About the Role

Reporting to the Deputy CEO this is an exciting role supporting one of the UK’s leading social investors in our pioneering work on heat decarbonisation.

We are looking for someone who is passionate about the work we do, is organised and has excellent attention to detail. Someone who is flexible with a “can do” attitude and who has a desire to get involved within a fast-paced team. If that is you and you can also bring in new ideas and are keen to get involved with the wider team projects as well as collaborate across the organisation then this could be a really exciting opportunity be a part of our values led organisation. For further information please refer to the background information available below.

Key responsibilities

1.       To co-create and implement an effective community engagement strategy for the new Heat Development Company involving the three existing grantees on the programme, in particular giving consideration to the ways in which the Heat DevCo’s new investees can best work with local residents to make the case for electrification. To be the first point of contact for the pioneer grantees, and for the programme’s first set of development sites, ensuring that excellent communications are designed and implemented, and that questions and concerns are answered in a timely and informed way.  

2.       To manage any community consultants engaged as part of the programme, or working with project management partners.

3.       To coordinate regular stakeholder engagement with key interest groups: grantees & investees and their communities, the social sector, and the decentralised energy sector. To be creative in developing these contacts, and to consider new and innovative ways of carrying out outreach and ongoing engagement reflecting the differential impact of analogue and digital methods of engagement, their reach into communities, and their replicability and cost.

4.       To lead on qualitative research on decarbonisation and electrification for the Heat DevCo, in particular to support the Deputy CEO and research and data team in exploring the potential of heat as a common pool resource.

5.       To work closely with the policy and communications team to ensure that stakeholder engagement reflects SIB’s policy priorities on decarbonisation and electrification, and that feedback from stakeholders is reflected in policy and communication outputs. To support the policy and communications team in its development of new policy and communication assets, and to work with the data team to incorporate the best evidence into outputs across SIB’s platforms. To work with external groups on the best approach to public information campaigns on electrification, and to ensure that SIB has a voice in wider efforts to encourage electrification in the UK.

6.       To develop a calendar of useful events in heating decarbonisation and electrification, to attend relevant events or conferences and to ensure that the senior team prioritise the best set of opportunities to raise SIB’s profile and progress leads and partnerships. Through attendance to present the Heat Development Company, answering questions and reporting key feedback, ensuring that internal development work effectively reflects a wide set of views and experiences. To be an accessible and responsive contact point for SIB’s work on heat decarbonisation, taking a creative and inclusive approach to outreach and information sharing.

7.       To support the coordination and project management of business development in community energy, heating and cooling, social investment fundraising and capacity building, supporting Business Development colleagues with relevant case studies, customer viewpoints and grassroots experience.

8.       To provide regular and timely updates on the development of opportunities in heat decarbonisation and electrification to the senior team. These updates should both support effective information sharing across the organisation, and, in particular, reflect the grassroots and community perspective. This should enable SIB to make the best use of its resources and pursue its strategic priorities in an inclusive and accessible way.

9.       To contribute to high quality bid responses for invitations to tender from funders, investors and other key client groups in heating, community energy, decarbonisation and electrification, to ensure that these are well-written and represent stakeholder and grassroots viewpoints.

10.    To coordinate and contribute to a clear strategy and objectives for decarbonisation and electrification at SIB.

11.    To adopt our continuous improvement and learning ethos.

12.    To support and embed equality, diversity and inclusion into day-to-day behaviours and activities within your role as well as contributing more widely across SIB’s commitment to E, D & I.

13.    To support and contribute to the implementation and delivery of SIB’s strategy.

14.    In agreement with manager to undertake other tasks and work on cross team projects that support the objectives of SIB as required.

15.    To work within the organisation's values, principles, and processes to achieve operational excellence.

Core competencies

·       A good understanding of net zero and decarbonisation. A background or experience in working in this area is helpful but not essential.

·       Excellent relationship management skills both with internal and external stakeholders.

·       Demonstrable experience of working with a wide range of different interest groups including communities and grassroots organisations.

·       Effective time management.

·       Self-motivated, with high energy and an engaging level of enthusiasm.

·       Excellent customer service skills.

·       Strong negotiation and influencing skills.

·       Excellent Microsoft Office Skills, including Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

·       Flexible and adaptable as a team player.

·       Excellent attention to detail.

·        Excellent written and verbal communication skills

·       Commitment to equality, diversity & inclusion

 Desirable competencies

·       Understanding of the social investment or grant-making market in the UK

·       Understanding of community energy schemes

Heat Development Company

Background

For more than 20 years, Social Investment Business has funded community businesses with grants, loans and blended finance to help them sustain and grow their vital frontline services.

Across SIB’s portfolio, there has been a focus on asset purchase, management and development to help to secure the long-term future of community organisations.

Recent research conducted by SIB’s data team has underlined the importance of assets to community organisations, particular in areas of deprivation. This echoes our previous research on the impact of social investment on the resilience of investees.

Our research has also highlighted the lag faced by the community sector in its transition to net zero compared to the domestic housing sector, with 50% of homes rated EPC C or above, compared to only 44% of community buildings. This drops to 38% of community buildings in the most deprived areas.

We have also found that the position of community buildings compared to other non-domestic buildings has become more precarious since 2016. Although there have been some improvements in the efficiency of assets, the pace of retrofitting and renovation has slowed considerably as the improvement in other non-domestic buildings has picked up.

Assets are enormously important to community organisations, but their contribution to organisational resilience is going to be undermined without a concerted, sector-wide collaborative effort to take on the challenge of net zero. This investment must be strategic and look further ahead than a minimal spend to secure an exemption to Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards, which is a risk.

To respond to this challenge, SIB is launching a Heat Development Company, which will work closely with community initiatives seeking to decarbonise their heating and engage with their communities to support them through the net zero transition. This role will be integral to the success of this new initiative, working closely with our customers and wider stakeholders to make the community case for electrification.