I had the opportunity to participate in the Fisher College of Business’ global consulting internship program in Madrid, Spain. During this time, I worked on a team of three other students to consult for the commercial real estate company, CBRE. Through collaboration with my teammates and the broader CBRE team, we successfully completed two GAP analyses focused on sustainability for commercial real estate assets, with the objective of achieving LEED certification. This involved extensive research and analysis of sustainable solutions tailored to meet sustainability goals and align with LEED initiatives. 

This experience pushed me to broaden my understanding of sustainability’s role in business operations and identify opportunities for improvement that exist on a global scale. Being abroad allowed me to discover just how valuable sustainability is to businesses in other countries. Before embarking on this project, I was aware of many businesses’ written commitment to sustainability but had little experience in seeing these missions executed. By working toward LEED certification with CBRE, I was able to learn about all the ways businesses operate to comply with their sustainability goals. Furthermore, as a consultant for the company, I also studied solutions to improve sustainability operations among organizations, making recommendations for growth. This challenged me to learn as much as I could about this field in order to successfully complete my work in this position. 

During the project, our consulting team met daily with our project advisor who taught us how to complete our projects as efficiently as possible, given minimal resources. In the completion of GAP analyses for LEED certification, consultants often rely on information provided by the client. This can be challenging at times because clients either don’t have all the information needed or aren’t able to provide it within deadlines. Through these challenges, I got a lot better at adapting and finding new avenues to complete the same goal. This also required a full effort from our team, bringing us a lot closer. 

Serving as our team’s engagement manager, maintaining a positive team dynamic throughout the challenges we faced also harvested a lot of leadership growth for me. I explored different ways to motivate each team member to persevere despite setbacks that arose in the consulting process. To do so, I had to establish an understanding with each of the team members to fully grasp our mutual goals and plans to reach them. Upon doing this, tackling challenges with the team became much more seamless because we each knew how to play into our individual strengths in any given situation.  

Strengthening our team dynamic ultimately led to a successful project outcome, satisfying our clients, as well as solidifying our relationship with CBRE. Over the course of the month, we combined information about our client assets with our own research on sustainable solutions for business operations to produce a final deliverable that we presented to a broader CBRE team, including their Chief Financial Officer. This presentation outlined the asset in its current state, the certification credentials required, and our recommendation of sustainable solutions. This presentation not only allowed the clients to continue the LEED certification process, but also gave them valuable insights for improvement of their ESG framework.  

The consulting work that our team did for CBRE in Madrid was both enlightening and fulfilling. Before this internship, I had done small consulting projects but none with quite the impact that our work at CBRE had. Consulting for CBRE on a global scale opened my eyes to the potential that consulting work has in bettering corporate organizations’ influence on culture, society, and our environment. Watching the research and advice our team composed being implemented on an organizational level was so inspiring. It has awakened a passion in me and motivated me to seek consulting opportunities post grad so I can continue to incite change in the business world.  

First day in the CBRE Madrid office

Weekend trip to Toledo, España

The FGC CBRE team with our final deliverable

Visit to the Alcazar in Toledo, España