The Diocese of Southwark is committed to safeguarding the integrity of creation, by tackling climate change, reducing carbon emissions, continuing our Eco Diocese journey and embedding care for creation in our liturgy and worship. This is an exciting opportunity for a passionate, proactive individual to lead the project to develop a costed plan to help us to achieve our ambition of achieving net-zero by 2035 and to lead on developing funding bids to support this work.

Post Introduction

We are looking for someone with suitable experience to take the lead on the project to develop and document a strategic plan for how the Diocese of Southwark will approach fulfilling our ambition for net-zero by 2035, ensuring that relevant resources, timetable and plans are put together to enable its practical implementation.

• To prepare an application for submission by October 2023 for the Church Commissioners’ net-zero funding, working with other Dioceses as appropriate.
• To work with the carbon net-zero working group to support the collation and production of a documented carbon footprint baseline for Southwark Diocese.
• To support the devising and determining of an approach to reduce the baseline through a combination of practical schemes and approaches for the reduction in energy use in parishes; the reduction in carbon footprint for diocesan housing and a series of trials, pilots and feasibility studies that can inform later stages of the plan.
• To support the production of a staged and phased approach to 2035 and beyond; with a forecast on the year-by-year reduction in carbon footprint that is likely to be achieved; the required increase in energy use from renewable sources for a yearly reduction in carbon emissions; identify options to offset
• Under the supervision of the Diocesan Secretary, to prepare an application for submission by October 2023 for the Church Commissioners’ net-zero funding, working with other Dioceses as appropriate.
• To assess the cost and resources required to support each stage through an assumption-based approach; identifying grant funding sources; accounting for current and potential government schemes; identifying opportunities for savings; according to the cost-centre (parish, diocese etc.)
• Building on existing work, to produce a timed plan, recognising that there will be increased certainty for earlier stages; the relative merits of phasing models which adopt offsetting at different rates
• To evaluate how the plan aligns with the national plan and support the response to the current consultation
• Assess the various options for offsetting; the cost/benefit of local opportunities; identifying hindrances of local offsetting

• You should have experience of sustainability work and a passion for the environment
• You should be educated to at least undergraduate degree (or equivalent), preferably in an environmental related subject, with excellent knowledge of carbon net zero, and implementing practical solutions to reduce emissions. You will ideally have experience of reducing carbon emissions in heritage buildings.
• You will have experience of developing project plans in a diverse, complex organisation is, along with the ability to translate polices into practical action plans. Ideally you will have experience of developing a costed net zero action plan for a large, complex organisation.
• You will have experience of developing successful funding bids for environmental or sustainability projects, and ideally will have a good knowledge of the national and London funding landscape.
• You will be an excellent communicator with great stakeholder skills, able tocommunicate technical details convincingly to a non-technical audience – but you will also be a technical expert, able to understand and manipulate technical data sets to draw conclusions and make recommendations.
• You should be proactive and able to use initiative, with good self-motivation, and strong organisational, time management and prioritisation skills.
• Good IT skills, matched with the ability to analyse information and use data to support and evaluate project plans.

For further information, or an informal conversation, please contact Nichola Thomas, nicola.thomas@southwark.anglican.org

• The Diocese of Southwark, founded in 1905, forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England and is part of the wider Church of England, in turn part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Diocese covers primarily the area of Greater London, which is south of the Thames, together with the eastern part of the county of Surrey. It is one of the largest dioceses in terms of population and parishes as well as one of the most diverse.
• The Diocese seeks to be a Christian presence and to share the Christian faith in each of its parishes through the mission and ministry of its clergy, congregations, schools and chaplaincies and works to promote the common good, with a particular concern for those most in need.