Sustainability Lead

Location: Hybrid (all area welcome to apply)

The opportunity

We are committed to being the most responsible pet care business in the world and creating a better world for pets and the people who love them. We have an exciting new role which will support the implementation of our sustainability strategy in our Planet Pillar. You will work within our award-winning team who have a ‘can do’ attitude and lead by example. At Pets at Home our people are incredibly important to us and are the reason our business is the best pet care business in the world and there has never been a better time to join us.

You will play a key role in ensuring that our sustainability agenda is on track including our roadmaps for both product and packaging, covering raw material sustainability pledges and supporting on scope 3 carbon reduction plans. You’ll ensure that we meet our regulatory obligations for management of and reporting of raw material and packaging data.

Colleague and supplier engagement and awareness are going to be key drivers to achieving success, so relationship building and carrying out training will form a key part of the role; together with the tracking of performance and data so we understand our progress towards our targets.

As part of the operational Responsible Sourcing Team you will also have the opportunity to gain experience across all ESG pillars working with experts in their fields. We work as one team and there will be lots of opportunity to develop in broader areas.

What you'll do

• Provide sustainability expertise to internal product and packaging teams, whilst supporting colleagues to understand their role in meeting our business objectives.
• Work with suppliers to understand their sustainability strategy and track their progress over time.
• Explore innovation opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of our products and packaging.
• Support the development of sustainability policies, procedures, guidance and training material.
• Support the onboarding of new suppliers.
• Conduct key raw material assessments for new products including timber, soya and palm oil.
• Ensure that raw material and packaging sustainability data is accurately maintained. Develop product and packaging sustainability performance reports for internal stakeholders and feed relevant sustainability metrics into supplier score cards.
• Work closely with the Sustainability Analyst to support the collation of information for product carbon mapping.
• Supplier audits.
• Network through industry and keep up to date with regulatory obligations, current trends and best practice in product and packaging sustainability.
• Ensure accurate and timely collection of packaging data which fulfils our obligations under The Extended Producer Responsibly for Packaging and liaise with necessary government bodies to submit data on time.
• You will work cross functionally in a matrix environment with expert colleagues in other areas (e.g. Sustainability Analyst, Group Sustainability and Social Value Manager, Technical Team, Trading Team, Sourcing Team)

What we’re looking for

• A passion for sustainability and reducing environmental impacts.
• Experience in environmental sustainability including high impact raw materials and certification standards, recyclability, circularity, understanding carbon mapping and carbon reduction strategies.
• Retail or supplier experience (food, non-food or services) with a good understanding of the end to end supply chain process. Experience in packaging would be advantageous.
• Experienced lead auditor (any discipline) or willingness to work towards lead auditor status.
• Full driving license.
• Flexibility to travel within the UK and overseas.
• Analytical, using complex data to understand issues and identify opportunities. Competent in excel.
• Highly organised with the ability to effectively prioritise workload.
• Strong presentation skills.

About the Pets at Home Group

At Pets at Home we have an ambitious plan, to become “The Best Pet Care Business in the world” and a key part of delivering this in sustainable way will be our most cherished assets: our People and our Culture. We are a business built on strong values and behaviours which guide everything we do. These are our foundations which will help us to deliver our better world pledge to create a better world for pets and the people who love them.

The Pets at Home Group includes over 450 stores, over 310 Groom Rooms and 440 First Opinion Vet Practices. It’s fast-paced, innovative, fun and we put people at the very heart of everything we do. We are committed to developing a culture of inclusivity where everyone is able to come to work and be themselves, a culture which welcomes everyone irrespective of what makes us all unique.

Our diversity and inclusion vision is that everyone is welcome and feels part of our group. If you think you’re a good match to what we are looking for, and you share our belief that together ‘we’re better with pets’, we’d like to hear from you, whatever your background or circumstances.

Press the Apply Now button to submit your application. We can't wait to talk to you about your new role!