About TAF:

Have you heard about TAF? We’re a regional climate agency that invests in low-carbon solutions for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area and helps scale them up for broad implementation. We are experienced leaders and collaborate with stakeholders in the private, public and non-profit sectors who have ideas and opportunities for reducing carbon emissions. We advance the most promising concepts by investing, providing grants, influencing policies and running programs. 

We're looking for three interns to add capacity to our team this spring/summer, joining our Communications & Campaigns, Research & Innovation, and Impact Investing teams. The three opportunities, and candidate skills and experience we’re looking for are all described below. We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis until the positions are filled, and encourage you to apply soon.

Building an inclusive community with a shared purpose is critical to our work and mandate. We are Equalx30 signatories and believe that equity, diversity, and inclusion make climate action more just and effective. We believe that teams work best when they vary in background and approach, including diversity of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, ethnicity, national origin and all the other fascinating characteristics that make us different.

We understand that candidates come with different experience and backgrounds that might not align perfectly with the skills and experience we’ve listed here, and that’s okay. When you fill in your application, you'll be asked to tell us which role you're interested in, why you're the best candidate for the role, and what you hope to gain from the experience. We look forward to hearing from you!

Key details: 

Compensation: $27/hour plus financial support for wifi associated with work. A laptop will be provided.

Employment term:  full time (40 hours/week) for approximately four to six months between May 1 – October 31. Flexible schedule and hours to be determined in consultation with your manager.  

Location: Hybrid, with at least one day a week in TAF’s Toronto office (at Union Station). We will consider fully remote work for the right candidate! 

Other perks:  

• Experience what it’s like to work in the climate sector, with a team of climate action professionals. 

• Enjoy socials, lunch n’ learns, training sessions and other staff-wide experiences. 

• Benefit from other hands-on learning and networking opportunities. 

1.  Communications Specialist

TAF teams are building our GTHA network and need to include more allies working on interconnected issues like housing, affordability, economic opportunity, and health. We leverage an integrated team approach, meaning many relationships across the org. The Campaigns & Communications team’s objectives this summer are to update our CRM (Salesforce) with new contacts and subscribers, and to support TAF teams to develop new relationships, including through content development and updates to our website. 

In this role, you'll help to improve our inter-team contact sharing to ensure we're up-to-date on current relationships, build new partner lists for TAF to collaborate with on future initiatives, and work with subject matter experts to develop engaging new digital content.

Project Opportunities

Contact research and outreach 

• Review existing stakeholder lists in Salesforce and identify gaps and opportunities in contacts, organizations, and contact info related to TAF campaigns.  

  Connect with new contacts and organizations to broaden TAF’s network in strategic areas and provide introductions and meeting scheduling.  

  Research events TAF should participate in or attend to broaden our network and build our follower lists.

Content production  

• With support from the communications team, support the development original content to profile and showcase examples of urban climate solutions to drive new followers, boost engagement and create subscribers. 

Website CMS 

• Make updates to online content as needed using Word Press 

The kind of skills and experience we’re looking for: 

• Currently completing (or a graduate) from a business, communications, policy or related program and have a demonstrated interest in sustainability and urban climate solutions. 

• Experience using Microsoft Suite or similar tools, and experience with Salesforce is helpful but not essential – you’ll get on-the-job training. 

• Strong research and analytical skills and comfortable working with data and databases 

• Demonstrated ability to express ideas clearly and effectively in speech or writing. 

• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively. 

2. Impact Investing - Junior Analyst

As an impact investor, we manage a $100 million fund and invest in companies and projects with solutions for urban greenhouse gas emissions. We’re particularly interested in investments that generate benefits beyond carbon reduction such as improving people’s health, creating new green jobs, boosting urban resiliency, and contributing to a fair society.  

This position will join the Impact Investing team to support due diligence on investment opportunities, conduct market research, help refine our financial and impact reporting, research new investment opportunities, and monitor existing investments.

Project Opportunities:

• Work as part of the Impact Investing team to perform due diligence on prospective investees, including assessing risks, market research, financial modeling, and preparation of portions of investment memos for approvals.

• Attend Direct Investment and Investment Committee meetings and participate in any follow up actions required.

• Research and assess opportunities to invest in financing models that align with TAF’s focus areas and will support the mobilization of large amounts of capital.

• Help monitor existing investments and assess options for any issues identified.

• Support impact metric evaluations on current investments for internal reporting and investee upskilling.

The kind of skills and experience we’re looking for: 

• Currently completing (or a graduate) from a business, investing or finance-focused program and have a demonstrated interest in sustainability and urban climate solutions. 

• Experience using Office 365 or similar tools, and experience with Salesforce is helpful but not essential – you’ll get on-the-job training. 

• Strong research and analytical skills and comfortable working with data.   

• Demonstrated ability to express ideas clearly and effectively in speech or writing. 

• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively. 

3. Research and Innovation - Junior Analyst 

The Research & Innovation team advances TAF's climate action priorities by assessing the impact of carbon reduction technologies and processes.

Working with the team, you’ll undertake research and analysis to quantify the carbon and energy use across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).

Project opportunities:  

Quantification & Analysis 

• Support updating TAF’s annual Carbon Emissions Inventory, including undertaking analysis, summarizing key findings and data trends, and performing quality control checks. 

• Support quantifying the carbon and energy impacts associated with TAF’s grants and direct investments, including potential projects being considered. 

Research  

• Support strategic research projects, including developing a technical brief on the benefits to electrification. 

• Document key assumptions and inputs used in TAF’s historical grants and impact investing quantification.  

Communications 

• Help advance innovation and new knowledge by summarizing key findings for TAF’s external communications, providing effective and clear messaging, data products and visualizations. 

• Actively participate in staff meetings, organization-wide planning sessions, and working groups.   

The kind of skills and experience we're looking for:

• Currently completing (or graduate) from a science or engineering-focused program and have a demonstrated interest in sustainability and urban climate solutions. 

• Strong data analytical skills and experience in qualitative and quantitative research methods. 

• Familiarity with greenhouse gas emission analysis and carbon reduction technologies related to buildings, transportation or waste is an asset. 

• Excellent attention to detail and accuracy. 

• Good interpersonal skills and ability to work with other team members, actively participating in staff meetings and groups. 

• Good writing skills with an ability to summarize key findings concisely.  

• Ability to work independently in a fast-paced work environment. 

Next steps:

Start your application by clicking on the yellow button on the top right of this page.

You’ll indicate which role you’re applying for, upload your resume (no cover letter is required), and answer two questions letting us know why you’re interested and a great candidate for the role. You don't need to do it all in one sitting; you'll get direct link and will be able to come back and edit until you click submit. After the job closes, your answers will go through our de-biased sift process: all answers will be anonymized, randomized and then scored by members of our team.

If your responses to the questions score in the top 25% of applicants, we’ll review your resume.

If you are shortlisted, we’ll invite you join us for an online interview.

Depending on the volume and quality of applications received, we may add an additional step to our process. Whether you are successful or not, you will hear back from us once the process is complete.