Senior Sustainability Advisor

The core mission is to make sustainability measurable and defensible across Laing O'Rourke's Specialist Trading Business Group. Day to day, you would monitor and report progress against agreed sustainability KPIs, review data for trends and translate outputs into concrete actions for Vetter, Select and Crown House Technologies projects and fixed facilities. You would also carry the compliance backbone: supporting the implementation and maintenance of ISO 14001 and ISO 50001 management systems, coordinating audits and inspections, and ensuring corrective actions are closed out on time. Alongside that sits client-facing work such as monthly reporting and supporting BREEAM assessments where they apply. Longer-term, the role looks after social value delivery for fixed facilities (developing and maintaining Social Value Plans and keeping strong, auditable evidence) plus leading the annual collection and validation of sustainability data across energy, carbon, waste and social value metrics.

You would deepen your command of environmental management systems in a live, multi-site construction context, particularly ISO 14001 and ISO 50001, and get real exposure to BREEAM processes on client projects. Few roles give you three distinct specialist businesses to test your approach against, so you would learn how sustainability frameworks flex across different operating models. The data and reporting side is where a lot of the growth sits: annual sustainability data collection, validation and KPI tracking at group scale would sharpen your analytical discipline and audit-readiness. If you do not yet hold auditing experience, this is likely a place to build it, working alongside colleagues on inspections and corrective-action close-out. Exposure to social value delivery, a growing area of UK public-sector procurement, could also add a commercial and community-impact dimension to your profile, broadening you beyond pure environmental compliance.

The posting points to someone with proven experience in sustainability or environmental management, ideally degree-qualified so their technical grounding is solid. Strong knowledge of ISO 14001 and ISO 50001 is expected, as is experience with sustainability reporting, data analysis and KPI tracking. Auditing experience is preferable, and professional membership or chartership desirable. Equally important is temperament: this is a hands-on, multi-stakeholder role across a diverse project portfolio, so organisational rigour and a genuine focus on audit-ready outputs are likely non-negotiable. You would need to be comfortable travelling between sites and facilities, and confident managing competing reporting deadlines. A credible candidate probably combines technical fluency with the diplomacy to push busy project teams on data quality, someone who can ask difficult questions about carbon and waste figures without becoming the person everyone avoids.

Tailor your application around evidence, not values statements. Laing O'Rourke's framing emphasises measurable, auditable outcomes, so quantify what you have done: the KPIs you tracked, the audits you supported, the corrective actions you closed, the data sets you validated. Concrete examples of ISO 14001 or ISO 50001 implementation matter more here than broad sustainability ambition. Because the role spans Vetter, Select and CHT, show you can handle multiple entities or portfolios at once, name the projects or business units involved and how you kept reporting consistent across them. If you have BREEAM experience or social value plan delivery, surface it early; both are explicit in the JD and relatively scarce. Finally, note the location flexibility (Birmingham, Oldbury, Manchester or St Neots) and willingness to travel, make your flexibility clear. If you have a long-term condition or disability, the Disability Confident 'Offer an interview scheme' is worth referencing if you meet the essential criteria.

The role is anchored in environmental performance and compliance rather than broad-brush ESG narrative. Expect focus on energy and carbon data aligned to Laing O'Rourke's Science-Based Targets initiative, waste metrics, and the management systems that keep those numbers credible, ISO 14001 for environmental management and ISO 50001 for energy. On the client side, BREEAM assessments and monthly reporting mean the work feeds directly into how projects demonstrate their environmental credentials to external stakeholders. Crown House Technologies' off-site manufacturing and modular MEICA approach is itself a sustainability lever, so carbon and efficiency gains from off-site construction could feature in the metrics you help track. Social value is the other pillar: developing Social Value Plans for fixed facilities and maintaining auditable evidence of delivery. That likely ties into Laing O'Rourke's wider commitments around community impact and its licence to operate on publicly funded infrastructure.

The biggest challenge is probably data quality and consistency across three separate businesses with different sites, depots and reporting cultures. Turning messy inputs into audit-ready outputs requires relentless follow-up, and the posting's emphasis on audit-ready evidence hints that this is where past pain has been felt. Balancing compliance rigour with project pragmatism may also be tricky. Construction programmes move fast, and sustainability advisors often have to chase operational teams for energy, waste or social value data without the authority of a direct reporting line. Managing that through influence rather than control is a real skill. Travel across Manchester, Birmingham, Oldbury and St Neots adds logistics pressure, and annual data cycles create peaks where validation, audits and client reporting collide. Keeping KPIs meaningful rather than merely complete is a constant judgement call.

A typical day might start with data, reviewing energy, waste or social value inputs from one of the specialist businesses and chasing gaps before they undermine a report. You could then join a call with a project team or client on BREEAM requirements or monthly reporting, translating technical detail into something stakeholders can act on. Midday might involve site or depot visits: an inspection, an audit walkthrough, or checking progress on corrective actions from a previous review. Afternoons could be spent maintaining ISO 14001 or ISO 50001 documentation, updating Social Value Plans, or preparing KPI summaries for internal leadership. The rhythm varies by cycle, quieter periods allow planning and trend analysis, while annual reporting or audit season compresses everything into deadlines, with more travel and more stakeholder chasing.

Laing O'Rourke is a large international group, so strong performance in this role could open routes into group-level sustainability functions, wider ESG reporting, or environmental management roles across its UK, Middle East and Australian operations. The multi-business scope of the role itself builds a portfolio-style CV that few single-site advisors get. Deepening ISO auditing expertise, potentially toward lead auditor certification, is a plausible development path, as is specialising in BREEAM or social value, both increasingly valued in UK infrastructure procurement. The Science-Based Targets angle could pull you toward carbon accounting and decarbonisation strategy. Because you'd be visible across three businesses and interacting with clients, the role also builds the stakeholder-management credentials needed to move into a more senior advisory or management position later.

You would interact most with project and site teams across Vetter, Select and Crown House Technologies, the people generating the data and running the operations your KPIs depend on. Internally, you would likely report into the STBG sustainability lead and coordinate with SHEQ, energy and facilities colleagues. Externally, clients and their sustainability or BREEAM consultants would be key contacts, particularly around monthly reporting and assessment evidence. Auditors and certification bodies would feature during ISO and assessment cycles, and community or social value partners could appear as your Social Value Plans progress. A central part of the role is bridging these groups: translating group-level Science-Based Targets commitments into language and actions that site teams can actually deliver.