Sustainability Officer

Job summary

The Home Office works to build a safe, fair and prosperous UK. We achieve this through our work on counter-terrorism, policing, crime, drugs policy, immigration and passports.

The Corporate Services Group works closely with the Home Office’s policy and operational commands to enable us together to deliver the department’s priorities. The group is comprised of different teams and professional functions, including Commercial, Communications, Finance, People, Portfolio and Project Delivery, Private Office, Security, Estates and Information.

We are looking to recruit a Sustainability Officer to play a key role in supporting the development of our strategies and plans to deliver our Greening Government Commitments (GGC) and wider sustainability targets.

The HO is committed to creating a ‘Better, Smaller and Greener’ estate which provides value for money for the taxpayer, reduces our environmental impact, enables transformation to the way civil servants work and contribute to the growth agenda. The role holder will support our work to reduce our carbon emissions, minimise the waste we generate, better manage our impact on the environment and make our estate and operations more resilient to climate change.

Job description

The Sustainability Officer plays an important role in supporting the Home Office’s sustainability ambitions and contributing to the delivery of Greening Government Commitments. Working across a wide range of sustainability priorities, including Net Zero, climate adaptation, circular economy, water and nature objectives, the post holder will help develop and implement strategies, policies and action plans that drive environmental improvements across the organisation.

The role involves working closely with colleagues, subject matter experts, senior leaders and external partners to identify opportunities, manage risks and support the delivery of sustainability objectives. You will contribute to sustainability communications, engagement activities and policy development, helping to embed sustainable practices into everyday business processes and decision-making. The role also provides the opportunity to monitor emerging trends and innovations, applying insights that promote continuous improvement and support the Home Office’s wider commitment to environmental responsibility.

Key Responsibilities

• Support the development and delivery of sustainability strategies, policies and action plans that contribute to Greening Government Commitments and wider sustainability objectives.
• Collaborate with stakeholders and subject matter experts to identify risks, opportunities and solutions that support environmental targets.
• Build effective relationships with colleagues, senior leaders and external partners to embed sustainable practices across the organisation.
• Develop and deliver sustainability communications, campaigns and engagement activity that increase awareness and encourage behavioural change.
• Support the development, review and quality assurance of sustainability policies, guidance and communications content.
• Create and maintain sustainability content across internal communication channels and engagement platforms.
• Monitor sustainability developments, emerging trends and best practice to inform continuous improvement and future activity.
• Provide flexible support across a range of sustainability priorities and contribute to environmental performance improvements.

Working Pattern

Due to the business requirements of this role, it is only available on a full-time basis.

Person specification

Essential criteria

• Experience of working in a communications, engagement or change-management role, delivering successful campaigns or initiatives to diverse audiences.
• Ability to engage, influence and build relationships with stakeholders at all levels of an organisation, including senior leaders.
• A willingness and enthusiasm to learn a broad range of sustainability subject areas and a commitment to continuous improvement.
• Knowledge and experience of working with multi-disciplinary teams and managing stakeholders.

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge and/or experience of working in a sustainability/environmental role.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions

Benefits

In addition to your salary, a career with the Home Office offers a range of benefits, including:

• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• In-year reward scheme for one-off or sustained exceptional personal or team achievements.
• 25 days annual leave on appointment, rising with service to 30 days.
• Eight days of public holidays, plus one additional privilege day.
• Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office.
• See more of our benefits on our careers website.

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Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

We will endeavour to conduct the selection process in line with the dates indicated below, but cannot guarantee that these will not, where necessary, be revised.

1. Application – by 3rd September 2026.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:

• CV
• Personal Statement (maximum 750 words).

Your CV should consist of your career history, qualifications and skills/experience, including any key achievements in each role. Your CV will be scored against the experience required for the role as noted within the essential criteria.

The Personal Statement should be aligned to and demonstrate how you meet the skil