This piece was published in March of 2020. Jeannine was promoted to Vice President of Analysis on January 1, 2022.
We’re proud of the intelligent, passionate, and hardworking people that make up the Bright Power team. Each month, you’ll get a chance to meet one of them, understand how they contribute to the organization, and what makes them excited to come to work every day.
Meet Jeannine Altavilla Cooper, Director of Analysis, New York.
What are some of the things you like most about working at Bright Power?
The more we look at things like greenhouse gas emissions and the impact of energy use in cities, the more you can see that multifamily buildings are a large portion of energy use. Multifamily buildings straddle both the commercial and residential sectors, which can sometimes hide their impact. What brought me to Bright Power was its focus on making multifamily buildings better.
What I love about Bright Power is that everyone is inspired to work through problems and find solutions that help occupants and make financial sense for our clients. We all want to make buildings better, and it makes it more fun to work!
You recently were promoted to Director of Analysis, New York. Congratulations! What are some projects and accomplishments you’re most proud of?
I’m really proud of how our whole team was able to work together to help our clients fulfill their green loan requirements at the end of last year and build a massive dataset of nearly 1,700 properties.
Another thing I’m proud of is seeing the first building I analyzed for an energy audit at Bright Power begin to see energy savings after an energy improvement project! I completed the EnergyScoreCard, and also went to visit the property with the energy auditor. There’s usually a pause in my work after that initial analysis—once I create a ScoreCard I don’t get brought back into the project until the work is done, and it’s time to analyze the effectiveness of the energy and water improvements. It’s exciting to see this project through the whole Find, Fix, Follow process and to see its impact on residents and the client’s net operating income. It, perhaps, is more exciting to see the data we find get turned into action that betters buildings, occupants, and the environment.
What’s something people might not know about you and your role at Bright Power?
I didn’t start my career search out of college with sustainability in mind, but I got into it really quickly and don’t want to leave it. My field of study was urban planning, so I did come into sustainability with some exposure. I feel like the work that I’m doing today is helping make the world a better place. We spend so much of life at work, and it’s really important to me to know that my time is helping something bigger than me.
What people might not realize is that the Analysis team works with almost every other team at Bright Power. Most teams don’t interact with others the way we do across the company. It’s also unique in that we have external clients we work with, but we also have internal clients we assist because our data is at the base of every decision.
What’s the one service offering we have that you think is the most beneficial to clients and why?
Our energy analysis through EnergyScoreCards, of course! The way we can take a whole portfolio and decide where there’s the most opportunity for improvement can make a significant impact. It’s always a learning opportunity to dig into the data and a very valuable exercise. Often, the areas for improvement are not where you think they may be at the start, and you would never have known that if you did not dig into the data!
In honor of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, what advice would you give to a woman looking to begin her career in sustainability?
Keep asking questions and know that you can go anywhere. You might not get there overnight, but you can chart a path to get there.