Head of Sustainability – Transforming How a Major Transport Group Moves

Transport is one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise. The infrastructure is complex, the regulatory landscape is shifting fast, and the gap between ambition and delivery is where most sustainability strategies quietly fail.

Our client is a well-established UK-based transport group with international operations — spanning freight, logistics, and integrated transport services. They are serious about closing that gap. Not because they have to, but because the leadership team has made a clear strategic decision: sustainability is central to how this business will compete over the next decade. They are looking for someone to own that agenda. Entirely.

As Head of Sustainability, you will sit at the intersection of strategy, operations, and external engagement — reporting directly to the executive leadership team and working across fleet, engineering, procurement, and operations to make sustainability real rather than reported. This isn’t a communications role dressed up as a strategy role. You will be shaping the decarbonisation roadmap, leading climate risk assessments, driving innovation pilots, and building the internal capability that makes long-term change stick. London-based, hybrid working.

What You’ll Do

• Design and lead the company’s sustainability strategy — aligned with UK and EU regulatory frameworks including CSRD, SECR, and TCFD, and grounded in what’s actually achievable operationally.
• Own the decarbonisation roadmap: fleet transformation, alternative fuels, energy efficiency, and emissions reduction across the full transport value chain.
• Embed ESG criteria into procurement, asset management, and logistics — making sustainable sourcing a standard, not an afterthought.
• Lead climate risk and opportunity assessments, building adaptive strategies that hold up under regulatory and environmental pressure.
• Drive innovation — from electrification trials to AI-led route optimisation — with a focus on outcomes, not pilots for their own sake.
• Develop ESG performance dashboards and reporting frameworks that give the executive board real insight, not just compliance-ready numbers.
• Lead internal change management: building climate literacy, staff engagement, and a culture where sustainability is understood as a business priority.
• Represent the company externally with public authorities, trade associations, and industry regulators.

What You Bring

• 7–10 years of senior sustainability or ESG experience — ideally across transportation, maritime, freight, logistics, or heavy industry.
• Degree in Environmental Science, Engineering, Sustainability, or a related discipline. Professional certifications (IEMA, GHG Protocol, ISO 14001) are a genuine plus.
• Proven track record leading cross-functional ESG or climate programmes inside complex organisations.
• Deep working knowledge of UK/EU environmental regulation and decarbonisation pathways — you can navigate CSRD and a fleet procurement conversation in the same week.
• Strong stakeholder instincts — as comfortable presenting to a board as you are working through technical detail with an engineering team.
• Strategic thinker who stays close to delivery. You know the difference between a good plan and one that actually gets executed.

Why Join Now

This is a mandate with real weight behind it. You will have executive support, cross-functional access, and the scope to shape how a major transport group navigates one of the defining challenges of the next decade. The work is substantive. The impact is measurable. And the opportunity to build something lasting — within an organisation that moves real freight, real distance, every day — is significant. If you’re ready to lead at this level, we’d like to hear from you.