Sustainability Programme Manager

PORTWEST, a leading global manufacturer of safety wear, workwear and PPE is currently seeking applications for the position of Sustainability Programme Manager in Westport. Portwest is one of the fastest growing workwear companies in the world currently employing over 5,300 staff worldwide, with customer service staff in over 130+ countries and 11 Global warehouses in UK, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain, UAE, USA and Australia. We design, manufacture and distribute market leading workwear, safety wear and PPE in fully owned production facilities.

JOB TITLE: Sustainability Programme Manager

EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Full Time Permanent

REPORTS TO: Commercial Director

JOB SUMMARY:

To drive our sustainability agenda, we have formed Portwest Planet which focuses on 5 key areas namely Product, Planet, Principles, Place and People. Due to Portwest’s global coverage, each of the five pillars span across our manufacturing sites in Asia, our twelve distribution centres across four continents and our headquarters in Westport, Co. Mayo. As part of Portwest Planet we became a member of the UN Global Compact in April 2021 and are awarded Ecovadis Gold. To crystalise our goals we have initiatives such as measuring our carbon footprint, membership of Sedex to assist with ensuring our suppliers are ethically producing and to map our supply chains, maintenance of our factories WRAP, Oekotex and SMETA accreditations, use of recycled and crop-based fabrics in garment production and moving towards 100% of packaging being recyclable, reusable or compostable.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• As the Sustainability Programme Manager you will drive the Portwest Planet agenda across relevant sites and departments to ensure its delivery. Among the responsibilities include:
• Manage the development and execution of Portwest’s Group sustainability strategy
• Identify, recommend and lead improvement initiatives for the business based on gap analysis, opportunities and external sustainability benchmarking
• Develop and prepare a suite of performance reports and metrics for the group’s executive leadership team
• Embed sustainability into the culture of the organisation ensuring that sustainability is factored into all layers of decision making
• Utilise programme management and change management skills to drive the sustainability agenda across the organisation
• Maintain current accreditations across our five key Portwest Planet pillars and recommend further improvements based on accreditation body feedback
• Represent Portwest at sustainability conferences and engage in continuous upskilling in this area
• Present the sustainability programme to senior stakeholders and external customers
• Coordinate with the heads of the relevant departments on compliance such as CSRD, CBAM, CSDD etc

REQUIREMENTS:

• Demonstrable experience in project, programme or change management pertaining to sustainability across a commercial organisation
• Experience engaging with various frameworks including Ecovadis and other sustainability related accreditation bodies
• Reporting experience regarding sustainability including ESG reporting, ideally with a knowledge of CSRD
• Strong influencing and stakeholder management skills to drive the sustainability agenda

COMPANY AWARDS

• Great Place To Work 2023
• Best Medium Sized Workplaces 2022
• Ibec Leading in Wellbeing Top 100 companies 2021
• Portwest CEO - Business Man Of The Year - In Business Ireland 2020
• Deloitte Best Managed Companies 2016-2023
• Private Irish Business of the Year Export Industry Awards 2019
• Exporter of the Year 2018
• Portwest CEO - EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2017

Portwest do not support visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants must have a right to work and must fulfil any relevant visa / work permit requirements in the relevant jurisdiction.

Portwest are an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, civil status, veteran status, family status, disability status or membership of a minority group.