Carbon Footprint Intern – Sustainability
Carbon Footprint Intern – Sustainability
Position Summary
Tennant is building a portfolio of product carbon footprints to better understand and reduce the environmental impact of our products. This internship supports that work by helping the Global Sustainability team apply an internally developed carbon footprint tool across our product lines. You'll join the Sustainability, ESG & Corporate Social Impact team and work with colleagues in engineering, supply chain, and other functions. You'll get hands-on exposure to how a global manufacturer measures product-level emissions and presents that data publicly.
Key Responsibilities
- Support the development of product carbon footprints using Tennant's internal carbon footprint tool
- Assist with collecting and organizing product data, such as bills of materials, material weights, and manufacturing and transportation inputs
- Collaborate with engineering, supply chain, and manufacturing teams to gather and verify the information needed for each footprint
- Participate in data quality reviews and help document assumptions, methodology, and data sources
- Contribute to summaries and visuals that communicate footprint results to internal stakeholders. If desired by the candidate, exposure to translating this data into marketing and customer facing content development could be added.
- Assist with maintaining a organized, consistent portfolio of completed product footprints
- Provide feedback on the tool's usability and suggest improvements based on your experience using itTry to avoid making the intern sound like they're expected to independently own a major function.
Development Opportunities
- Hands-on experience with product carbon footprint methodology and life cycle thinking
- Exposure to the way companies calculate and report product emissions
- Opportunities to work with a proprietary internal tool and contribute to its refinement
- Learn how to translate technical product data into clear, decision-ready insights
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams across engineering, operations, and sustainability
- Gain a view into how sustainability strategy connects to product design, customer expectations, and corporate reporting at a publicly traded global manufacturer
- Present your work to sustainability leadership and receive mentorship on career paths in sustainability and engineering
Required Qualifications
- Currently pursuing a bachelor's or master's degree in engineering, environmental science, sustainability, or a related field
- Comfort working with large data sets
- Attention to detail
- Ability to both work collaboratively and self-manage time
Preferred Qualifications
- Previous internship/project experience desired.
- Familiarity with Microsoft excel required. Microsoft Powerpoint is desired.
- Relevant coursework : an interest in climate and sustainability topics is desired.
- Technical skills: Familiarity with design and build processes (lego leagues, SAE team, workshop experience etc) desired.
Education
Currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Environmental Engineering or a related field.
Company Overview
Tennant Company (NYSE: TNC) is a global manufacturer of floor cleaning equipment and technologies, headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. For more than 150 years, we've focused on helping customers clean smarter, safer, and more sustainably. Our teams around the world work to create innovative products that improve performance while reducing environmental impact. We're committed to building an inclusive workplace where people from all backgrounds can learn, contribute, and grow.