Sustainable Manager

Job Description

Position Details

Campus Services

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £36,636 to £46,049 with potential progression once in post to £48,822

Grade: 7

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 25th November 2025

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Background

Campus Services (CS) employs over 1000 staff with a turnover exceeding £65m in the last financial year. CS plays a key role in the quality of the student, staff and visitor experience, providing services across diverse areas such as the University's sporting facilities, food and beverage, cleaning, conferencing, hotel operations, day nurseries, Portering, post, branded and own-brand retail outlets, visitor services and attractions (e.g., Winterbourne House & Gardens), student housing, transport, waste disposal and recycling. CS is a highly commercial organisation operating within the University context and has an ambitious strategic agenda, in terms of growing our service profile across both our Birmingham and Dubai campuses.

The University's Facility Services Department is an award-winning team committed to service excellence and sustainable practices. It's responsible for a wide range of essential campus operations, including Cleaning & Waste Services, Post & Portering Services, and Car Parking, Sustainable Travel and Transport Services & Worklink. This department operates within the larger framework of Campus Services, a highly commercial and diverse department.

The University is dedicated to "leading meaningful action against the climate emergency and ecological crisis." A new Sustainability Manager (Circular Economy) position has been created to support this commitment. This role is crucial for embedding circular economy principles across all University operations and delivering effective resource management practices.

Role Summary

The Sustainability Manager is an integral part of the team responsible for delivering the University's waste and circular economy roadmap, which contributes to its carbon net-zero and environmental net-gain targets. Sustainability is one of the University's 6 strategic pillars and this role further highlights the University's dedication to integrating sustainability into its core day to day operations.

The main purpose of this role is to provide expert advice and lead the development and delivery of an effective Sustainable Resource Management/Circular Economy Strategy.The post holder will collaborate with Colleges and Professional Services to facilitate cultural and behavioural change regarding waste and resource use. The role will be based in Facility services which has overall responsibility for waste contracts and budgets. The post holder will have responsibility for ensuring all aspects of waste contracts are future-proofed, procuring sustainable services and goods and significantly contributing to the University's overall sustainable targets and aspirations. This will include our progress as a signatory to the Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice.

Main Duties

• Develop and implement strategic sustainability initiatives. This includes creating a Sustainable Resource Management/Circular Economy Strategy, setting key commitments, and identifying a pipeline of projects. The role involves developing business cases and managing the delivery of approved projects, ensuring they are aligned with university-wide goals.
• Evaluate, monitor and report on progress, making recommendations for improvements where needed. Responsible for developing a suite of metrics to track the success of projects, preparing data for university-wide reports like People and Planet, Green Goals and HESA data, and analysing how the university contributes to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
• Provide expert guidance and support. The role requires staying up-to-date on changing environmental legislation and best practices to ensure statutory compliance. Provide direct support to senior leadership on sustainability strategy and policy, ensuring their work is both innovative and well-evidenced.
• Lead or contribute to projects across various teams. This involves planning, coordinating activities, and managing staff, consultants, and contractors to deliver projects on time and within budget, with a focus on both short-term and long-term initiatives.
• Engage with stakeholders to drive change. You will work with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, from the Sustainability Communications and Engagement Officer to external contractors and our colleges, research academics and laboratories to promote an inclusive sustainability culture and drive behavioural changes related to waste prevention, reduction, reuse, and recycling.
• Manage key contracts and operations. The role includes day-to-day management of key waste management contracts, ensuring high standards are met, and rectifying service failures quickly. This involves creating a collaborative partnership approach, working with procurement department to monitoring spend, and benchmarking performance against other institutions.
• Manage key platforms and initiatives. This includes overseeing the University's internal reuse platform, Warp-It, UniGreen and supporting end-of-term reuse schemes like Junkbusters to maximise recycling and reduce waste. Developing and implementing new solutions and initiatives to further reduce waste impact.
• Develop a comprehensive roadmap and business case for a university recycling hub to reduce costs and carbon emissions associated with furniture and equipment. The launch phase will involve establishing a physical and procedural infrastructure and implementing a targeted communication campaign to engage the University community.
• Oversee the day-to-day operations of the hub, including the collection, inventory, and redistribution of items. Continually track and report on key performance indicators such as financial savings and carbon reduction to demonstrate the hub's value and ensure its long-term success.
• Present information and build networks. The role requires preparing and delivering presentations to a variety of audiences and actively building a network of contacts across the university and beyond to share best practices.
• Monitor and report on carbon emissions. The role takes responsibility for monitoring and reporting carbon emission figures for key contracts and working with staff and contractors to suggest initiatives to reduce emissions and set future targets.
• Promote a shift to the greater use of reusable products, innovative developments in single use materials and to have reduced the use of fossil fuel-based products being used and disposed of by those carrying out research and innovation to only those areas where there is no viable alternative.
• Support robust decisions made in resourcing research and innovation projects and data, based on circular economy principles and life cycle costing, with the need for responsible sourcing demanded all through supply chains.
• Promotes equality and values diversity, acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.
• Supports the University's sustainability agenda through resource efficient working.
• Any other duties commensurate with the grade.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Educated to Degree level (or equivalent qualifications) or relevant technical experience in an environmental or waste and circular economy setting.
• In depth up to date specialist understanding and experience of circular economy or waste specialism.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, relationship building and influencing skills with the ability to deal confidently with a range of internal and external stakeholders/contacts.
• Highly enthusiastic and motivated individual with up-to-date knowledge of sustainability, environmental and facility services issues.
• Considerable experience of day-to-day contract management.
• Evidence of literacy and numeracy, with the ability to write clearly, and to produce and analyse information and data.
• Demonstrable experience of delivering engagement sessions and techniques to a variety of audiences.
• The post holder will be flexible in their approach to work and be able to demonstrate a commitment to self-improvement and development.
• The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate both their analytical thinking and creativity, as the situation requires.
• Excellent organisational skills with a methodical approach to work and the ability to prioritise workload in order to meet deadlines.
• Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day to day activity in own area that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly.

Informal enquiries to Monica Guise, email:

View our staff values and behaviours here

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website.

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