Senior Sustainability Consultant – Environment Biodiversity

Turner & Townsend; Leeds; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading environmental consultancy in Leeds seeks a skilled Environmental Consultant to provide expertise in environmental legislation and biodiversity net gain. This role involves supporting clients across various sectors, ensuring compliance with environmental standards, and contributing to sustainability initiatives. Candidates should possess a degree in sustainability or ecology, along with strong project management and communication skills. This position promotes a collaborative and innovative work environment, focusing on making a positive impact in environmental planning.

Benefits

Flexible working environment

Opportunities for professional development

Qualifications

• Degree qualified in sustainability or ecology with a focus on the built environment.
• Experience with environmental legislation and biodiversity net gain is essential.
• Ability to develop succinct communications for technical and non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Act as a technical specialist in Environmental Planning and Biodiversity Net Gain.
• Support clients navigating environmental legislation.
• Provide a fresh perspective on nature markets and solutions.

Skills

Project management

Communication skills

Problem-solving skills

Relationship management

Data interpretation

Education

Degree in sustainability or related field

Job description

Our specialist Sustainability team is growing in response to a rising demand from a variety of clients for early‑stage advice on environmental planning, biodiversity, net gain and environmental management. We are looking particularly for individuals with demonstrable industry experience supporting large projects or programmes in managing environmental legislation and/or biodiversity net gain. We seek creative individuals who can help our clients capitalize on opportunities and competently mitigate the risks associated with environmental planning, environmental management and biodiversity net gain.

Our Senior and Principal Consultants join us from a range of organisations including sustainability consultancies, multi‑disciplinary engineering consultancies, local authorities and third‑sector organisations. They have played key roles in the development and delivery of sustainable outcomes on projects and programmes. We aim to strengthen our environmental and nature‑related expertise, so demonstrable technical expertise relating to environmental management, environmental planning and/or biodiversity net gain is essential. Experience with or a strong awareness of natural capital and nature‑based solutions is desirable.

In this role you’ll be at the forefront of driving programmatic approaches to mainstream the delivery of environmental enhancements, biodiversity net gain and nature‑positive outcomes within the UK’s private and public sectors. The specific role will be shaped around your individual skills and experience that you can bring to support Turner & Townsend in providing invaluable environment‑ and biodiversity‑related advice to a range of sectors and clients.

If this sounds interesting, talk to us to find out more about what we do. A conversation can lead to amazing places!

Key tasks (not necessarily all in one person)

• Act as a technical specialist in Environmental Planning, Biodiversity Net Gain and Environmental Management.
• Support clients in navigating legislation such as the Environment Act 2021 and Schedule 7a of the Town and Country Planning Act 1984.
• Provide a fresh perspective on environmental planning, biodiversity net gain, nature markets, biodiversity offsetting and nature‑based solutions.
• Act as a subject matter expert and play a key role in the professional development and upskilling of teams within Turner & Townsend on biodiversity and other nature‑related subjects.
• Help develop Turner & Townsend’s Nature Services offering, anticipating market trends and the needs of our clients.
• Support the development of business cases for new service areas to expand our reach to cover new clients and sectors.

Person profile

• Positive, creative and innovative.
• Self‑starter able to work independently and prioritise work effectively.
• Excellent team member, dependable, collaborative, approachable and inspiring.

Qualifications

We are looking to add a range of skills and experience to the team including:

Essential

• Degree qualified or equivalent relevant work experience in a sustainability, environment or ecology related topic with a focus on the built environment.
• Strong subject matter expert on environmental legislation, biodiversity net gain and associated legislation such as the UK Habitats Directive and the Town and Country Planning Act 1984.
• Systematic approach to project management with strong experience of managing complex multi‑stakeholder projects.
• Demonstrable experience in interpreting and using data to drive intelligent decision‑making around biodiversity net gain, environmental impacts or outcomes and to benefit cost and programme.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to develop succinct and accurate communications covering complex subject matter for delivery to both technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Great problem‑solving skills, adopting the most suitable approach for clients and your team.
• Strong relationship‑management skills developed through client‑facing roles.

Desirable

• A diverse range of experience across several sectors such as infrastructure, water, defence or housing.
• Strong experience working with or delivering nature‑based solutions and/or natural capital assessments.
• Environmental site experience on active construction sites acting as an environmental clerk of works or similar.
• Strong cost and programme management acumen.
• Stakeholder management and engagement experience, particularly with environmental regulators and/or local communities.
• Experience delivering training and upskilling sessions to a wide range of audiences.

Additional Information

Our inspired people share our vision and mission. We provide a great place to work where each person has the opportunity and voice to effect change. We want our people to succeed both in work and life. To support this we promote a healthy, productive and flexible working environment that respects work‑life balance.

Turner & Townsend is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and actively encourage applications from all sectors of the community.