Senior Sustainability Advisor, Energy and Energy Policy

This is a rare opportunity for a senior and experienced professional to join the energy division at a world-leading sustainability organisation.

Forum for the Future is one of the most influential, vibrant and highly respected organisations operating in the sustainability sector today. Now in its 19th year, the non-profit has evolved its strategy for delivering a more sustainable future by moving from working one-to-one with leading UK businesses to system innovation at a global level. At its heart is the belief that no one company can enable significant change alone and that making a real difference lies in ambitiously facilitating system change through massive collaborations.

Energy and food are the principal focus of Forum’s work. With its large network of dedicated partners, which include Unilever, EDF Energy, Marks and Spencer, Kingfisher, Pepsico and many other industry leaders, the organisation is uniquely positioned to tackle the most complex sustainability challenges with real solutions that have the potential to be taken to scale.

The successful applicant will be responsible for driving Forum’s work in energy policy system transition. With system innovation at the centre of the organisation’s strategy, the energy team is working to change the way we generate and use energy; policy interventions are a key lever for change, particularly in the energy system that is regulated more heavily than other parts of the economy. In this role you will be the team’s ‘go to’ person for energy policy, keeping the rest of the team and organisation as a whole up-to-date with policy developments, building and running collaborative projects and partnerships to bring forward and scale solutions challenges in the energy system.

Forum’s overarching goal is to accelerate a shift to a sustainable energy system. There is a UK-focus at the moment but there are ambitions to increase the amount of energy work the organisation is doing with its US, India and Asia Pacific offices.  Serious contenders for the role will have a good understanding of how policies are created and implemented, especially in the UK, and may have worked in academia, public affairs, a think tank or other NGOs; they will also have a relevant degree-level qualifications in energy, sustainability, economics, policy or legal fields.

Examples of projects that you could be working with are the:

• Community Energy Coalition – driving a greater role of communities in energy saving and generation;
• Farm Power – working with the agricultural value chain to ‘put farms on the grid’ in sustainable ways;
• A coalition for a “Better Energy System” – using the influence of pent-up corporate demand for energy transition to influence the development of UK energy policy; and
• A decentralised energy future for India – exploring how to scale-up home grown, decentralised energy projects as a means to meet India’s future energy demand.

The Senior Sustainability Advisor position will certainly be challenging, but it also offers the individual the chance to be a significant contributor in a team at the cutting edge of change in a leading global sustainability organisation. If that sounds exciting and you feel you have the policy expertise to help create real change, then this role could be for you!

Please send your completed application pack by email to recruitment@forumforthefuture.org or by post to Sophie Kennedy, 19-23 Ironmonger Row, London EC1V 3QN. Your application should include a completed application form and an equal opportunities form. The equal opportunities form will be detached from your application and will not form part of the shortlisting or selection process.

Please note that due to the number of applications we receive we are unable to respond to all individually. Therefore if you have not heard from us by close of business on Friday 26^th September we will not be taking your application further.