Senior Sustainability Lead

About us

Emperor is an employee-owned strategic creative consultancy. We specialise in reporting, sustainability, digital, engagement and brand communications and operate from offices in London, Edinburgh, the Midlands, Manchester and Dubai. Emperor is founded on a culture that has at its core the idea of creating great work and delivering a great experience for everyone involved in that work; that’s our clients, our people, and our partners.

As a B Corp, sustainability is an imperative to us as a business, and the work we do for our clients. We help our clients with sustainability challenges that span the breadth of our offer at Emperor: from defining an ownable and differentiated sustainability strategy, rooted in material issues and integrated within brand and business strategy; to balancing compliance and storytelling in sustainability reporting; to inspiring engagement internally and externally through broader sustainability communications and campaigns.

We’re looking for a Senior Sustainability Manager to join our growing Stakeholder Communications and Sustainability team here at Emperor. The team brings together strategic thinkers and industry experts with extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of sustainability and corporate communications. We use our expertise to advise clients, working closely with them to understand their business challenges, develop impactful solutions that help them stand out from the crowd and deliver memorable communications and reporting that resonate with diverse stakeholder audiences. Through collaboration and analysis, we keep up-to-date with best practice, the latest developments in disclosure, and share our insights and guidance with clients and colleagues.

The role of the Senior Sustainability Lead

The role of the Senior Sustainability Lead is fivefold:

Sustainability reporting – Provide ongoing expertise and reporting consultancy for our clients, helping them to plan and progress their sustainability reporting ambitions, and navigate existing and upcoming regulations (including ISSB and CSRD). You will work across a range of projects, including integrated annual reports, sustainability reports, and other topic-specific supplements (eg: Net Zero Transition Plans).

Sustainability strategy and broader sustainability comms - Lead and/or support in the development of clients’ sustainability strategies and communications beyond reporting; including the creation of sustainability and integrated strategies and frameworks, sustainability propositions, messaging, and laying the foundations for internal and external sustainability campaigns in collaboration with our Employee Engagement and Brand teams.

Double materiality – Conduct double materiality assessments for our clients, and play a key role in shaping the continuing evolution of Emperor’s CSRD-aligned double materiality offer to lay the foundations for a strong and regulation-compliant sustainability strategy for clients.

Client relationship and new business development – Be confident presenting Emperor’s sustainability and reporting offer to new and existing clients, pitching for and winning new business that meets Emperor’s ambitious growth plans in the sustainability space. Be comfortable supporting in and/or leading the consultancy part of pitches and new business responses, shaping the response and POV around client briefs.

Sustainability best practice guidance – Continuously be scanning best practice to keep ahead of current and emerging trends and issues, regulations, market practices and standards in the sustainability space. Identify the implications for clients and provide insights across a range of sectors. You will play a leading role in Emperor’s thought leadership programme, leading and collating research and sharing your findings through events, publications and articles for Emperor’s website.

Desirable experience

• Experience in sustainability reporting (and preferably annual and/or integrated reporting) a must – within a consultancy, agency, and/or large corporation
• Knowledge of the corporate and sustainability communications landscape, including trends, regulation and best practice
• Experience working with sustainability-related reporting standards and frameworks, preferably including GRI, SASB and TCFD, and knowledge of ISSB and CSRD
• Experience delivering materiality assessments (ideally double materiality)
• Proven ability to quickly grasp broad market context and key client information - including sustainability strategy, business model and strategy, product and service offering – and to distil this into a clear point of view that will help clients and/or new business prospects in their sustainability evolution
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, experience communicating complex information in a simple way, and deliver interesting, insights-led and well-articulated presentations
• Experience of pitching for new client business and supporting other pitch teams preferable
• Experience developing sustainability strategies and broader sustainability comms (internal and/or external) preferable

As an employer, we are committed to ensuring the representation of people from all backgrounds regardless of their gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, religion, ethnicity, age, neurodiversity, disability status, or any other aspect which makes them unique. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds to apply and would encourage you to let us know if there are steps we can take to ensure that your recruitment process enables you to present yourself in a way that makes you comfortable.