Senior Environmental and Sustainability Advisor

FTE: 1.0fte (working 37 hours per week)

Salary: UH8 £45,163 pa to £56,921 pa by annual increments on achieving designated skills and experience

Annual Leave: 30 days plus standard public holidays and an additional 4 days including the closure of our office between Christmas and New Year 

Main duties and responsibilities

The post holder will advise on institutional strategic direction and provide leadership on the University Sustainability Strategy and Policies, aligning organisational activities with external environmental and sustainability compliance, benchmarks, and global commitments. This includes managing the resourcing of all relevant activities and working with senior management and key stakeholder groups (internal and external) to develop supporting programmes, actions, and operational plans that deliver a measurable improvement in performance. 

The postholder will be the sustainability advocate for the University, driving cultural and behavioral change and raising awareness of sustainability across the organisation and beyond. 

Skills and experience required 

You will have a good knowledge of sustainability activities in the sector as coordinated by the Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education, and a high level awareness of environmental risks, policy, and legislation applicable to internal structures and governance. You will have experience successfully leading or working on the sustainability agenda at an institutional level and have experience writing policies, procedures, and strategies to embed sustainability principles across all institutional activity areas as well as experience of writing and producing reports and business cases for internal and external stakeholders. You will have experience managing internal and external Environmental Audits programmes e.g. ISO 14001 and EcoCampus. 

It is essential that you are able to influence individuals and groups through an excellent interpersonal and communication skill set including advocacy, public speaking, presentation skills and report writing. You will need to be comfortable working with colleagues and managers at all levels. You will need a working knowledge of Scope 1,2 and 3 carbon management practices and methods for decreasing resource consumption for this role.

You will be able to communicate clearly, both orally and in writing, presenting often complex concepts to a range of audiences, whilst possessing enthusiasm, resilience, drive, and commitment, working effectively in a changing environment. The ability to switch between high level strategic planning and day to day project delivery, and work flexibly, taking account of new information or changed circumstances, modifying your understanding of a problem or situation accordingly is essential for this role. You will require a responsible independence - committed to the success of the organisation and understand the need to work within the existing governance arrangements.

Qualifications required

Educated with a degree in relevant area or equivalent qualification or proven practical experience that demonstrates relevant levels of knowledge and skill.

Please view the job description and person specification for a full list of the duties and essential criteria. Please attach a personal statement showing clearly how your skills and experience match the Person Specification. 

We regret that we are unable to offer UKVI sponsorship for this post; applicants will either hold UK Right to Work or demonstrate access to UK Right to Work before an offer is made. 

Contact Details/Informal Enquiries: John Corbett, Head of Capital Projects j.corbett2@herts.ac.uk or on 07712 546724

Closing Date: 02 February 2025

Interview Date: TBC

Apply online via the above ‘Apply’ button.

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