Summer Internship

Upland Road: Internship Opportunities 

 

Upland Road is looking for 4 undergraduate students entering their junior or senior years who are studying sustainability, business and economics, public policy, environmental science, social sciences, engineering, or other complementary disciplines, to tackle foundational research projects that will help us expand our understanding of markets and industries, and will impact how we build our facilities and configure our campuses and our company. 

 

Upland Road: Creating Zero-Waste Communities  

 

Upland Road develops eco-industrial parks, called SMART (Sustainable Materials and Advanced Recovery Technology) Centers™, which are designed to monetize waste, drive economic growth, and advance environmental sustainability by converting ~90% of all discarded materials to beneficial uses. Upland Road’s innovative technology separates commingled solid waste. Our transformative business model then generates consumer goods, soil amendments, clean energy, and green fuels – all from recovered paper, plastics, food and yard waste, glass, metals, and hard-to-recycle items, such as diapers.  

 

Recycling Crisis. Managing solid waste efficiently and economically is not tomorrow’s problem – it is here today. The closure of offshore markets, particularly China’s, to recycled materials has dramatically increased waste disposal costs across the country. New and creative solid waste management strategies are needed urgently. SMART Centers™ are the breakthrough, zero-waste solution to the dual problems of rising costs and the unpredictable economic performance of traditional recycling. 

 

Experienced Team. Upland Road is a team of seasoned experts with extensive experience in solid waste management, manufacturing operations, conversion technologies, advanced technology development and deployment, environmental market transformation, law, and corporate sustainability. Among Upland Road principals are adjunct faculty members at Columbia Business School and Fordham Law School. Team members have excellent contacts across industries, as well as with local, state, and federal governments.  

 

Transforming Garbage. Commingled waste materials are garbage; separated waste materials are valuable feedstocks. By converting ~90% of America’s solid waste to productive use, SMART Centers™ can significantly reduce the use of landfills. Additionally, the SMART Center™ model eliminates the need for separate waste and recycling bins and multiple pickup routes. All waste can be combined into one bin and separated at scale at the SMART Center™ by Upland Road’s patented sorting equipment array. This eases traffic and reduces air pollution. Each SMART Center™ will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by between one and two million tons CO2e per year, the equivalent of taking between 200,000 and 400,000 cars off the road.  

 

The Company. Today, Upland Road operates virtually. We are actively engaged in negotiations to site our facilities in several locations across the U.S. and with global financial partners to fund our efforts. We meet regularly via technology platforms and in a New York City office periodically.  

 

Internship Focus  

 

An internship with Upland Road will provide you with insight into a rapidly changing market that has profound impacts on our environment, both in the U.S. and internationally, and will allow you to help transform a system that for decades has resisted modernization. You will have the opportunity to work directly with senior-level executives from legal, corporate, and sustainability fields.  

 

We are looking for highly motivated students who can commit 20 hours a week for 8 weeks, starting on June 5th and ending on July 28th, 2023. You will report directly to one of our senior team members and deliver a range of work product in various areas of study, ranging from quick-hitting, targeted research on individual companies, situations, or techniques, to wider-ranging and more comprehensive overview white papers. Your work will be incorporated into our research library and will be used as the basis for negotiations with commercial partners and government agencies.  

 

We offer a $2,400 stipend, paid in two equal installments during the summer, for undergraduates. 

 

Below is a brief overview of the primary areas of interest we expect the internships to focus on. In your cover letter, please indicate which areas appeal to you the most and briefly explain why you are drawn to them. We will do our best to match your assignments with your interests and areas of study.