What’s a day in the life at SEM like?
- Brandon Pendry
- July 12, 2021
- 7 Minute Read
Welcome Energy Campers!
We’re back with another virtual field trip for the 2021 Wake Energy Camp tour! Each summer we open our office doors to welcome a bus full of rising 6th graders who are eager to learn about energy efficiency and solar power as part of the week long Wake Energy Camp. Similar to last year, the 2021 energy camp has also gone virtual! Our team members, Brandon, Sara, Grant, and Brian put together a fun presentation on building science, home performance, energy efficiency, and solar power. They also hopped in on a Q&A session and answered lots of questions! Check out the video above for the full scoop, and highlights below!
What’s up, everyone? My name is Brandon, and I’m going to be your tour guide through your day in the life at Southern Energy Management! Today we’re going to go on a tour to several different places out in the field. While there’s a very important support staff here in the office, the real tangible hands-on groundwork happens outside of this building.
So in this video we’re going to take you through the 3 core parts of our business. The first two are the single family and multifamily builder services. They help builders and developers create homes and communities that are more sustainable, more energy efficient, healthier and more comfortable. And as we know from the past 18 months of spending way more time in our homes, that’s a really important place to start in reducing our carbon footprint.
Builder & developer services: helps change the way people use energy — Solar power services: helps change the way homeowners make energy
The 3rd core service that makes up SEM is our solar energy team. They change the way homeowners make energy. Something to keep in mind is that no matter who is doing it, we at SEM work together — we believe reducing energy use and changing the source of our energy to renewable power from the sun will help to leave our planet a better place for those to come.
Making homes healthier and better for the environment
With the help of Sara, our Lead Building Performance Technician, and our field teams, we work with more than 10,000 homes every year across North and South Carolina. These field teams have an amazing support staff that work here in the office, as well as from our homes, who do everything from scheduling to invoicing. All of this helps builders and homeowners know and verify that their homes are indeed more efficient and will change the way that they use energy.
“Every day is different and that’s the exciting part of it. So in the morning, you look at your schedule and see how your day will go. Typically we’ll do a couple of rough inspections and then a few final inspections. So there’s a good balance to the day. You have so many people doing so many things to build a house; so many trades and many of them don’t know what the other ones are doing. So having a big overview of everything is really helpful for being able to picture how all these pieces work together to make a high performing house.” ”
–Sara
Creating sustainable communities
Our multifamily building team does similar work to what Sara showed us, but at a larger scale. This means working on apartment complexes, high rises, and commercial buildings to make sure that they’re built and developed in the most efficient and sustainable way possible. In the video, we’ll have a quick dance party with Grant as he goes through some unique steps that make a community more sustainable.
Unlike our single family team, the multifamily team can work on projects further away. Currently the team works in more than 18 states and gets to travel out of the country to make sure buildings all over are built to a higher standard.
Another aspect that sets the multifamily team apart is that our field inspectors, like Grant, also do project management and support roles. So even though our multifamily team is much smaller, they get the job done by being jack of all trades.
Using sunshine as our energy source
Our solar team helps to change the way that homeowners make energy. In the field we have our DC crew, the ones up on the roof placing panels, and our AC crew who configures everything down below so the solar energy can be used in our homes.
“It’s 9 hours of happiness! A typical day for a solar installer starts at the warehouse. We get there, we check our trucks, make sure we have all the materials, hardware and safety equipment we need. At this point in time, we’re filming in the summer so we definitely make sure we have tons of water for hydration. And from there, that’s when the fun starts!” -Brian
Just like our other teams, there are a bunch of people that support those field crews; everything from sales and marketing to operations and tech support. We really are one big family that works together.
Shine Tribe life
A day in the life at Southern Energy really is as diverse as the 100+ team members that make up our organization. A common thread that unites us all is our desire to shine in all we do. We want to make a difference in the world by changing the way people use and make energy. And we measure that difference — In 2020, our team impacted over 19,000 families, saved over 128 million pounds of CO2, and helped homeowners save more than $7.4 million in energy costs. In terms of trees, our work last year would have offset the same amount of carbon as planting 1.5 million trees!
We take pride in that because our team is compassionate and dedicated. We enjoy the journey and the impact that we make every single day. Whatever you end up doing in your life, we hope that you enjoy the journey, find your passion, and change the world a little bit too. Thanks for joining us in the field today!
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About Us
North Carolina’s solar power and building performance expert. Founded in 2001, we’ve worked for 20+ years to improve the way people make and use energy.
