CS Energy is Working to Advance Opportunities for Women in Renewable Energy
February 1, 2021 | PRNewswireEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
CS Energy, a leading integrated energy firm that designs and builds optimized projects in the solar, storage, and emerging energy industries, has launched an employee-led effort to support, as well as increase the number of women on its team and within the broader renewable energy industry.
In spite of the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic, a group of female employees, with the support of executive management, launched CS Energy's Women in Renewable Energy (CS Energy WiRE) program in the spring of 2020. CS Energy WiRE aims to engage the female employees at CS Energy and provide them with the tools needed to grow and advance through a network of support and mentoring. The group is designed for all female employees across the various departments to collaborate and grow both professionally and personally.
"Despite the pandemic, the spark was there," said Dawn Robinson, Director of Human Resources and Communications and founding member of CS Energy WiRE. "CS Energy is making a big difference with a top-down approach embracing and encouraging diversity within the company. Our leadership wasted no time in providing the resources needed to launch the group."
The number of women employed in STEM fields is low, and is especially low in renewable energy. "18 percent of CS Energy's workforce are women, including 20 percent in our executive team. Our goal is to keep improving participation through this initiative," said Janani Ramkumar, Director of Pre-construction and founding member of CS Energy WiRE.
CS Energy WiRE plans to increase CS Energy's ranks of female employees by 10 percent over the next year. The path to achieve that goal involves increasing more female participation in career fairs, developing mentorships, and encouraging network outside the company walls. The group has established a leadership team comprised of employees from a variety of departments and experience levels. That team has led the group through internal networking events and an external Town Hall, where female CS Energy leadership joined forces with the National Girls Collaborative Project to reach women and encourage them to pursue careers in sustainability, engineering, and renewable energy.
CS Energy has already been recognized as one of the Best Places to Work in New Jersey, in part because the company provides paid time off for volunteer work, allows flexible work schedules, and offers parental leave for both men and women. These benefits, which are not yet universal in the construction industry, are often called for by women in the workforce.
"There is so much opportunity for women to thrive in the exciting fields of renewable energy, engineering, and construction," said Diana Palazzi Mery, Executive Vice President of Accounting & Finance for CS Energy. "We're working to create a program that we hope will be a powerful tool to advance their success." Palazzi Mery is the first woman on the company's executive leadership team, and one of CS Energy WiRE's founding members.
Suggested Items
Australian Flow Batteries and The SCHMID Group Announce Groundbreaking Memorandum of Understanding
04/17/2024 | SCHMID GroupAustralian Flow Batteries Pty Ltd (AFB), a leader in innovative energy solutions and economical, safe, and reliable power storage, and SCHMID Energy Systems GmbH a company of the German SCHMID Group, a global technology leader with a rich history in delivering innovative solutions across multiple industries including Electronics, Renewables, and Energy Storage sectors, are thrilled to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
Coherent Secures $15M in Chips Act Funding Through the CLAWS Hub
04/12/2024 | CoherentCoherent Corp., a leader in wide- and ultrawide-bandgap semiconductors, announced that it secured $15 million in funding from the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act of 2022 that provided the Department of Defense (DoD) with $2 billion to strengthen and revitalize the U.S. semiconductor supply chain.
The Need for a Holistic Global Sustainability Standard
04/10/2024 | Michael Ford, Aegis SoftwareNo one can deny that the resources of our fragile planet are finite. The environment seems like a third party, subject to constant degradation. We’re acutely aware of the effects of pollution on our climate, and despite our “throw-away” culture, recycling and recovery of materials has remained relatively expensive, even as we use more energy just to survive.
Ambiq Apollo510 Delivers 30x Power Efficiency Improvement to Unleash Endpoint AI
03/27/2024 | AmbiqAmbiq, a technology leader in exceptionally energy-efficient semiconductors for IoT devices, is introducing the new Apollo510, the first member of the Apollo5 SoC family, which is uniquely positioned to kickstart the age of truly ubiquitous, practical, and meaningful AI.
A Replacement for Traditional Motors Could Enhance Next-gen Robots
03/25/2024 | Stanford UniversityWhether it’s a powered prosthesis to assist a person who has lost a limb or an independent robot navigating the outside world, we are asking machines to perform increasingly complex, dynamic tasks.