Sustainability & Environmental, Social and Governance Manager

This is a great opportunity for a Responsible Business and ESG professional to bring their expertise, passion and stakeholder management skills to help embed strategy and manage our sustainability reporting.

Role Purpose:

As DLA Piper’s sustainability performance and data management systems continue to mature and grow in support of the firm’s deepening ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) strategy, a key element of this role is to manage and lead areas of our new reporting delivery.

This role requires a responsible business (RB) sustainability ESG professional with at least 5 years’ experience who brings consultancy and/or in-house professional services expertise, gained at a global level. It demands passion, senior stakeholder management experience and a blend of sustainability/RB and ESG technical experience gained embedding sustainability and ESG within large complex organisations. There is an emphasis in the role on sustainability reporting. The Manager will lead parts of our CSRD and upcoming CSDDD reporting.

Manage the defining, development and implementation of RB and ESG best practices and engagement of our employees and senior internal stakeholders, clients and external audiences.

Manage the data systems (collection, reporting, third party assessments and client requests) and proactively refine these.

The Manager will proactively liaise with ESG data owners in other parts of the firm, maintain databases, analyse ESG data and summarise trends, draw out business performance insights, help track the firm’s progress against ESG goals and targets, and prepare data and insights for internal and external audiences.

Manage projects such as Carbon Literacy training and have ample opportunity to support wider ESG-related projects, most notably the sustainability report, as we shift to CSRD reporting, supply chain risk assessment, or supporting on the development of the firm’s social impact strategy.

The ideal candidate is passionate about leveraging data and data management tools to drive business strategy and is effective in communicating insights and recommendations across diverse audiences.

Key areas of responsibility:

• Take a leading role in producing the firm’s annual Sustainability Report.
• Manage elements of operational change in response to the new double materiality assessment outcomes and support the delivery of internal ESG progress updates.
• Manage the implementation of new data gathering and reporting approaches brought about by CSRD, as well as existing processes.
• Liaising and maintaining relationships with ESG data owners in other parts of the business (Finance, Risk, OGC, Procurement, Human Resources, Property & Workplace, etc) and in other international offices and as we shift to CSRD.
• Proactively identifying opportunities to enhance our ESG data collection, maintaining and analysing quantitative and qualitative data for internal and external ESG reporting and communications, using Excel, cloud-based platforms, and survey tools.
• Manage and directly respond to client requests for information on ESG progress.
• Supporting effective data management and strategic decision-making by building and maintaining databases, developing data management protocols, creating dashboards, and staying abreast of new tools and innovations in data management and analysis.
• Proactively prepare ESG insights for a diverse set of internal and external stakeholders via written reports and Power Point presentations; supporting on the production of an annual sustainability report, as well as reporting to various third party stakeholders (CDP, UNGC, TrustLaw Index of Pro Bono, etc).
• Manage relevant ESG projects, such as developing the firm’s social impact evaluation methodology, by conducting research, project coordination, and stakeholder engagement.
• Conducting research into ESG management best practices and staying abreast of latest developments and thought leadership.
• Play a key role in managing the submission of annual voluntary sustainability reporting, including EcoVadis and UNGC.

Skills, experience and characteristics:

• Strong interest in environmental and social issues, with a passion for driving sustainable change in the business world; familiarity with CSRD and other mandatory and voluntary frameworks and ratings such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, United Nations Global Compact, Ecovadis, CDP and other relevant business sustainability and corporate responsibility standards.
• Ability to support and manage senior stakeholders e.g. the UK CMP in support of the Carbon Literacy training programme.
• Experience dealing with large volumes of quantitative data and qualitative information, as well as with analysing this data and drawing easy-to-understand insights from it.
• Familiarity with or interest in ESG / Responsible Business management methods and concepts, such as materiality assessment, social impact measurement, social or human rights risk assessment, ESG strategy development, etc.
• Experience in developing and implementing ESG related employee training and engagement networks within large organisations.
• Highly detail-oriented, able to spot and correct data errors.
• Able to work in a methodological manner and take a project management approach to long and complex sustainability reporting initiatives.
• Creative problem solver excited by the possibility of innovation.
• Experience working with diverse teams and stakeholders and adapting communication style as needed.
• Advanced MS Excel, Power Point, and Word skills.
• Ability to quickly learn and adapt to new technologies.

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