What's your job about?
The Clean Energy Regulator is a Federal Government agency tasked with administrating Australia’s climate change law to reduce carbon emissions and increase the use of clean energy.
The work I do falls under the Emissions Reduction Fund scheme. The Emissions Reduction Fund aims to provide incentives for organisations and individuals to adopt new practices and technologies to reduce their emissions. I am part of a team that assesses the eligibility of Emissions Reduction Fund projects and applications for Australian carbon credit units. I am mainly involved with projects from industrial, waste and agriculture sectors.
What's your background?
I grew up in Tuncurry/Forster, a small, sunny coastal town on the New South Wales Mid North Coast. It was a fantastic place to grow up. I was always on the water or at the beach. I attended the local high school, Great Lakes College Tuncurry Campus and eventually moved to Newcastle NSW.
I completed an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science and Management at the University of Newcastle in 2011. The next four years I worked as a Water Treatment Plant Operator, operating and maintaining the drinking water treatment plants for the Hunter region. During this time, I decided to further my education so I completed a Masters of Environmental Management.
I saw the Clean Energy Regulator graduate program advertised in 2015. It was a program I really wanted to be a part of and luckily, I was offered a position for the 2016 graduate program. I absolutely loved the graduate program. The program provides a safe space to test your strength in different areas of the agency. The development opportunities were so advantageous for me, both professionally and personally. I completed the program December 2016 and still love working at the Clean Energy Regulator.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Someone with a different background would be more than capable of doing my job. My team has such a variation of different backgrounds. As my supervisor has always said, different backgrounds allow people to approach the same problem and see different solutions. It promotes innovation and creates a great environment for working collaboratively. All you need to be a Regulatory Officer is attention to detail, a sense of curiosity and the ability to embrace collaborative work environment.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
It is a combination of interesting subject matter and great colleagues. I find the work the perfect balance of diverse and challenging. My colleagues are fantastic people to work with. Everyone is intelligent and genuinely care about the work we do. I have learnt a lot from them.
Another cool part of the job is the sense of accomplishment I feel at the end of the day. It is so rewarding to know that the work you do is contributing the Clean Energy Regulator’s goal of accelerating carbon abatement.
What are the limitations of your job?
The main limitation of my job is time pressures. There is always something that needs to be done. For the most part this is great; I am never bored at work. However, you do need to manage your time well. You also need to be able to say no to work. If you are at full capacity and cannot take on additional tasks, you just need to be honest about it.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...