Sustainability Officer

The core purpose of this role is to help Cleanaway customers and communities improve resource recovery and send less waste to landfill. In practice, the officer delivers programmes such as bin tagging, waste audits and contamination reduction campaigns, and runs community education and school sessions, workshops and site tours. Presentations to councils, customers and community groups are a recurring part of the job. The role also carries a project delivery responsibility from planning through to completion, within agreed timeframes, plus the collection and analysis of programme and waste data to produce reports, insights and recommendations. Supporting the growth of fee-for-service sustainability programmes sits alongside this, including spotting opportunities and helping with quotes and proposals. A further mission is communication and continuous improvement: creating and refining educational materials, resources and sustainability messaging. Field work across metropolitan and regional WA is expected, which means occasional early starts, weekend work and overnight travel. Working with the wider Centre for Sustainability team to expand programmes is the connecting thread.

This role offers unusually broad exposure for an officer-level position because the Centre for Sustainability covers education, field work, data and customer programmes in one team. A candidate could expect to build practical competence in waste auditing and contamination reduction methods, bin tagging methodology and the design of behaviour change programmes aimed at households and businesses. There is also a commercial learning curve in the fee-for-service element, since the role supports identifying opportunities and assisting with quotes and proposals. Understanding how sustainability services are scoped, priced and sold inside a large environmental services company is a skill that is harder to pick up in pure NGO or government roles. The company also names career development opportunities as part of its offer, so structured growth is plausible. Beyond that, regular presenting to councils and community groups sharpens public speaking, and the reporting and analytical work with Excel and AI-integrated tools develops data skills that are transferable across ESG and operational roles.

The posting is explicit that formal tertiary qualifications are not essential, which tells you experience and attitude outweigh credentials. The ideal candidate has a background in sustainability, environmental services, waste and resource recovery, community engagement, local government or a related field, and can point to programmes they have actually delivered. The hands-on requirement is important. This person should be comfortable doing bin tagging and waste audits in the field, not only writing reports about them. Strong communication and relationship management skills matter because the role involves presenting to councils, customers, schools and community groups, often to audiences with different levels of sustainability knowledge. On the technical side, sound Excel and broader Microsoft skills are named, along with analytical and reporting capability. The candidate also needs project management and organisation to juggle multiple programmes and stakeholders. Practically, a valid driver's licence, the ability to obtain a Working with Children Check and willingness to travel across WA, including regional and remote areas with occasional early starts, weekend work and overnight stays, are conditions of the role.

Tailor your resume to show hands-on sustainability delivery, not just strategy. The posting stresses that no two days look the same, so give concrete examples of running bin tagging, waste audits, school sessions or community workshops. Quantify outcomes where you can: contamination rates reduced, number of participants reached, councils engaged, tonnes diverted from landfill. In your cover letter, connect your experience directly to the Centre for Sustainability's purpose: helping customers and communities improve resource recovery. Mention the specific Cleanaway context such as councils, regional WA travel and the fee-for-service angle. Name a driver's licence and Working with Children Check availability clearly, as these are practical obstacles the hiring team will screen for. For interviews, prepare to talk through a project you managed end to end, including how you handled data, reporting and multiple stakeholders. Because the role involves presenting to community groups, be ready to demonstrate communication style, not just describe it. Mentioning familiarity with the WA local government context or waste and resource recovery sector will likely stand out among candidates with general sustainability degrees and no operational exposure.

The sustainability focus here is operational and community-facing rather than corporate reporting. It centres on resource recovery and landfill diversion, through bin tagging, waste audits and contamination reduction programmes that directly influence what households and businesses put in their bins. This is the practical end of the circular economy, where behaviour change meets measurable tonnage. There is also a strong education and engagement dimension, since the role runs school programmes and community sessions. That work supports the environmental layer of Cleanaway's sustainability agenda, alongside the company's stated goal of incorporating recovery, recycling and reuse throughout its operations and those of its clients. Commercially, the officer contributes to the fee-for-service side of the Centre for Sustainability, helping design and deliver programmes that councils and customers pay for. Governance and social aspects appear more indirectly, through reporting, stakeholder relationships and Cleanaway's stated commitment to inclusive employment, rather than through formal ESG disclosure work.

One challenge is the sheer variety implied by "no two days will necessarily look the same." Balancing community education, audits, reporting, project delivery and travel means strong time management is not optional, and competing priorities from councils, customers and internal teams could create scheduling pressure. Another is the travelling and out-of-hours element. Delivering initiatives across metropolitan and regional WA, with occasional early starts, weekend work and overnight stays, can be physically demanding and will not suit everyone. Remote and regional logistics add complexity that desk-based sustainability roles do not have. There is also a commercial edge. Supporting fee-for-service programmes means identifying opportunities and assisting with proposals, which places an officer in a revenue-facing position where their work contributes to business development, not just community goodwill. Measuring and reporting the impact of education programmes is another likely difficulty, because behaviour change outcomes are slow and harder to attribute than simple tonnage figures.

A typical day is hard to predict, and the posting says so directly. One day might start early with a bin tagging exercise or waste audit in a neighbourhood, involving physical sampling and recording of contamination data before returning to the office or depot to log results. Another might be spent delivering a school or community session, setting up materials and presenting to a group. Office-based time would involve analysing programme and waste data in Excel, drafting reports and recommendations, updating educational materials, or preparing quotes and proposals for fee-for-service work. Internal meetings with the Centre for Sustainability team and operational colleagues, plus calls with council contacts, are likely to be interspersed through the week. Regional travel adds variability, with occasional overnight stays and weekend work when programmes require it. Site tours and stakeholder meetings round out the mix. The common thread is a blend of field work, presenting and desk-based analysis rather than a fixed schedule.

Because this role sits inside the Centre for Sustainability and reports to a National Team Lead, there is a visible pathway into more senior program or service development positions as the fee-for-service side grows. A Sustainability Officer who consistently delivers community programs and brings in new customer work could move toward a Programme Manager or Sustainability Consultant role, or into a specialist area such as waste auditing or behaviour change. The exposure also runs sideways. Cleanaway is a large, ASX-listed operator with more than 350 locations, so strong performance can open moves into operational sustainability, HSE, education or business development functions in other states. Building a track record in customer-facing sustainability services is a transferable asset across the environmental services sector. Less formally, the variety itself builds a portfolio of skills, from data analysis and reporting to stakeholder management and public presenting, that supports later progression into strategy or leadership roles without a narrow specialisation.

The most regular external relationships will be with local councils and their waste or sustainability teams, since the role delivers programmes and relies on council buy-in. Customers, community groups and schools are the other main external audiences, and the officer is expected to present to them and maintain relationships over time. Internally, the role reports to the National Centre for Sustainability Team Lead and works closely with the broader Centre for Sustainability team on programme development. Operational stakeholders across Cleanaway, such as depot and collections staff, also matter because field activities like bin tagging and neighbourhood audits depend on their cooperation and scheduling. There is a commercial dimension too, with sales and service teams likely being counterparts when sustainability programmes are packaged as fee-for-service offerings. The ability to move between a community volunteer group, a council officer and an internal operations manager in the same week is central to the role.