Transition UWS: Community Carbon Coordinator (x2)

IMPORTANT:  This Advertiser has requested that applicants MUST be National Residents / Valid Work Permit-holders.  Other applicants need not apply.

 

Transition UWS (University of the West of Scotland) will engage students and staff to reduce their own and the local community’s CO₂ emissions by 916 tons. The project will deliver substantial savings through energy saving at home and work, car sharing, waste reduction and procurement, as well delivering an outreach scheme to Reid Kerr College.

Transition UWS will focus on working within three of its four campuses: Ayr, Hamilton and Paisley. There are 2 coordinator posts available on the Paisley campus, with 3 interns to be placed across all 3.

We are looking for two enthusiastic candidates with a desire to encourage pro-environmental behavioural change amongst university students to join our team in order to facilitate and support a range of projects.

The Transport, Waste and Energy Coordinator will support:

• End of year halls reuse scheme, where any unwanted but reusable items are collected and either reused by students in the following academic year or donated to charity shops. A large amount of reusable waste is dumped by students at the end of the year, particularly by international students who have no way of transporting it on the plane. This scheme will collect and separate reusable items left behind before storing over the summer break to be reused by students.
• Energy saving competition in halls of residences in partnership with Student Switch Off (http://bit.ly/86yuSP). This will integrate student champions, social marketing through Facebook and incentives. Halls of residence are already separately metered and the activity will start at the beginning of the new academic year: generating month by month baseline data, holding monthly competitions over three campuses to encourage students to reduce their energy usage, with great prizes like ice cream.
• Car share scheme where students and staff can find people to share their journeys with via a website. This project will be conducted in partnership with the UWS environment team. SAUWS will run a student and staff face-to-face engagement campaign in order to increase the uptake of the university administered website.

 

The Home Energy Coordinator will support:

• Home energy saving advice through drop-in clinics and home audits. This project will use student volunteers, resources developed by Transition Edinburgh University (TEU) (http://bit.ly/hZi13q) and work in partnership with the Energy Saving Scotland advice centre. Weekly drop-in seasons will be held on three campuses where students and staff can receive home energy advice. Home audits, conducted over three visits, will tackle behaviour and structural related emission, by engaging occupants as well as landlords. Audits will also be linked into an energy monitor loan scheme. Appropriate actions will be assessed by the Energy Saving Scotland advice centre from the data gathered by student volunteers.

 

Both posts will coordinate the Green Impact Awards across departments:

• Green Impact Awards targets workplace emissions relating to energy, transport, procurement and waste. Participating departments complete a workbook of specific criteria (see example workbook for Green Impact Student Unions - http://bit.ly/hG4e7u) in order to receive bronze, silver or gold awards. There is a large focus of supporting people through change, spreading good practice across the institution and celebrating the efforts of those participating.

Employer: Student Association of the University of the West of Scotland

Salary (per annum pro rata):  £17,872 pa/pro rata

Interview Date:  04/05/2011

Telephone Interviews, Week Commencing:  18/04/2011

Closing Date:  17/04/2011

Start Date:  16/05/2011

Length of Project Work: 10.5 months

Hours/Week:  full time 35 hour/week

Work outside normal hours: Some flexibility may be required

Essential Selection Criteria:

Candidates must be a recent graduate (within the past three years) or if graduating more than three years ago if you are changing career and this experience is vital to achieve this

Pro-active, confident and enthusiastic in engaging with others, specifically students

Interest in environmental issues, specifically climate change

Ability to work in a professional manner with external partners.

Excellent inter-personal and organisational skills with an imaginative and creative approach

Experience and understanding of how to work with and manage volunteers

Experience in working with the public and community organisations on sustainable development issues

Proficient with use of e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint

Good level of English and Maths

Ability to work with minimum supervision, to prioritise effectively and to meet tight deadlines

Desirable Selection Criteria:

Design skills (including web design and content management systems)

Project management experience and skills

Experience of energy data analysis

Experience of producing campaign videos and working with the media, specifically of producing press releases

Experience of working on or with a Student Union

For further information or to apply with a current CV please go to 

www.studentforce.org.uk/Graduates/GradVacDetails.asp?ProjNo=1970