Ambiens is first and foremost a company of people. It is they who, with their knowledge and experience, try their best to advise our clients. One of these people is Dr. Bartłomiej Jerzak – an Environmental Consultant, who in his daily work uses the skills he gained, among others, during his PhD or his work at the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station.
How did your adventure with Ambiens begin?
When I submitted my PhD thesis in 2022, I started looking for a job related to the broader environmental protection field. It turned out that Ambiens was looking for people to work in the offshore wind farm team in Gdynia. The job description and required qualifications fitted my profile perfectly, so I applied, and it worked out – I have been working at Ambiens since December 2022.
Why Ambiens?
I’m a marine biologist by education, but I’m very interested in everything related to nature, especially analysing it and trying to understand why it works the way it does. I’ve always been interested in how man interacts with the environment and whether that impact can be measured and possibly mitigated. I felt that at Ambiens I could put my knowledge and analytical approach to reality to good use. As it turned out – this hunch was correct. In addition, working here, you have a sense of causality- everything we deal with at Ambiens has concrete, often very significant, consequences.
What was your dissertation about?
In general – Antarctic zooplankton. More specifically – long-term changes in the diet of Antarctic copepods (small planktonic crustaceans) against the contemporary climate change. These organisms, along with krill, are crucial to the ecosystem, and long-term adverse changes in their populations could have consequences for the animals that feed on them, such as seals, penguins and cetaceans.
Right – seals, penguins, cetaceans. Your research interests have taken you all the way to Antarctica – will you tell us about it? How long were you there?
I was a member of the 39th Polish Antarctic Expedition and spent a year at the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station on King George Island, located a few hundred kilometres off the Antarctic coast.
Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station main building (King George Island, South Shetland Islands).
A gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) in the background of Dufayel Island (King George Island, South Shetland Islands). This photo by Bartek was in the final of the FotoGlob 2017 photo competition, organised as part of Kolosy – the Polish Meeting of Travellers, Sailors and Mountaineers.
What was it like living there? What did you do there?
My main tasks as an ecological and marine observer included conducting environmental monitoring, i.e. observing and counting birds, pinniped mammals and cetaceans, and collecting and analysing seawater samples. This experience has been very useful for me at Ambiens when preparing environmental reports. And what is it like living there? I always answer that it was simply good. Even though for a year I didn’t see a single tree, car, dog, cat or use money. For seven months, during the winter, I lived and worked in the company of some of the same faces. At first glance this may seem horrible, but it wasn’t at all, mainly because I was very lucky with the team – we got along with each other and didn’t make any problems. Life at the polar station gets boring quite quickly and what you have to face is the routine – the beautiful views get boring relatively quickly and the days become very similar to each other – especially in winter. To be honest, after about 2 months I caught myself not feeling that I was on the other side of the world at all. But I would like to note that these are purely my subjective feelings.
Bartek during environmental monitoring (King George Island, South Shetland Islands).
Bartek during marine monitoring (Admiralty Bay, South Shetland Islands).
What do you currently do at Ambiens?
I work as an Environmental Consultant in the Environmental Impact Assessment Team. My work mainly involves the preparation of documentation necessary for the development of photovoltaic and wind projects – such as project information sheets, EIA reports, site assessments and environmental monitoring reports. I also take part in the preparation of audits and plans necessary in terms of Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) when obtaining funding from international financial institutions.
What would you say to someone hesitating whether Ambiens is the place for them?
Generally, an important part of our job is to search for information and analyse various kinds of documentation, so if you have an analytical approach to reality and like to verify information, this job should suit you.
At work until the afternoon hours, and then what? Tell me what keeps you going, how do you like to spend your free time?
Outside of work, my life revolves around several points – music, books, travel, films and computer games. For the past dozen years or so, I’ve tried to attend several music festivals every year and as many single concerts as time allows. I plan most of my time off for festivals and concerts, which often combines with travel and creates the best mix I can imagine. Besides, I don’t think it is possible for a person alone to experience all the vastness of events and experiences the world has to offer, so I use books and films to help me understand it and broaden my horizons. In my spare time, I also really enjoy photographing nature. Finally, when I am not reading, at a concert, at the cinema or on a trip, I find it relaxing to play computer games. In my opinion, it is a storytelling medium no worse than books or films, doing it in a unique way.
The sea or the mountains?
As I see the sea outside my window both at work and at home, I choose mountains for my holidays. Ideally, however, it should be mountains by the sea, i.e. fjords.