Net-zero Planning and Policy - Sustainability Consultant (9-day fortnight)

Bioregional is seeking a Sustainability Consultant for its Sustainable Places team in the UK. The role focuses on net-zero planning and policy, requiring at least 3 years of experience. It offers a salary between £37,000 to £55,000 and features hybrid working options. The position includes a trial of a 9-day fortnight without pay loss, emphasizing collaboration and sustainability in local planning efforts.
We’re looking for a skilled Sustainability Consultant to help deliver planning and policy work in our award-winning Sustainable Places team.

About the role
• Salary: £37,000 to £55,000 per annum, depending on experience
• Duration: Permanent, full time
• Location: Hybrid working. Offices in Sustainable Ventures, Waterloo, Central London
• Experience: 3 or more years of relevant experience
• Hours: 37.5 per week, but we are currently trialling a 9-day fortnight as part of a national pilot of reduced working hours, with no loss of pay.

Deadline: 9am Tuesday 6 May 2025

Please click on 'Apply' to read the full candidate pack.

Your new role – what’s involved?

We’re looking for a Consultant to join our Sustainable Places team – a group of passionate, mission-driven professionals working with local authorities, developers and communities to shape places that are fit for the future.

Your primary focus will be on net-zero local planning, helping to ensure that local plans and new developments genuinely deliver on the climate emergency. This means working on everything from carbon impacts and evidence-based development to policy drafting, plan examinations and implementation support.

We have built a strong reputation for our work in this area, and we have a growing pipeline of projects in this space, particularly supporting local authorities in developing robust net-zero carbon policies and evidence for their emerging local plans. This role will strengthen our capacity in this area.

As part of a small and collaborative team, this role offers real variety, as well as the opportunity to help shape the places in which people live, work and thrive. This role requires flexibility to support a variety of work requirements, and you will bring skills and knowledge that help improve and expand the services that we offer.

Your skills and experience

Ideally, you will:
• have knowledge of the UK planning system
• have a strong interest and knowledge of sustainability, from an environmental and/or social perspective, based on personal conviction as well as academic and/or practical experience,
• good competencies in numeracy and research to create an evidence base,
• excel at presentation, persuasion and reassurance to win hearts and minds in the process, as well as good leadership and collaboration skills

Qualifications

Educated to degree level (preferably in a related discipline such as environmental science, geography, engineering or an equivalent) or have relevant work experience.

About Bioregional

Bioregional is one of the UK’s original sustainability consultancies. Founded in 1994, we have been winning awards and working with partners to create cutting-edge solutions to sustainability for almost 30 years.

As a purpose-led organisation, our mission is to help businesses and communities respond to the climate and ecological emergency, and create a world in which we can live happy and healthy lives within the limits of our planet’s resources.

We created the One Planet Living framework and have over 30 years’ experience of influencing sustainable places, homes and communities in the UK and around the world. This framework provides a vision and a toolkit for creating healthy and happy lifestyles within the limits of our one planet, and which we make free to use by everyone.

These principles have guided the development of exemplar projects across the world – in the UK these include BedZED, the UK's first large-scale eco-village, the sustainability strategy for London’s bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, and the UK's first eco-town, Elmsbrook, in Oxfordshire. We have been winning awards and creating cutting-edge solutions using this framework.

As committed environmentalists, we only work with clients who match our ambition, acting as a 'critical friend' and challenging them to innovate at the boundaries of best practice. We have built our expertise, knowledge, and reputation by collaborating with leading industry players, from leading multinational retailers to housebuilders, real estate investors, pension funds, and local authorities.

We are a social enterprise. This means that, unlike other consultants, we have no partners or shareholders. We use any surpluses we make to fund practical projects and educational resources that enable people to live more sustainably, and then share this learning with industry and policymakers to drive systemic change.

Along the way, we have influenced national and international sustainability policy, including work on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

With relevance to this role, Bioregional is at the forefront of best practice in developing local plan policies on net-zero carbon. We advance this work not just through our direct appointments to support local planning authorities, but also via collaboration with our network of relevant influential industry expert bodies on this topic, such as the UKNZCBS, LETI, the Good Homes Alliance and others.

Your new team

At Bioregional, you will join sustainability experts who are dedicated to creating real impact that helps create a more sustainable world. We are entrepreneurial and professional, always delivering the highest standards of work and giving colleagues the freedom to innovate. And we treat everyone with respect, support our colleagues, and embrace diversity and inclusion to create an environment in which everyone can thrive.

Don’t just take our word for it, read what our former employees said about their time with us on our website. You'll be able to work flexibly from Sustainable Ventures in central London, Europe’s largest climate tech ecosystem, offering easy commuting options and a wealth of local amenities. We also work from the Eco Business Centre – the UK’s first Passivhaus Plus offices – in Bicester, Oxfordshire.

What’s in it for you?

1. Work-life balance

Work is only one part of your life and making time for other things is important – be that your family, friends, or yourself. In this role, you’d be required to be in our London office with the team or with clients for three days a week, leaving you the flexibility to work at different locations and times during the rest of the week, whether that be in the comfort of your own home or collaborating with colleagues in the office. We are currently piloting a 9-day working fortnight, with every other Friday off, to give the team more time back to do the things they love.

2. Diversity and inclusion

We foster a supportive, inclusive workplace where people can be themselves and achieve great things. We are committed to improving diversity and inclusion within the built environment and sustainability sectors – including our own organisation – and we expressly welcome applications from those with a disability and people of a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background.

3. Health and wellbeing

Health and wellbeing are fundamental to our ethos and our vision of a better world. We make sure we’re a great place to work through regular feedback with colleagues and run regular social activities – in person and online – to build and maintain our positive working culture. We are committed to supporting our team through a range of benefits, from our employee assistance programme to our cycle-to-work scheme.

4. Professional development

We have a learning culture and help our people to enjoy rewarding careers where they will grow and develop their skills. We build and share our knowledge through regular staff seminars and offer 10 days of training and development time each year, a training budget for each employee, plus additional support for formal training and study. Bioregional’s training pathway means that colleagues always understand and have access to the training they need to progress their career – be they an Analyst or a Head of Department.

5. An ethical employer

We live our values in everything we do. As well as working from sustainable office space alongside like-minded businesses, your benefits include a 6% employer’s ethical pension contribution and 25 days of annual leave, rising by one day for each year you work with us, for up to five years, to 30 days of annual leave.

How to apply

Deadline: 9am Tuesday 6 May 2025

Please apply by submitting a CV and cover letter, describing why you want the job and what you would bring to the role, to recruitment@bioregional.com. If you think this role is right for you, then we would love to hear from you, even if you think you don’t meet all the requirements set out above. Please read the full job description before applying.

We positively encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity/gender expression, religion/belief, marital status, pregnancy stage, maternity/paternity status, or any other equality characteristic.

We encourage you to apply for this role as soon as possible, as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and interviews will be held on a rolling basis. We reserve the right to close the advert early should we find the right candidate. If we close the advert early, this page will be updated/removed to reflect that, so please do apply if you're reading this.

Interviews will otherwise take place 13-15 May 2025 at our offices at Sustainable Ventures, County Hall, central London. Please let us know in your application if you will not be available during this week.

We look forward to hearing from you.