Environmental Coordinator

Role Summary

Job title: Environmental Coordinator
Contract: 1 year fixed term (with opportunity to extend)
Location: Hybrid working (*): office base is at Somerset House, London
Salary: £31,000-£33,000 depending on experience
Start date: Must be available to start by 21st April 2025
Normal hours: Office hours are 9.30 – 5.30pm, Monday – Friday
(requests for flexible working hours will be considered, although there may be some constraints due to the ‘helpdesk’ nature of part of the role)

Other:
– Annual leave is 25 days per year (pro rata) plus standard bank holidays
– Cultural entitlement of £250 per annum (pro rata) to spend on arts/cultural events & activities
– All employees are able to claim 1 hour a week for personal wellbeing
– Pension scheme enrolment and 6% employer contributions (reviewed annually)

(*) Staff work in a hybrid model of in-person and virtual, with regular ‘full-team’ in-person days. Our standard arrangement is a minimum of 1 day in the office per week. Access to desk space is always available to staff who can’t or don’t want to work from home. Our office is in the iconic Somerset House in London, on the banks of the Thames.

If you would like this application pack in a different format (e.g., large print or audio file), please contact us (information in the link provided).

About Julie’s Bicycle

Julie’s Bicycle (JB) is a pioneering not-for-profit organisation, mobilising the arts and culture to take action on the climate, nature and justice crisis. Founded by the music industry in 2007 and now working across the arts and culture, JB has partnered with over 2000 organisations in the UK and internationally. Combining cultural and environmental expertise, JB delivers high impact programmes and policy change to meet the climate crisis head-on.

Our work includes leadership development, policy development, research, strategic partnerships, in-depth consultancy, training, and a range of ground-breaking projects. A commitment to climate justice underpins all our work. We provide the creative community with the full range of tools, knowledge, and inspiration to act, and we run a rich programme of events and advocacy. JB runs a set of closely connected programmes of different types, lengths and scales. From our Music Programme to our Creative Climate Leadership Programme; our work across the cultural sector through Creative Green Projects and Partnerships; to our partnership with Arts Council England, explore our work.

This is an exciting time to join a team of 22 employees and additional external associates who, together, represent a unique mix of arts, culture, scientific, environmental and digital expertise.

We encourage people from any background to apply for this post. We are committed to creating a workforce which is representative of our society, and to bringing together those with a variety of skills and experiences to help shape what we do and how we work. We are particularly keen to hear from people of colour and those who self-identify as disabled.

Our Partnership with Arts Council England:

Julie’s Bicycle works with Arts Council England to deliver an ambitious Environmental Programme, providing resources, tools, and training to support cultural organisations to take climate action. The programme empowers the sector to rise to the challenges the climate crisis presents, and to accelerate and scale a collective response. Through the programme JB supports organisations to report their environmental impacts; produces events, webinars and information briefings, and runs a series of programme strands that develop climate literacy and leadership. Find out more.

A key part of the programme is JB’s Creative Climate Tools (CC Tools). These are a free carbon calculator that enables arts and cultural organisations to track their impact, record progress and make strategic changes in their environmental action. They include our unique Beyond Carbon impact tracker. Launched in 2010, the Creative Climate Tools are globally recognised as the leading online environmental reporting tools designed specifically for the arts and culture sector.

Our Partnership with IMPALA (European organisation for independent music companies and national associations):

We have been a key partner supporting IMPALA’s environmental sustainability programme since its launch in 2021. We helped shape the IMPALA Climate Charter and continue to sit on the IMPALA Environmental Sustainability Taskforce, where we provide expert advice on what a future low carbon recorded music sector could look like and how we get there. In 2022 we launched the IMPALA Carbon Calculator, powered by the CC Tools platform, a world-first bespoke platform for the SME record labels that are members of IMPALA to measure and report their GHG emissions. Over 150 independent labels have started their carbon footprint journey on the Tools, helping to shape an understanding of industry climate impact ‘hot spots’ and priorities, as well as bringing together stories of change. Alongside this, we deliver climate literacy and climate action training for and with IMPALA’s members across Europe, working to mobilise the independent recorded music sector for climate action. Find out more.

The Opportunity

The Environmental Coordinator plays a vital role within Julie’s Bicycle: both supporting creative organisations to report their environmental impacts with confidence, and analysing the data to support our team’s understanding of impact hotspots, priorities, challenges and opportunities for different creative sectors. The role focuses on providing Helpdesk support, as the first point of contact for organisations using our Creative Climate Tools (in particular organisations working with us through our Arts Council Programme and Music Programme, especially our IMPALA partnership). The Tools measure carbon emissions and organisational commitment to wider environmental improvement. Beyond answering queries, you’ll be shaping training webinars and materials for the organisations using the Tools. You’ll also be involved in the collective reporting and storytelling back to the creative community and wider stakeholders on what the data (both qualitative and quantitative) is telling us. Alongside the Helpdesk you will support Julie’s Bicycle to keep up to date on new methodologies and evolving best practices in carbon reporting and sustainability standards, and be involved in the development of the Tools platform.

The successful candidate will enjoy being in contact with many of the people and organisations that Julie’s Bicycle works with day-to-day, develop a frontline understanding of how creative organisations (especially SMEs) are understanding and managing their climate impacts, and dig into the environmental impact data of arts and culture organisations around the world. You will be data savvy, understand carbon footprint calculation methodologies, including the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, and be familiar with how organisations can manage environmental impacts across areas such as energy, waste, water, procurement, travel. You’ll be able to communicate really well – whether you are helping a cultural organisation or music label with a query; demonstrating the tools or how to use data on a webinar; or writing up a case study.

When not running the Helpdesk, you will be happy to test new features on the Tools, contribute to the development of our methodology, and research latest developments in best practice. You’ll proactively solve things yourself but be comfortable with escalating issues to more senior Julie’s Bicycle staff where needed – providing information to support decision-making. And in return, you’ll be supported to develop your skills and knowledge by the wider team. If you have a basic foundation in environmental management knowledge this role is a great opportunity to develop deeper skills in environmental consultancy and carbon accounting. The successful candidate will gain hands-on experience and join our friendly team in regular shared-learning sessions. And of course you’ll be interested in the role of culture in taking action on the climate, nature and justice crisis.

Responsibilities

Creative Climate Tools Helpdesk
– Oversee and manage the helpdesk (hosted on Freshdesk) to ensure timely and efficient support for organisations using our Creative Climate Tools and the IMPALA carbon calculator – responding to emails and following up by phone/online call if needed.
– Troubleshoot and escalate technical and environmental queries, liaising with the digital lead and environmental leads when needed.
– Maintain and improve the helpdesk knowledge base (guidance, FAQs and explanatory videos), ensuring it remains up to date.
– Facilitate online (and sometimes in-person) workshops and demonstrations on the tools and related topics for organisations using the Tools, partners, and prospective partners.

Data Review & Quality Assurance: (the Tools)
– Review carbon footprint data and qualitative entries submitted by organisations for accuracy and completeness.
– Monitor data entry trends to identify any inconsistencies or areas of improvement in the reporting process.
– Provide constructive feedback to organisations on how to improve their reporting, meet deadlines, address any challenges and guide as necessary.

Continuous Improvement: (the Tools)
– Work with the broader JB team to identify common queries on environmental reporting to inform future digital development and ongoing improvement.
– Work closely with the JB team to update the environmental methodology of the Creative Climate Tools and Impala Carbon Calculator annually.
– Support user testing, maintenance, and technical fixes of the Tools on an on-going basis as well as larger Tools development sprints, liaising with the digital team and external Tools development partner.

GHG Reporting Research and Methodology Development
– Work with JB environmental leads and external stakeholders, friends, experts, and partners to evaluate and recommend changes to our existing methodology, ensuring it is both effective and aligned with global standards.
– Stay up to date with evolving best practices, industry developments, and emerging trends in carbon reporting, sustainability standards, and reporting tools relevant to the creative and arts sectors; for example keeping up to date with developments in the Carbon Accounting Alliance of which Julie’s Bicycle is a member.

Arts Council England and IMPALA programmes
– Arts Council England Environmental Programme Annual Reporting: working closely with the Julie’s Bicycle Arts Council and Digital teams to undertake both quantitative and qualitative analysis of data, including thematic analysis of the narratives accompanying our carbon reporting (from our ‘Beyond Carbon’ quantitative and qualitative survey data).
– Attend IMPALA partnership steering meetings and internal project team meetings and support coordination of the programme.
– Analyse data from the carbon calculator, spreadsheets, surveys, and interviews.
– IMPALA Annual Report: working closely with JB’s Climate Change Specialists on annual analysis of GHG data submitted to the Tools from independent record labels across Europe and recommendations for action.
– Working closely with both report writing leads, develop high quality case studies on environmental action, liaising with selected organisations.
– Support the wider IMPALA, Arts Council England, and other Julie’s Bicycle programmes. As time allows, this might include support for online JB events, surveys, research support on relevant environmental topics, and working proactively across teams to support as needs emerge, contributing ideas and solutions in wider JB internal meetings.

Experience and Skills

We know that capable candidates sometimes rule themselves out of applying for roles because they’re worried they don’t quite fit all the requirements, or because they’ve gained their skills in a different context (e.g. volunteering, working in community groups, etc). If that’s you but you can see how your experience and interests overall match the role, we encourage you to apply and tell us how you would bring your specific experience to the role in your application.

Must Haves:
– Experience in supporting environmental action in organisations, communities or similar and/or a qualification or training in environmental science / studies / management / sustainability or a related area.
– Understanding of carbon footprint calculation methodologies, including the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol.
– Experience helping an organisation, or multiple organisations, measure and report environmental impacts.
– Familiarity with how organisations can manage environmental impacts across areas like energy, waste, water, procurement, travel, and transport.
– Strong eye for detail and can spot when a ft2 should be a m2 or when something seems an order of magnitude off.
– Open and thrive off proactively helping others, troubleshooting, and problem-solving.
– Excited about helping non-environmental specialists take action.
– Excellent communication skills and confidence to take on first line one-to-one support conversations, and to present information to other people.
– Experience writing (could be reports, case studies, short articles, marketing materials), ideally for a non-technical audience.
– Comfortable using Excel or similar data management tools to analyse, report, and manage data.
– Interest in working with qualitative data to analyse trends and draw out insights.
– Experience of delivering or supporting online workshops, or willingness to develop this as part of the role.
– Proactive, solution-focused, collaborative, and willing to offer ideas and solutions within the team, and work flexibly in response to programme deliverables and needs.
– Interested in the role of the creative sector in responding to the climate crisis.
– Commitment and openness to continuous learning on climate and environmental justice understanding and practice, and how it applies to our work and the people/organisations we work with.

Nice to Have:
– Experience of working in the cultural or creative sector, or an understanding of how these work.
– Previously worked in an outward-facing role such as customer service or liaising with partners or third parties.
– Experience of managing a helpdesk related to an environmental or data project or a technical solution.
– Experience with Moodle learning management systems for e-learning.
– Membership of IEMA or similar professional bodies.

How to Apply

If you’d like to apply, please complete the application form and equal opportunities monitoring form and submit these by 11.59pm on Sunday 23rd March 2025.

We are committed to being an Equal Opportunities Employer; we welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, gender, disability, culture, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age.

Please note, this post is open to people who already have the right to live and work in the UK, as Julie’s Bicycle is not currently in a position to sponsor a work visa.

A note on AI:

While we understand that some people may use AI tools for accessibility (and recognise and support that many assistive technologies may use elements of AI), we ask candidates to consider what tools are most appropriate during the application process. For example, we recognise the value for many people of machine learning language tools like Grammarly. On the other hand we would discourage the use of generative AI tools in writing your application, as we’d like to understand your personal interest in working for Julie’s Bicycle, and be able to understand your non-AI-assisted communication skills just as they are. We also recognise that for many of the people and creative communities we work with, the rise of generative AI poses a threat to their livelihoods, while the environmental impacts of AI are only set to grow: this means we also have a responsibility as Julie’s Bicycle to consider where and when (and if) we use AI in our work.

Thank you for your interest in working at Julie’s Bicycle.