Net-zero Planning and Policy Consultant Candidate pack

Job profile

Purpose

We’re looking for a Consultant to join our Sustainable Places team – a group of passionate, mission-driven professionals working with local authorities, developers and communities to shape places that are fit for the future.

Your primary focus will be on net-zero local planning, helping to ensure that local plans and new developments genuinely deliver on the climate emergency. This means working on everything from carbon impacts and evidence-based development to policy drafting, plan examinations and implementation support.

Depending on your experience and interests, there will be opportunities to contribute to other projects across our portfolio, including sustainable new-build developments and retrofit strategies for existing assets.

Scope

Your core focus will be on supporting local authorities to create ambitious, evidence-based planning policies that respond to the climate and ecological emergency. You’ll be part of our growing portfolio of net-zero planning work – helping shape local plans, providing implementation support, and influencing policy at every stage of the plan-making process. You will:

• Lead and support projects that develop robust, evidence-based climate and sustainability policies for local plans and strategic frameworks.
• Develop supporting documentation and guidance for policy implementation.
• Develop and deliver training for planning departments.
• Conduct research and analysis on national policy, local context and emerging best practice, including carbon budget analysis.
• Contribute to workshops, stakeholder engagement and written outputs for a range of audiences – including planning officers, councillors, community groups and planning inspectors.
• Deliver project tasks, including desk-based research, modelling carbon impacts, policy drafting, and report writing.
• Provide end-to-end project management, including scoping project ideas, project planning including timescales and budgets, client management, project team management, quality management, liaising with third-party contributors of technical input and ensuring work is delivered on time and to a high standard.

You will also contribute to other projects and workstreams across our Sustainable Places portfolio, including:

• Developing and advising on sustainability vision, briefs and strategies for ambitious new developments, particularly housing-led schemes.
• Preparing carbon, energy, and sustainability documents for planning submissions (working alongside internal/external technical teams)
• Supporting asset owners to develop retrofit and net-zero roadmaps for existing estates or buildings.
• Supporting Local Authorities and the public sector with retrofit advice and guidance.
• Development of overarching sustainability frameworks and data visualisation and dashboards for developers.
• Working on innovation and research projects related to climate policy, retrofit, and sustainable placemaking.

Crucially, you’ll also support our pipeline of work and skills through:

• Business development and the cultivation of new leads, which will include writing competitive proposals for new clients and partners.
• If relevant, line managing other members of the team to ensure they develop professionally and personally.
• Identifying current and emerging trends, legislation and policy, and supporting colleagues on content related to your area of expertise.
• Contributing to Bioregional’s presence at relevant sectoral events and conferences, where needed and appropriate.

As part of a small and collaborative team, this role offers real variety, as well as the opportunity to help shape the places in which people live, work and thrive. This role requires flexibility to support a variety of work requirements, and you will bring skills and knowledge that helps improve and expand the services that we offer.

The role will involve occasional UK travel for client meetings. This may include overnight stays, where necessary.

2. Knowledge

Required:

• Strong and detailed understanding of UK planning policy, particularly the context of climate change, energy and sustainability. This should be around plan-making/implementation of policy.
• Good working knowledge of key sustainability topics – such as net-zero buildings, whole-life carbon, biodiversity, social value or retrofit.
• Good understanding of the development/house building sector and industry
• Awareness of national and local drivers for zero-carbon development.
• A passion for sustainability and interest in shaping better places.

Pluses:

• In-depth technical knowledge in one or more relevant areas – e.g., building energy performance, embodied carbon, local plan-making, or housing delivery.
• Understanding of how to develop robust evidence bases to support policy change.
• Knowledge of the retrofit market and industry
• Familiarity with One Planet Living, Future Homes Standard, or other relevant frameworks.

4. Experience

Required:

• 3+ years professional experience (paid or voluntary) in sustainability, local government, planning, consultancy, or the built environment sector.
• Demonstrable experience supporting the delivery of projects or research with a climate or environmental focus.
• Familiarity with working with or within local government/planning authorities.

Pluses:

• Direct experience developing net-zero or climate-responsive planning policies for local authorities.
• Experience contributing to local plan evidence bases (e.g. carbon studies, policy reviews) and plan examinations.
• Experience of working with housebuilders and developers in the creation of sustainability outputs.
• Experience of supporting sustainable new build or retrofit projects.
• Experience of delivering training on sustainability to a semi-technical or non-technical audience.

Our benefits

At Bioregional you will create real-world impact in your day-to-day role, helping businesses and communities to transition to a net-zero, sustainable future. We also offer a range of other benefits to support our colleagues:

1. Work-life balance: work is only one part of your life and making time for other things is important – be that your family, friends, or yourself. In this role, you’d be required to be in our London office with the team or with clients for three days a week, leaving you the flexibility to work at different locations and times during the rest of the week, whether that be in the comfort of your own home or collaborating with colleagues in the office. We are currently piloting a 9-day working fortnight, with every other Friday off, to give the team more time back to do the things they love.
2. A commitment to diversity and inclusion: we foster a supportive, inclusive workplace where people can be themselves and achieve great things. We are committed to improving diversity and inclusion within the built environment and sustainability sectors – including our own organisation – and we actively encourage applications from people of a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background.
3. Health and wellbeing: health and wellbeing are fundamental to our ethos and our vision of a better world. We make sure we’re a great place to work through regular feedback with colleagues and run regular social activities – in person and online – to build and maintain our positive working culture. We are committed to supporting our team through a range of benefits, from our employee assistance programme to our cycle-to-work scheme.
4. Professional development: we have a learning culture and help our people to enjoy rewarding careers where they will grow and develop their skills. We build and share our knowledge through regular staff seminars and offer 10 days of training and development time each year, a training budget for each employee, plus additional support for formal training and study. Bioregional’s training pathway means that colleagues always understand and have access to the training they need to progress their career – be they an Analyst or a Head of Department.
5. An ethical employer: we live our values in everything we do. As well as working from sustainable office space alongside like-minded businesses, your benefits include a 6% employer’s ethical pension contribution and 25 days of annual leave, rising by one day for each year you work with us, for up to five years, to 30 days of annual leave.

Photo: the bar at Sustainable Ventures, Waterloo. © Sustainable Ventures.

"Bioregional has a fantastic culture and is made up of truly talented people with a can-do attitude. I really value partnership working and helping clients to create impact, and have been lucky enough to lead a wide variety of projects and develop deep relationships with businesses."

"Bioregional really gives you the building blocks. It’s up to you to use your initiative, but we will always support you. We have a flat hierarchy so if junior staff members have ideas or suggestions, they will always be listened to, supported, and actively encouraged."