Environmental Defense Fund (edf.org), a leading international nonprofit organization, creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. EDF links science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships. Connect with us on EDF Voices, Twitter and Facebook.

Are you interested in exploring a career at an internationally-recognized environmental organization? By joining EDF as an Intern, you too can be part of a vibrant workplace that welcomes diverse perspectives, talents and contributions, where innovation and a focus on results are a way of life. EDF’s Internship Program welcomes intellectually hungry leaders to join us, advance our work, and cultivate the skills and relationships needed for a successful career working for the environment. Alumni of our Internship Program have gone on to important leadership positions, most notably our own President, Fred Krupp. Could you be the next Fred Krupp?

EDF offers internships and fellowships for students and recent graduates in a variety of programs and departments throughout the organization. The ultimate goal of our internship and fellowship program is to provide high-quality experiences (including relevant projects and opportunities for networking) that form the foundation for any individual who is serious about pursuing an environmental career.

The EDF+Business Program began partnering with Walmart on sustainability in 2005. Our primary goal is to change the retail supply chain to have a smaller environmental and social footprint throughout the life-cycle of consumer goods. Priorities include system and design changes to drive reductions in GHG emissions, reductions and removal of chemicals of concern from consumer products including food, improvements in agricultural practices that affect ecosystem and human health, consumer engagement, and effective metrics to track and document change. In 2016, Walmart published a new set of ten-year sustainability goals, developed through extended discussion with EDF and input from other NGOs and supply chain partners. These goals were announced during Doug McMillians speech at Net Impact. Projects will be based on the new goals that align with EDF priorities of climate, health, ecosystems, and oceans. Although EDF has been a partner with Walmart for over 10 years we partner, advise, and collaborate with other corporations to help set their sustainability goals and best practices; these include Land O Lakes, Kellogg’s, Target, Colgate, and many others.

Reports to

Jenny Ahlen – Director of Supply Chain

Overall Function

Each student would work with EDF staff, Walmart’s corporate sustainability team, Walmart merchants, Walmart suppliers, or another company that we closely partner with, in different product categories to identify areas of significant potential for product improvement in one or more environmental areas of importance to EDF. The category areas will become evident by Spring 2018, but are likely to focus on food production and processing, chemicals in food and products, greenhouse gas emissions explicitly given the gigaton goal, circular economy, and/or metrics. Specific tasks will include a mix of the following: prepare one or more situation and landscape analyses; identify points of leverage and quantify potential improvements found through independent research or in conversation with merchants and suppliers; cross map findings against market volumes to determine the most significant areas of potential improvement; calculate environmental outcomes and cost impacts; conduct and assess pilots; develop a set of recommendations that would drive category improvement and garner strong merchant interest and support.

A few possible projects include;  analyzing data and looking for environmental business methods with supplier companies, food waste, create and field webinars directed at company

Key Responsibilities

Tasks will include but are not limited to:

• Analysis of retail value chains and product categories associated with high sustainability impacts
• Interviews with members of retail merchandizing and sustainability teams to identify areas of interest in relevant product categories
• A list of potential product improvements and innovations in the targeted categories
• Follow-up meetings with merchandizing team members to gauge interest in product improvements and innovations
• Ranked list of recommended action strategies

Qualifications

• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Must be well organized, motivated, and detail-oriented
• Ability to multi-task, prioritize and meet deadlines
• Ability to work in a team setting and have the ability to work independently when projects are due
• Demonstrate initiative and problem solving skills.
• Must me able to prioritize different project deadlines and tasks.

Location

Bentonville, AR

Term

10 weeks during the summer

Hours

Full-time (35 hours/week)

Application Materials

Interested applicants should attach their cover letter and resume to the EDF application, together with Cover Letter and Resume.

Due to the volume of employment applications and queries received, EDF is unable to respond to each application individually. Applicants will be contacted directly if selected as a candidate.