Head of Sustainability – Residential

The Vacancy

Wates Group is seeking a Head of Sustainability to join our Residential team. As a developer contractor, Wates Residential invests, develops, builds, and sells quality affordable homes through contracting and partnerships with Local Authorities, Housing Associations, and public bodies such as Homes England.

Reporting into our Development Director, the Head of Sustainability will lead the delivery of a strategy to make Wates Residential the industry leader in developing and delivering sustainable homes.

As our Head of Sustainability, you will:

• Continue to refine and deliver the Environmental Sustainability Plan for Wates Residential to transform the business into a market leader for delivering sustainable homes.
• Identify and collaborate with existing and potential customers for Wates Residential that have high sustainability ambitions and whose built environment needs fit with the corporate strategy. Collaborate with the business development and Group Sustainability teams to devise credible strategies to win work.
• Positively challenge and influence every part of Wates Residential to ensure environmental sustainability becomes an integral part of decision making by regions, project teams and functions.
• Work closely with the bid team to create and lead the sustainability response, working with experts externally and across the Group to create and deliver innovative solutions that will be compelling for clients & partners in delivering their own sustainability ambitions.
• Take ownership of the Wates Residential performance against Group environmental strategy and targets and drive change at business unit, project, and individual level.
• Build, motivate and optimise a high-performance team to drive environmental performance improvement and support the delivery of our strategic goals.
• Work with the Group Sustainability and Residential leadership to define environmental personal performance objectives for senior leaders to cascade down through their teams and clarify throughout the business the change required each year to deliver our strategy.

The ideal candidate should exhibit strategic thinking for future business growth, and the ability to shape an inclusive, value-driven culture. You should excel in managing multiple complex issues, demonstrate creative and inclusive leadership, prioritise effectively, be team-focused, and possess excellent communication skills aligned with our purpose and operating framework.

What we offer:

• Competitive salary & profit share scheme
• Car allowance/company car
• Flexible working
• Travel covered to any of our sites (subject to HMRC advisory rates)
• Extensive corporate benefits including, private medical, 8% employers’ pension contribution, Health and Wellness programme, 26 days holidays + bank holidays and much more…
• One of the best learning and development programmes in the sector, customizable to support your career progression goals. (c.7000 training sessions delivered year to date across the Wates Group)
• Industry leading family leave benefits to included 26 weeks fully paid maternity, 12 weeks fully paid paternity.

Work for Wates

Wates is one of the UK’s leading family-owned development, building and property maintenance companies.  Founded over 125 years ago, we have a proud legacy in the built environment.

We are driven by our purpose, ‘reimagining places for people to thrive’ and our three promises:

• Thriving places – working with customers, partners and communities to create places that are more sustainable, inclusive, and full of opportunity.
• Thriving planet – protecting nature and taking action on climate change by collaborating and innovating with our partners.
• Thriving people – creating opportunities and relationships so that everyone who works for and with us feels included, invested in and treated with care.

We are proud to be recognised as Gold Investors in People and as a Disability Confident employer.  We also ensure that our recruitment processes do not treat anyone less favourably due to an offending background.