building practices available in the city. Our interns come from all kinds of backgrounds and include students, recent grads, writers, architects, laborers, film editors, you name it.
No skill is necessary. A good attitude and a willingness to help and learn is all you need. You will be expected to work hard in a fast paced environment. You will learn through full immersion in real world green building environments. Please read the comments at the end of this page for more intern testimonials.
“Intern School”: The internship is tailored around a mentor program very similar to a graduate self study course. Depending on the intern’s interests and learning goals they will be assigned tasks. Throughout the process they will meet with the Eco Brooklyn mentor.
All interns are expected to leave the program with something to show for it. If they are office interns this could be a series of blog posts or videos. If they are job site interns it could be having assisted on an eco garden or the installation of a salvaged floor. In the case of job site projects, what they leave with is very dependent on the jobs we have at the time.
Time Commitment: Our training program is a minimum 3 month commitment. You can choose to do between 20-40 hours a week. We give preference to interns able to commit 30 or 40 hours a week. Work days are Monday to Friday. Hours are 10-4:30. No weekend work.
Payment: Internships are not paid. Eco Brooklyn Interns receive a $10 daily stipend for transportation and food.
Intern Environment: There are two places for internships:
1. On a job site: Interns gain experience in real world green building. It is dirty hard labor but very satisfying for those who like to get physical and learn new things. Along with normal labor duties (carrying, cleaning etc), depending on your interests and available jobs you will be paired up with experienced green builders – carpenter, plumber, electrician etc – to help and learn.
2. In the Eco Brooklyn office: This is a very informal, unstructured environment. The office is in the top floor of the Green Show House brownstone, which is also a working home. Self-direction is a must. The internship is very satisfying for somebody who wants the freedom to explore green building in a small business.
Office Internships - We have internship openings for the following positions. Interns can also choose to mix and match.
– Media Intern - This position teaches you how to perform media outreach for a green building company. Duties include interacting on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites, reaching out to journalists and bloggers to encourage them to do stories about us, contacting industry professionals like architects to let them know we are accepting jobs, posting blogs on our site, creating video pod casts and book reviews, organizing tours of the show house…
- Blogging Intern - This position teaches you how to write for a green building company. Duties include those of the Media Intern but are much more focused on more in depth writing like you see on our site.
- Video Intern - This position teaches you how to produce, direct, film, edit and publish videos for a green building company. Duties include those of the Media Intern with a focus on making video blogs on various green building topics.
- Office Intern - This position teaches you the business side of a green building company. Duties include filing papers and receipts, expediting paperwork for insurance/DOB/plans etc, reaching out to contractors to get salvaged materials, helping with job timelines, organizing the office….
Thank you very much for the opportunity of working with you. As you know, I am very interested in pursuing this field after graduation and it was a fascinating learning experience interning for EcoBrooklyn. I’ve gained a great deal of knowledge that I hope to put to good use in my career.
Once again thank you so much for letting me get involved. There are a great number of people that feel non-green construction is not working, that in the world we live in there is a big gap between ecology and building. I think what you are doing is great by creating a bridge and opening new doors.
I had a really great and inspiring experience. It felt great to be finally hands-on!!! I learned a lot with Alex and specially Ruben. He seems to be a very knowledgeable and has a passion for what he does. One of the best parts was Eco Brooklyn people were always open, simple, friendly and often very knowledgeable.