Sustainable Business Manager

Overview

This is an exciting opportunity to join the EA’s Sustainable Business team. We are looking for a Sustainability Manager to drive delivery of our newly launched sustainability strategy eMission. This sets out a sustainable path to deliver our corporate strategy EA2030. This role is a broad sustainability leadership role, which will hold portfolios that are agile over time. Currently this role holds portfolios in net zero, circular economy and sustainability reporting.

You will be leading a team of 9 people who are passionate and experienced in this area.

• Providing expert sustainability guidance, to inform decisions & mitigate risks.
• Leading the sustainable business teams aligned to the portfolios to create a high performing team. Recruiting, retaining, and motivating them.
• Establishing and maintaining excellent relationships with senior stakeholders.
• Delivering on time, to budget and a high‑quality standard.
• Setting KPIs, standards, assurance, governance, and service levels.
• Championing high value sustainability projects aligned to the portfolios, as sponsors or senior users.
• Role‑modelling EA values and sustainable ways of working across the organisation.
• Leading the Sustainable Business Team’s activities within the portfolios of net zero, circular economy, and sustainability reporting.
• Acting as a member of Sustainable Business Leadership team to set strategic direction for sustainability.
• Developing and implementing a business plan for eMission delivery aligned to the portfolios.
• Partnering with senior stakeholders to enable delivery.
• Leading by example and creating a culture around sustainability.

• Experience in leading a high performing, high impact, functional team, with breadth and depth of both people and budget management.
• Expert understanding sustainability as an integrated discipline, and experience leading functional portfolios within that bigger system.
• Strategic and systems thinking to find high impact pathways to deliver quality and lasting outcomes.
• Advanced negotiation and influencing skills to enable behaviour change in a complex environment.
• Ability to set sustainability in the current context, making the business case for interventions.
• Sound management judgement and strong team working skills, with proven ability to work at organisational level.
• Confident in risk management, organisational performance measurement, and business planning to prioritise, enabling timely, high‑quality delivery.
• A relevant degree, or equivalent experience gained through experience.

The role sits within the Sustainable Business team in Corporate National Services (CNS) directorate. The team purpose is setting direction, targets and standards for Environment Agency sustainability through our published Sustainability Strategy, eMission. Act as the sustainability technical authority through provision of expert advice to ensure policies and processes deliver our sustainability commitments. Own and manage the Environmental Management System, supporting us with internal environmental compliance.

Ensure the Environment Agency is leading by example on sustainability.

As a national team, the successful applicant can be based from any office and we support hybrid working. Some occasional travel and overnight stays may be required for team meetings.

We are fully committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce to reflect the communities we serve. We welcome flexible working patterns for all our vacancies, including job share, and we have a Guaranteed Interview Policy to support those with a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.