An Alumnus’ Commitment to the Environment

As someone who immigrated to British Columbia, Canada from India, Jasdeep Gulati (M.S. ’22) understands how drastic the temperature adjustment can be for new residents coming from warmer parts of the world.

“When I came to Canada, I knew nothing about the climate conditions,” Gulati says. “For example, we don’t have furnaces in our country, so if someone has never seen a furnace, but they rent or buy a house in Canada, they might not know they need to change the furnace filters.”

As an energy management graduate from New York Institute of Technology’s Vancouver campus, Gulati is highly invested in educating people about environmental and climate sustainability. To help his region achieve that goal, he works part-time with Empower Me, a government-funded agency in British Columbia that helps new immigrants improve energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption in their homes. Gulati also supports them in finding grants and rebates so the changes they make will be affordable.

“In the Empower Me workshops, we help people decide on good solutions for their house,” Gulati says. “Then we take their feedback to the government and help create new programs and workshops to address their needs and challenges.”

Gulati does similar work full time as an energy specialist for the city of Delta in British Columbia. On the corporate side, he’s helping the city meet its goal of decarbonizing municipal buildings to achieve net zero by 2025. On the community side, he supports and makes policy toward energy reduction and efficiency in civic buildings. For example, Gulati supports the move to more sustainable energy sources, such as electrification and renewable natural gas, which has a negligible carbon emission. Even smaller changes, such as using LED lighting, can make a big difference in energy efficiency, Gulati says.

“More people are becoming aware of climate change and what actions we need to take,” he says. “We need everyone’s support, or we will not reach our target.”

Gulati’s concern for the environment began while he was living in India, and when he came to New York Tech, he turned that concern into a company. As a student, Gulati noticed that the school distributed lots of New York Tech-branded swag, so he started a printing business called GoZero Print to create a more sustainable way to make those giveaways. Now, New York Tech and other universities as well as businesses have an option for more environmentally friendly purchasing. Gulati still runs the business, alongside his job with the city of Delta and Empower Me.

As an alumnus, Gulati has stayed connected to New York Tech, serving as lead member of the Vancouver energy management alumni networking group. He started the group to provide career guidance and support to alumni and to foster strong ties back to the university. Because of the group’s success, Gulati received the Alumni Service Award from the Vancouver campus in October 2023.

“We do career counseling and share job information specific to energy management. We talk about challenges in the market, how to find good jobs, and what skill sets and certifications you need to have,” he says. “Members can reach out to people personally for jobs. We have more than 100 energy management alumni in the group who all support each other.”