Environmental & Sustainability Officer

Role title: Environment & Sustainability Officer
Location: Estate Road, Grimsby
Salary: Competitive

Purpose of the role

To manage and improve the environmental compliance and performance of our seafood manufacturing sites, and turn Group strategy into clear, achievable site actions, working with operations, engineering, H&S, Hygiene and technical teams to deliver and monitor progress. Helping deliver a culture of continual improvement

You will drive measurable improvement in energy, water, waste and carbon performance across the business. You will keep the business compliant with environmental legislation and permit conditions, run our environmental and energy management systems, and lead practical projects that deliver those improvements.

Legal and permit compliance across waste, effluent, refrigerants, energy etc.

• Effective management of the Environmental Management System (ISO 14001) and energy management (ISO 50001).
• Support the Reduction and valorisation of waste and food waste and maximise value.
• Driving improvements in water use and trade effluent quality, identifying reduction opportunities.
• Reduction of energy use and carbon emissions in line with company and group targets.
• Accurate environmental data and reporting to internal and external stakeholders.
• Acting as the main point of contact for Group energy and sustainability teams and for regulatory bodies.
• Drive a culture of Environmental & sustainability awareness and engagement across the workforce, embedding behaviour change.
• Be an active participation in wider Hilton group workstreams that promote Seachill and enhance further improvement of the areas within scope.

As an Environment & Sustainability Officer some of the responsibilities will be to:

1) Compliance and permitting

• Maintain site environmental permits, discharge consents and trade effluent agreements, and ensure all conditions are met.
• Maintain the register of legal and other requirements, monitor changes in legislation (e.g. waste duty of care, F-gas regulations, packaging EPR, SECR, ESOS) and advise management on actions required.
• Act as the main contact for regulators and the water company (i.e. Environment Agency, local authority), including during inspections and audits.
• Track compliance actions to closure and report overdue items.

2) Environmental and energy management systems

• Maintain and develop the EMS to ISO 14001 and support ISO 50001 requirements, including the energy review, significant energy uses (SEUs) and improvement opportunities.
• Maintain and develop the aspects & impact registers.
• Plan and carry out internal audits, manage non-conformances and corrective actions, and contribute to management reviews.
• Maintain environmental aspects and impacts and risk registers.
• Complete climate change risk assessments
• Support customer, retailer and third-party audits / requests (e.g. BRCGS, Sedex/SMETA, retailer environmental requirements).
• Assess environmental risks from changes to equipment, processes or products.

3) Waste and by-product management

• Oversee management of all waste streams, general, packaging, recyclable and hazardous waste.
• Ensure correct segregation, storage, labelling and collection, using licensed contractors and maintaining waste transfer notes, consignment notes.
• Apply the waste hierarchy and look for opportunities to valorise waste.
• Monitor and report food waste data and develop initiatives with the site teams to meet reduction targets and add-value to food waste using the.
• Carry out contractor and outlet checks to confirm waste is handled lawfully.

4) Water and effluent

• Monitor water consumption and trade effluent quality against consent limits.
• Oversee sampling regimes and the performance and maintenance of effluent treatment equipment, working with engineering.
• Identify and support in the delivery of water-saving opportunities, balanced against food safety requirements.
• Maintain drainage plans, spill kits and pollution prevention controls.

5) Energy, carbon and refrigerants

• Monitor energy use across the sites and report on performance against targets in line with the ISO 50001.
• Manage the sites energy monitoring platform (CoolPlanet), trouble shooting issues and liaising directly with the support teams.
• Identify energy and carbon reduction opportunities, support in building business cases and delivery of projects.
• Ensure F-gas records and leak-checks remain compliant, and support planning for the phase-down of high-GWP refrigerants.

6) Sustainable sourcing and packaging waste

• Respond to customer sustainability questionnaires and supplier requests for data where appropriate
• Oversee the gathering of data for EPR reporting and ensure submissions meet the reporting deadlines.

7) Reporting and communication

• Report business data to meet legal and compliance scheme obligations i.e. CCA, EA Annual reporting, PIEDC.
• Collect, analyse and report environmental KPIs to site management and group.
• Prepare briefings and updates for the senior management team and wider business as appropriate
• Contribute data and content for sustainability reports and external disclosures (e.g. CDP, RFI's).
• Attend group energy and sustainability meetings to share

8) Engagement and training

• Work with training teams to ensure relevant SOP's, inductions, training materials consider environmental and sustainabilty aspects
• Deliver awareness training.
• Work with production, engineering and technical teams to embed good practice and encourage employee ideas.
• Handle environmental complaints (e.g. odour, noise) from neighbours and the community, investigating causes and agreeing actions.

9) Emergency preparedness and incident management

• Maintain pollution incident and emergency response plans.
• Work closely with Health & Safety teams to ensure overlapping hazards, risks and controls are considered.
• Assess environmental risks from changes to equipment, processes or products.
• Investigate environmental incidents, record root causes and ensure corrective actions are completed.

10) Health & safety

• Take reasonable care of your own health and safety and that of others affected by your work, and comply with site health, safety and hygiene rules, including the correct use of PPE.
• Ensure risk assessments are in place for any activities you are responsible for to ensure safe working practices and culture
• Report near misses when identified using the reporting system

To succeed as an Environment & Sustainability Officer we ask that you have the following experience/expertise:

• Previous experience in an environmental, sustainability or compliance role, ideally within food manufacturing or a similarly regulated industry.
• Working knowledge of UK environmental legislation, including waste, water discharge and permitting.
• A degree in environmental science or similar; NEBOSH Environmental qualification or working towards. IEMA or equivalent
• Good understanding of ISO 14001, ISO 50001 management systems.
• Internal auditing against compliance standards.
• Strong data skills, including confident use of Excel, with the ability to turn data into clear reports.
• Desirable; experience in energy regression modelling.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, able to engage operational teams at all levels.
• Well organised, able to manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Full UK driving licence
• Awareness of climate change and global environmental challenges.
• A proven ambassador of identifying cost effective solutions to environmental challenges.
• Cost, energy and / or commodity saving awareness.

What you get in return

• Great package with competitive holiday allowance
• Life assurance of minimum two times yearly salary
• Opportunities for development and internal promotion
• Share Save scheme
• Free car parking on site
• Enhanced Maternity/Paternity