About us
At Exchange for Change, we are building something the UK has never had before. Working across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, we are designing and delivering a Deposit Return Scheme from the ground up, creating a system that helps reduce litter and waste by encouraging people to return their empty drinks bottles and cans for recycling.
This is not just another job. This is a rare opportunity to do meaningful work, shape a landmark national programme, and help deliver lasting positive impact for people, businesses and the planet alike.
Your role
Please Note: this role can be based in either Milton Keynes, Glasgow or Belfast
This is a unique and genuinely impactful sustainability role at the heart of the UK Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). The Sustainability Manager will measure, maximise and communicate the scheme's positive environmental outcomes. With environmental improvement at the heart of the UK DRS scheme, this role is central to the mission ahead of the go‑live date of 1st October 2027.
Reporting to the Head of Operations & Performance, the Sustainability Manager owns the scheme's ESG performance framework, translates operational data into meaningful environmental insight, and ensures the scheme can credibly demonstrate its contribution to the circular economy, national recycling targets, and net zero goals across Scotland, England, and Northern Ireland.
Our purpose: Turning the scheme's environmental ambition into measurable, credible, and continuously improving real‑world impact.
Key Responsibilities & Priorities
ESG Reporting & Environmental Performance
- Own and maintain the scheme's ESG performance framework, tracking and reporting on all key environmental metrics including materials recovered, carbon intensity of operations, and contribution to circular economy targets
- Produce regular ESG performance reports for internal leadership, the board, government, and regulatory stakeholders, ensuring data is accurate, credible, and presented in a compelling and accessible way
- Ensure the scheme's reporting aligns with recognised frameworks
- Maintain a clear and current view of the scheme's environmental performance against targets, flagging risks and opportunities
Return Rate & Material Recovery Analysis
- Work closely with the Data & Analytics team to translate container return volumes into tangible environmental impact metrics, including carbon savings and landfill diversion figures
- Track and report on material recovery outcomes across all container types (PET, aluminium, steel), ensuring recovered materials are genuinely re‑entering the circular economy
- Champion closed‑loop recycling outcomes, monitoring where recovered material goes and what it becomes
- Use material recovery data to identify improvement opportunities and support the scheme's continuous improvement agenda
Operational Carbon Footprint
- Monitor and report on the carbon footprint of the scheme's operational activities
- Work with logistics, infrastructure, and technology partners to identify and drive practical carbon reduction opportunities across the scheme's operational footprint
- Set and track carbon reduction targets for operational activities, reporting progress regularly and escalating where targets are at risk
- Embed carbon impact considerations into procurement and partner selection decisions, working with relevant colleagues to establish sustainability criteria in contracts and supplier frameworks
Circular Economy Agenda
- Act as the scheme's internal champion for circular economy principles, ensuring that decisions across operations, procurement, and stakeholder engagement are informed by circular economy thinking
- Monitor developments in circular economy policy, regulation, and best practice across the UK and internationally, bringing relevant insight into the scheme's strategy and operations
- Build relationships with reprocessors, material recovery facilities, and circular economy organisations to strengthen the scheme's understanding of end markets and material flows
- Contribute to the development of the scheme's long‑term circular economy strategy, working with the leadership of Exchange For Change
Stakeholder & Public Reporting
- Translate complex environmental performance data into compelling, accessible reports, case studies, and communications for a wide range of audiences, including government, regulators, producers, retailers and the general public
- Support the scheme's external communications and public affairs functions with accurate, well‑evidenced environmental data and narrative
- Ensure producers and retailers have access to the scheme‑level environmental data they need to support their own ESG reporting obligations
- Represent the scheme's sustainability agenda in relevant external forums, industry groups, and working groups
Supplier & Partner Sustainability
- Work with logistics, RVM, and infrastructure partners to embed sustainability standards into scheme operations
- Develop and maintain a supplier sustainability assessment framework, ensuring environmental performance is a meaningful factor in partner selection and contract management
- Track and report on supplier and partner environmental performance
Continuous Improvement
- Identify and drive initiatives that improve the scheme's environmental credentials over time, setting reduction targets, tracking progress, and delivering improvement actions across all areas of sustainability performance
- Feed sustainability insight into the scheme's broader continuous improvement programme, ensuring environmental considerations are embedded into operational decision‑making at every level
- Benchmark the scheme's environmental performance against comparable international DRS operations, identifying best practice and opportunities to improve
- Contribute to regular performance reviews, presenting environmental trends, risks, and recommended improvement actions
About you
Experience
- Proven experience in a sustainability, ESG, or environmental performance role, ideally within a regulated, scheme‑based or circular economy environment
- Demonstrable experience producing ESG or environmental performance reports aligned to recognised frameworks
- Experience working with operational data and translating complex metrics into clear, compelling environmental narratives for diverse audiences
- Knowledge of carbon accounting, lifecycle assessment, and material recovery processes is highly desirable
- Experience engaging with logistics, supply chain, or infrastructure partners on sustainability performance would be an advantage
- Familiarity with the circular economy, extended producer responsibility, or deposit return scheme landscape is desirable but not essential
Skills & Capabilities
- Strong analytical skills, able to work confidently with environmental and operational data, identify trends, and draw meaningful conclusions
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, able to translate technical environmental data into accessible, compelling content for a wide range of audiences
- Collaborative and cross‑functional, able to work effectively with data, logistics, operations, and communications colleagues to embed sustainability across the scheme
- Self‑directed and organised, able to manage multiple workstreams and reporting cycles simultaneously without losing accuracy or quality
- Curious and forward‑thinking, keeps pace with developments in sustainability, circular economy policy, and ESG reporting requirements
Values & Behaviours
- Purpose‑driven: genuinely motivated by the environmental mission of DRS and committed to making that mission measurable and credible
- Rigorous: holds the scheme's environmental data and claims to a high standard of accuracy and integrity
- Collaborative: works effectively across functions and with external partners to embed sustainability thinking into everyday decisions
- Ambitious: sets high environmental targets and drives continuous improvement rather than accepting the status quo
The opportunity
Work that makes a difference - and a place where you can too.
This is a once‑in‑a‑generation opportunity to help establish a scheme of national importance, working with purpose‑driven colleagues and partners to deliver visible, real‑world impact. You’ll contribute directly to meaningful environmental and social change and, in return, we support and reward our team through a range of benefits and initiatives, including:
Competitive base salary
Bonus scheme
34 days holiday inclusive of bank holidays, additional holidays for length of service
Flexibility with holidays. You may work on a local public holiday and take an alternative day off, giving you the freedom to celebrate the days that matter most to you.
5% employer pension contribution
Life Insurance: Cover of 4 times base salary
Private Medical Insurance: Includes GP access and an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for wellbeing support
Income protection
Family Leave: Maternity, adoption, parental, and paternity leave policies will be developed to be progressive and inclusive.
Hybrid Working: 60% office or field‑based and 40% home‑based, with some flexibility according to business and personal needs.
