Location – London (Gradechruch Street), Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow or Leeds

You will need to be in one of our offices at least 3 days a week 

About this role

Over the past year, Openreach has expanded its sustainability strategy to include new areas such as nature, as well as responding to a rapidly evolving external landscape with increased reporting requirements, participation in stakeholder groups and a need to broaden and deepen our responses on carbon and circular economy.

Becoming a sustainable business is no longer a ‘nice to do’ – we are in a double emergency and it is the responsibility of business to lead in this area. Our stakeholders’ expectations of us are also changing, whether that’s our colleagues, our customers, our investors, the government or regulator.

This work has led to the creation of this new role, which will combine programme management, goal setting and reporting for the work currently underway across the business (e.g. carbon footprinting the network, reducing plastics, transitioning our fleet to zero emissions) with the new ambition to become a business that fully understands the need to protect nature, reduce carbon and put the circular economy at the heart of our thinking. 

Openreach’s stated purpose is to: unlock opportunities across the UK for our customers, our people and our planet by building, maintaining & connecting communities to our network in the most responsible, sustainable & local way we can. We already have some targets, such as removing single use plastic packaging by 2025 and transitioning to a majority EV fleet by 2031,and we’re working on others in areas such as carbon footprinting and nature impacts.  These tactical initiatives will all support an overarching target for the reduction in carbon emissions we wish to achieve.  This role will be critical to setting the goals, championing change, measuring progress and challenging the business to go further.

This Sustainability Manager role is an exciting opportunity to support the implementation of Openreach’s new strategy at a national, regional and local level across a broad range of topics. This includes the delivery of an industry leading sustainability programme which puts the circular economy and carbon reduction at the heart of what we do, embeds nature targets into our operation.  The role will engage at very senior levels across the business, including work supporting the Director and MD of Corporate Affairs.

The Sustainability Manager will take on ownership of parts of the Openreach sustainability strategy, liaising across a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders – individuals and teams - to drive positive change against a clear set of measurable objectives and embed and instill an Openreach approach to tackling some of the key issues of our age. Working closely to support the Senior Manager [Head of] Sustainability in embedding action across the business, the Sustainability Manager needs to develop a robust set of KPIs or measures to demonstrate progress in the areas they take on.

The Sustainability Manager will report to Openreach’s Senior Manager [Head of] Sustainability, enabling close working with the Corporate Affairs teams and success depends on building strong and active working relationships across other areas of the business, being passionate about making change and the becoming an expert in the field of sustainability (which the successful candidate will be supported to achieve).

You'll have the following responsibilities

• Be a leader, a challenger and a restless agitator to drive continual improvement of Openreach’s performance on climate and nature issues
• Attend and lead project working groups as agreed with the Head of Sustainability, acting as an advocate for the most sustainable outcome and an ambassador for Openreach and keeping our longer term goals at the forefront of decision making.
• Act as a subject matter expert on carbon, circular economy and nature impacts in partnership with key business units including strategy, procurement, commercial and Group functions to offer clear guidance and advice, build capacity and to set standards on how to embed circularity and sustainability into functional strategies and future action plans.
• Ensure targets across project working groups are robust and challenging, with appropriate measurement and reporting processes.
• Support with the preparation of reporting / gathering of data against sustainability measures/objectives.
• Build and maintain a broad knowledge base of sustainability standards, frameworks and reporting to sense check and ensure Openreach stays ahead and continues to innovate in its strategy.
• Monitor external trends in sustainability and build processes that enable them to be incorporated into the Openreach programme
• Offer intelligence, insight and advice to inform the operation of Openreach and its communications and lobbying strategies.
• Secretariat support for key meetings including creating agendas, slide packs, taking and sharing minutes and actions.

You'll need to have the following skills and experience

• The successful candidate will be someone with strong in-house sustainability expertise from a large corporate, and with particular skills in project management, organisational change and stakeholder engagement. 
• You will need to be carbon literate with significant experience of carbon accounting, footprinting and reporting and a familiarity with mandatory disclosures and frameworks eg TCFD
• A familiarity with nature and biodiversity metrics and standards and the practical steps required to progress in this area
• Proven experience of implementing circular economy processes and measurable actions that have generated circular outcomes.
• A record of achievement as a committed and enthusiastic professional
• A campaigning mindset, resilient in the face of challenge, able to navigate ambiguity, creative and tenacious in overcoming roadblocks to get the desired result
• Good working knowledge and understanding of existing and potential sustainability regulation and reporting
• Knowledge of best practice sustainability and an external network of sustainability professionals in similar businesses
• Commercial understanding and the ability to explain the impact of sustainability on business practice and vice versa
• A confident and articulate spokesperson externally as well as internally, able to articulate a businesses’ viewpoint to a wide range of stakeholders
• Programme and/or project management experience.
• Ability to explain the circular economy, and experience of developing analysis and tools to support action and decision making.

Desirable

• ICT sector experience
• IEMA Associate (AIEMA) or Practitioner (PIEMA) and working towards full membership

Benefits

As well as offering a competitive base salary, you’ll also have a rewarding bonus scheme, access to equity schemes and an attractive pension offer.

We value different perspectives, skills and experiences. Diversity makes sense for us, our customers and our ambitions. We’re creating an inclusive working culture where people from all backgrounds can succeed.

About Openreach

We’re the nation’s number one broadband network and we build the connections that matter.

Our customers are the 640+ communications providers who sell phone, broadband and Ethernet services to homes and businesses and our mission is build the best digital future for the UK.

There’s over 33,000 of us across the country, and we have a vision that our workforce should represent the communities that we serve. Diversity and accessibility are important to both where we are now and where we’re going. We value every colleague and the contribution they make, because a diverse business is a stronger business.

We also want the best work-life balance for all our people, which is why we offer smart working. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, so you’ll be able to discuss how smart working fits with your role during the recruitment process.

How to Apply

It's easy to apply online; you just need a copy of your up-to-date CV and to follow the step-by step process. Don't worry if you need to make changes - you'll have the opportunity to review and edit your work on the final page.

We’re creating an inclusive working culture where people from all backgrounds can succeed. We welcome applications from every community and we’re looking forward to receiving yours.