Description
Andover or Poland
Great People Work Here
Are you searching for a career with bags of variety, in an environment that celebrates differences and empowers collaboration, which values people and will encourage you to make an impact? Do you want the freedom to explore, and the opportunities to find new ways and to innovate? If so, TwiningsOvo delivers.
We’re looking for people who don’t just come here to get the job done, but who have a real passion for the brand and a desire to do the best job they can. In return, we offer an inspiring package of employee benefits - to show just how much we value you. This role will offer you the scope for growth and the tools to aim high.
The Packaging Sustainability Lead will play a pivotal role in shaping Twinings’ approach to sustainable packaging and driving progress both towards our net zero commitments and our targets relating to minimising the environmental impact of packaging. This position is responsible for leading upfront packaging solution exploration to address sustainability challenges, ensuring alignment with legislative requirements, corporate environmental goals, and industry best practices. The role will lead the creation and delivery of Twinings’ sustainable packaging strategy, ensuring full integration into the overall packaging strategy and alignment with the company’s broader sustainability objectives.
This new role will monitor and interpret the evolving legislative landscape, enabling Twinings to proactively meet external and internal targets. Acting as a bridge between sustainability ambitions and practical execution, the Packaging Sustainability Lead will collaborate closely with internal cross-functional teams, external partners and industry experts to develop and deploy the implementation of sustainable packaging solutions that deliver both business and environmental objectives whilst ensuring that product protection and consumer expectations are met. The role will support our longer-term innovation pipeline to ensure that sustainability is kept at the fore front of development.
Key Responsibilities
Strategy Development and Execution
* In collaboration with Head of Packaging Change and Exploration and NPD & Supply Innovation Director, provide the technical oversight to develop Twinings sustainability strategy for packaging, taking into account legislative requirements and the wider business landscape. The strategy will need to reflect the evolving legislative landscape and be revised and updated accordingly.
* Work with Procurement and SI&S teams to ensure that packaging sustainability is integrated into the Net Zero strategy.
* Collaborate with SI&S Director (and others) to ensure that packaging sustainability strategy is assimilated into the Twinings Sustainability strategy
* Using knowledge of market trends, packaging industry, material specifications and legislation develop & own the roadmap of prioritised actions, with defined timelines and deliverables to ensure Twinings packaging is fit for purpose in a continually evolving environmental landscape.
* Lead and drive cross-functional alignment between Procurement, Pack Engineering, Regulatory and Manufacturing teams to ensure that the roadmap is translated into tangible actions that deliver change.
Packaging Circularity & Net-Zero Initiatives:
* Support Procurement by identifying, scoping out and making recommendations on specification changes that align with net zero ambitions and take ownership for ensuring the business has clarity on carbon impact from these opportunities.
* Define milestones to enable monitoring of progress towards published targets
* Focus on exploration of circular solutions
Legislation & Compliance
In collaboration with internal Regulatory team, and others:
* Support with the Monitoring and interpreting of evolving sustainability legislation, including but not limited to PPWR, EUDR, Net zero requirements.
* Assess the impact of regulations on packaging design, supply chain, and production and lead the communication of these requirements to the relevant functions.
* Collaborate with cross functional teams to understand the changes that are required
* Own & Lead the development of a sustainable packaging compliance roadmap and work with all relevant functions to implement the requirements. The role will also need to ensure regular review of the roadmap to ensure this remains fit for purpose.
* Conduct horizon scanning in collaboration with Procurement teams, to 1) evaluate next steps for packaging categories and 2) ensure that future packaging initiatives are fit for purpose and mitigate against legislative and taxation risks.
Material development
* Close collaboration with Packaging Exploration Lead to ensure that future packaging materials and specifications are in line with sustainability requirements. This will involve assessment of data, trends and legislation in order to present the most appropriate solutions to the business to enable sustainable growth.
* Identify opportunities for cost reduction of materials, in line with sustainability requirements, and ensure that these are fed into an action pipeline
* Partner with Supply Chain teams and suppliers to research new materials, clarify complexity, provide cost analysis and risk assessments to allow recommendations to be built.
* Technology Scouting: Collaborate with Procurement to identify new suppliers or harness new technologies to drive the packaging sustainability agenda forward. Ensuring that our supply base is fit for future sustainability demands. Where needed, support Procurement in technical discussions with suppliers to unlock understanding.
* Provide technical assessment of new materials to Procurement teams to allow understanding to be built if these are fit for purpose
* Work with Production and Pack Engineering team to ensure rationale for change is understood and to remove potential barriers for successful deployment. Ensure alignment is gained to agree testing plans, qualification timelines and drive implementation to agreed success criteria.
Stakeholder Engagement & Reporting
* Work with cross functional teams (example, Procurement) to maintain, update and monitor dashboards as required by SI& S and ESG committees.
* Take lead role in Twinings Environmental Working group. Represent Packaging function where required in Sustainability platforms and committees, e.g., TwO Environmental Due Diligence.
* In collaboration with Regulatory team, support marketing teams to ensure that our consumers are educated and informed to allow correct disposal of packaging materials.
* Provide regular business updates to relevant stakeholders to communicate trends, industry updates and insight into the wider sustainable packaging landscape.
* Use change management principles to secure stakeholder buy-in and take accountability for aligning all business functions on the sustainability recommendations to take forward to the Business Units.
* Work closely with Ovo to ensure that common challenges are shared and that alignment is gained on interpretation of legislation to ensure common approaches are adopted where this is appropriate to do so. Ensure recyclability definitions and data is presented in a consistent manner.
* Work cross functionally to identify future tools or systems to enable efficient data gathering and reporting. Drive the adoption of Design for Compliance approaches and tools.
* Drive the implementation of sustainability best practices throughout the Twinings business
* Develop an external expert panel and work with ABF sustainability teams to share knowledge and learn.
* Evaluate external accreditations for future adoption and make recommendations to the business
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
* FMCG Change Management background with the ability to understand barriers to change, influencing skills to unlock these barriers and a proven track record in successful implementation of sustainability projects.
* Experience working with innovative and complex packaging solutions and future material development, including compostability requirements
* Extensive network and access to industry expertise in order to learn and inform
* Deep knowledge of packaging sustainability legislation, circular economy principles, and net-zero strategies.
* Strong analytical skills with the ability to assess regulatory requirements from a technical packaging perspective and understand complex scenarios in order to conduct evaluation and provide clarity to stakeholders on priorities and required actions.
* Problem solving skills to understand, unlock and then communicate complex issues to allow towards fit for purpose solutions to be implemented.
* Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to engage, challenge and build connectivity across disparate teams.
* Ability to work under pressure, managing multiple projects within tight deadlines.
Benefits
* Yearly bonus based on personal contribution and financial performance
* Flexible working options
* 25 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays and the option to buy and sell holidays
* Onsite Gym and Wellbeing Centre
* Perkbox – employee discount scheme with discounts online, in high street stores, cinema, holidays, restaurants and many more
* Pension scheme with your contributions matched for up to 10% of your salary
* Cycle to work scheme
* SimplyHealth Cash plan
* Onsite Staff shop and online staff discounts
* Bupa Private Medical Insurance
* Competitive Car Allowance
* Electric Car Scheme
* Access to LinkedIn Learning
* Access to ABF Networking, connect, collaborate, and grow across the ABF Group.
Twinings has become one of the world’s most renowned tea companies over its 300-year history because we never stop learning, never stop experimenting and never stop inventing. We take pride in our tea from bud to cup and have been working with some of our tea estates around the world since the early 18th Century.
More than 300 years later, the love of tea is still here - and so are we! We still sell tea from Thomas’s shop, and we still work hard to bring the most innovative new blends to tea lovers around the world. Now, we have over 500 varieties and our teas are cherished all over the world. Our expert master blenders taste more than 3,000 cups of tea every week. So you can be sure the next cup you taste will be every bit as good as the one yesterday or the day before.
Our approach to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
At TwiningsOvo, we believe in the power of diversity to drive innovation and meaningful work. We are committed to building a workplace where people from all backgrounds, identities, and experiences feel safe, valued, have a sense of belonging and are empowered to thrive. Inclusion is more than a goal, it’s how we work together every day. As an equal opportunity employer, we prohibit any unlawful discrimination against an applicant on the basis of their ethnicity, colour, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, family or parental status, disability, neurodiversity, age, socioeconomic background or any other status protected by law and are committed to promoting diversity across our workplace.
Applicants may be entitled to reasonable adjustments under the terms of the Equality Act. A reasonable adjustment is a change in the way things are typically done which will ensure an equal employment opportunity.
Please inform our Talent Acquisition or HR Shared Services team if you need any assistance completing your application or to otherwise participate in the application process.