Sustainability Manager

Onward Homes; Manchester; On-site; GBP 49,000 - 59,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension scheme (matched up to 10%)

Health cash plan

Annual leave 40 days (32 days + bank)

Learning for life scheme

Discounts and cashback offers

Family-friendly policies

Flexible working environment

Job summary

Onward Homes is seeking a Lead Sustainability role to drive energy efficiency and asset strategy across its portfolio. You will coordinate with multiple teams to deliver MEES compliance, decarbonisation initiatives and net-zero targets, reporting progress to senior leadership.

The role requires extensive experience in sustainability, regulatory compliance, and stakeholder engagement, with a focus on delivering value for residents and ensuring long-term asset performance.

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading sustainability and asset strategy programmes.
• Strong knowledge of energy efficiency improvements, low-carbon and PAS 2035.
• Proven expertise in heat network operations, regulatory compliance and fair pricing.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and reporting skills.
• Demonstrable experience leading and developing high-performing teams.

Responsibilities

• Set and refresh decarbonisation strategy and 30-year asset plan.
• Lead energy and sustainability projects to comply with regulations.
• Define data requirements and prepare reports for senior management and regulators.
• Engage residents and lead carbon literacy training.
• Coordinate with partners and stakeholders to deliver initiatives.

Skills

Sustainability leadership

Asset strategy

Budget management

Stakeholder management

Data analysis

Regulatory compliance

Cross-functional collaboration

Team development

Education

Degree in environmental science / sustainability / energy management or built environment (or equivalent)

Tools

Asset management software

Energy management tools

Job description

About The Role

What you can expect from us

• We offer a competitive salary of £54,000 per annum.
• 32 days annual leave plus bank holidays a total of 40 days paid holiday per annum which is equivalent to 8 weeks.
• Salary Finance - access both short and long terms loans, plus provides access to a savings facility.
• Opportunity to further increase annual leave with service or though the holiday purchase scheme.
• Immediate entry to our Pension scheme (matched contributions up to 10%).
• A great flexible working environment, with a range of family friendly policies.
• Health cash plan with financial benefits and the option to extend to your family.
  Cover includes dental, optical, physiotherapy, 24HR private GP access and much more.
• Paid leave for absence including sickness, maternity, paternity, and adoption leave.
• Access of up to £150 annually through the ‘Learning for life’ scheme.
• Access to a wide range of discounts and cash back offers, ranging from retail and automotive to holidays and cycle to work scheme.
• Develop your career with support and access to training and qualifications.

About the role

We are seeking to recruit a lead management role to drive sustainability across Onward, facilitating, coordinating and collaborating across other teams in the organisation. This role will be key to ensuring Onward delivers in terms of new regulation such as Minimum Energy Efficiency requirements (MEES) and also on our drive to reduce our carbon footprint working towards net 0 by 2025.

The purpose of the role is to manage and lead the delivery of Onward’s Asset Management & Sustainability Strategy across the homes and commercial portfolio, ensuring that key policies/procedures and objectives are effectively implemented,meeting both customer and Regulatory expectations. You will role model and lead Sustainability both within and external to Onward.

Job Responsibilities

Strategy, Governance & Compliance

Set and annually refresh Onward’s decarbonisation strategy and net-zero trajectory; embed into the 30-year asset plan and component lifecycles. Ensure compliance with all relevant energy and environmental regulations, including MEES, ESOS,SECR, and Heat Network Regulations leading on energy policies, procedures. Keep up to date with legislation, guidance, and funding opportunities relevant to energy and sustainability within social housing. Set retrofit programmes and ensure compliance with PAS2035 standards where applicable. Chair / Lead the Sustainability Steering Group, ensuring objectives are achieved and report progress and risks to the Exec and Board. Manage partnerships with manufacturers, local authorities,and third parties to drive delivery of the Sustainability Strategy.

Energy & Sustainability Projects

Manage /lead on development and delivery of sustainability initiatives and energy related projects to comply with regulations and subsequent actions. Manage/lead on Onwards compliance with Ofgem’s new heat network regulatory requirements. Ensure we have customer engagement and customer voice represented in decision-making and changes. Ensure a joined-up approach throughout the business for assets and components, new developments and compliance replacement programmes. Manage planning and submission of funding bids and lead responses to information requests. Oversee the EPC survey management strategy, retrofit assessments, and other necessary surveys, and any associated improvement recommendations.

Data & Reporting

Define carbon, energy, and condition data requirements, improve asset data quality to support investment modelling and evidence for funding bids. Maintain accurate records of energy performance certificates (EPCs), heat network documentation, and carbon data. Prepare reports, dashboards, and presentations for senior management, boards, and regulators. Lead research and evaluation of emerging technologies to improve asset energy performance. Oversee energy usage monitoring via smart technologies and implement corrective measures where required.

Resident Engagement & Communication

Lead on communication with residents on energy efficiency and sustainability initiatives. Collaborate with Resident Engagement and Housing Management teams to ensure initiatives are inclusive and accessible to all. Lead and deliver Carbon Literacy and energy efficiency training for staff, partners, and customers.

Skills/Experience

Essential

• Significant experience leading sustainability and asset strategy programmes, including project delivery, budget management, programme planning, cross-functional collaboration, and achieving value for money within social housing or regulated utility environments.
• Strong knowledge of energy efficiency improvements, low-carbon and renewable technologies, with a sound understanding of PAS 2035, Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) delivery, and long-term investment planning.
• Proven expertise in heat network operations, regulatory compliance and authorisation requirements, consumer protection frameworks, and fair-pricing principles.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and reporting skills, with the ability to interpret complex data and translate insights into effective business decisions.
• Demonstrable experience in leading, managing, and developing high-performing teams.
• Highly effective stakeholder and matrix management skills, with the ability to build strong relationships and influence across a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong communication and engagement skills, with the ability to collaborate across the organisation and embed sustainability principles into mainstream business activity and decision-making.

Desirable:

• Experience working with asset management software, and energy management and monitoring tools.
• Experience with preparing funding applications or managing decarbonisation grant applications and programmes.

Qualifications

Essential

• A degree level qualification in environmental science, sustainability, energy management or a built environment discipline (or equivalent experience)

Desirable:

• PAS 2035 Retrofit Coordinator or Retrofit Assessor
• Membership in relevant professional body – i.e. The Institute of Environmental Management and Asse

About Us

About Onward

Onward Homes is one of the largest registered providers of social housing in the Northwest, with 35,000 properties across the region.

We believe that everyone deserves a place to call their own, which is why we’re committed to building 500 new homes each year. We do more than just provide a roof over our customers’ heads, we’re here to make a real difference.

In addition to creating positive spaces for our customers we continuously strive to create a positive and progressive workspace to enable our colleagues to achieve their full potential.

We embrace diversity and strive for diverse teams to create an inclusive culture which enables Onward to thrive and be representative of the communities that we serve. We want to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to be part of our recruitment processes and will therefore make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to assist you with our recruitment process via the email address below.

At Onward Homes, your application will be reviewed by a human who carefully considers your CV, skills, knowledge and experience as part of our recruitment process. We do not use AI to make hiring decisions.

If candidates have any concerns / questions in relation to the role at any stage of the recruitment and selection process they can contact the HR team on [e-mail] and a member of the HR Team will be in touch.

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