Sustainable Leadership

Study  Careers 

Glowing Green Australia is an environmental consultancy with two arms to the business – one pertains to the reporting, regulatory assessment and writing with regard to environmental policy and legislation; the other focuses on environmental education by embedding sustainability outcomes into schools and institutions, as well as supporting businesses to look at how they can implement behavioural change for better environmental practices in the workplace. 

Larissa Rose, Director of Glowing Green Australia says: “We have a deeply ingrained philosophy that we have a role and a duty of care to build the leaders of the future. If we want to do the 101 of sustainability for our industry, then we need to ensure that we’re building the leaders of the future to sustain the sector.

 “We’ve scaled our business to support students by not only giving them the experience they need, but for us to leverage off the latest thinking in terms of the narrative of their course work, which is a reflection on the current trends in the industry.”

Award Winning Internship Program

Great Expectations 

As part of Glowing Green Australia’s internship program Larissa writes a job description for each student so that they have a clear idea of what the expectations are during their internship. “By having their role defined they’re able to take on leadership responsibilities within our organisation as part of their experience here,” she says. 

Larissa spends a lot of one on one time with each intern to help shape their skills as future leaders. “By investing the time of sitting down with them I can identify gaps in their knowledge or understanding within their role. This allows me to shape the duties to their needs, creating better outcomes for the student and Glowing Green.

“If a student is really strong on public relations work or social media skills for instance, we can target their strengths to those specific areas of our workplace, giving them greater opportunities to flourish. We not only benefit from utilising their assets, but get to hone our own skills because the students are excellent sounding boards in updating us on the latest developments and processes.” 

The internship program at Glowing Green is more than just an opportunity to work in a real world environment. “For me it’s very much about professional development, not just the experience within the profession itself,” says Larissa. “It’s also important that they understand the difference between being a boss and being a leader in the workplace.”

Intern Experiences 

Sejal Khanvelwal, is an international student from India in her first semester of her Communications and Business Degree at Bond University. She says that while her studies at Bond have transferred well to the workplace this has been an invaluable opportunity.

“This is my first industry experience on the Gold Coast and it’s more than met my expectations. The best part has been getting my hands on social media and writing media releases. Larissa has been incredibly helpful and supportive, providing good feedback on my work.”

Norwegian Lise Arnesen, a Masters’ student in Sustainable Environments and Planning at Bond University, who arrived here following study in the US has been similarly glowing in her praise.

“Previously I did an internship with a project management company in California. This experience has definitely been more rewarding. It’s opened my eyes more into areas like renewable energy, as well as having a better understanding of climate change and the energy matrix. Larissa is a wonderful mentor and has really helped me solidify my career goals.”

Emily Ryan Engages in Social Media

Australian Emily Ryan is the third student currently serving an internship at Glowing Green. “I’ve gained so much learning from a strong female figure like Larissa. How to communicate in the workplace and seeing how she operates within the business has given me greater confidence knowing that I could do this in any business myself.”

Social Media Skills

The Griffith PR Major then makes a surprising revelation for a millennial. “I’ve done a lot of article writing and social media, which wasn’t my forte - I’ve only just got on to Instagram since coming to Glowing Green! Using social media from a business perspective has been a revelation to me, like staying on brand and focusing on the goals for the business in their messaging.”

Emily’s internship at Glowing Green has also resulted in other unexpected surprises.

“I grew up around a family business and coming into a new workspace with different people has been really helpful. Here I’ve gained the confidence to give advice based on what I’ve learnt at university and then put it into practice. I went back to the family business recently and told my dad that I wanted to have a sit down meeting with him, then I went through how he could adopt better business practices. I would never have been able to do that without gaining the confidence and experience from this internship at Glowing Green.”

Talent for Business Growth

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