Hannah Bernstein

When Hannah Bernstein, B.S. Urban Tech ’25, started at U-M, she knew she wanted to make an impact in the field of sustainability. After starting with the College of LSA with plans to enter engineering, she considered transferring to the School for Environment and Sustainability before making the move to Taubman College during her junior year.

“Urban Technology specifically seemed like a good mesh of all of these different interests, because it was multidisciplinary, and I liked the size and focus of the program,” she says. “Even though it’s broad and you can do anything with it, it also seemed more like I could do exactly what I wanted, which was to work on sustainable development.”

Following graduation, Bernstein was hired as a renewable development analyst with global clean energy company Invenergy, where she acts as liaison between stakeholders, including landowners, engineers, environmental protection agencies, lawyers, and community leaders, while ensuring respect for the land itself. Although she’s based in Chicago, the team she works with is focused on developing scalable renewables — including solar and onshore wind power and battery storage — in Michigan, which “hits close to home” for the Ann Arbor native.

Bernstein first connected with Invenergy through an internship in 2024, during which she helped analyze prospects for new developments based on Geographic Information Systems data and other inputs from previous projects to help determine which sites might be most viable and how responsive landowners might be. She credits her Urban Technology background with developing her critical thinking and comfort with working across sectors. A class in stakeholder relations — UT 201 Change-Making in Cities — was especially formative.

“The coursework really focuses on a large range of different factors that play into each other, which is the same thing that I’m doing with renewable energy development,” she says.

Posted on 2/6/2026