Role description for new paid role for Zero Carbon Guildford.
Zero Carbon Guildford (ZCG) is looking for an experienced and effective communicator to join our team. This is a new role part-funded by Community Energy South’s successful National Lottery Bid, ‘Community Energy People’, which was made possible by TNL's Community Fund. The project aims to recruit and reskill people from under-represented groups into energy-focused roles, with ZCG being one member of a consortium working on this initiative nationwide. We therefore welcome applications from individuals within demographics and communities which are not widely represented in the community energy sector.
We are a Surrey-based charity which works across a number of fields, creating local solutions and projects which help to tackle global crises. One such area of focus is how we, as an organisation and community, can impact Surrey’s energy use to deliver a positive impact on resident health, energy costs, and climate change.
Around two-thirds of Surrey homes have energy performance ratings of ‘D’ or below, or no rating at all. This means that our communities are paying too much on energy bills, and that the risk of damp and mould is increased, putting added pressure on health services. Our energy projects aim to tackle these issues in a holistic way, to provide a range of co-benefits.
We are currently involved in 2 major community energy projects in Surrey:
The Home Energy Advice Taskforce (HEAT) - a project coordinated by ZCG, which involves the county council and several community groups, and is focused on residential energy efficiency. Our domestic Energy Champions visit homes and provide bespoke energy advice and support with finding energy efficiency grants.
Surrey Community Energy (SCE) - ZCG has several representatives within a new Surrey-based and community-led energy generation project, which aims to install renewable energy solutions across the county.
Overview & Purpose
As Zero Carbon Guildford’s Marketing & Communications Manager, you will support Surrey residents to get involved in projects which tackle local issues, with a particular focus on broadening engagement in community energy projects. This may be ‘Powering Down’ projects, such as energy efficiency and reduction, or ‘Powering Up’, which creates opportunities to generate local community-owned renewable energy. The role will achieve these goals through a particular focus on engagement, communications and marketing for ZCG, including for our town centre hub ‘ZERO’ and associated projects, our Sustainable Business Network, and Home Energy Advice Taskforce.
You will gain opportunities for lifelong learning, and can gain experience and skills needed in the rapidly growing clean energy sector. A particularly important aspect of the funding which supports this role, with the support of other ZCG employees and volunteers, is to create job and volunteer opportunities for residents experiencing barriers to community energy, such as those in low income households, ethnic minorities, experiencing disability or LGBTQ+ residents.
Tasks
Strategy Implementation
Deliver our marketing and communications strategies to boost participation and diversity within community energy projects as well as ZCG programmes and activities
Lead and coordinate a group of volunteers forming the ZCG Marketing Team, to create content and carry out marketing activities.
Content Creation and Management
Create and curate engaging content for website, newsletters, email and social media
Liaise with project leads to plan, create and schedule social media content using a social media management system
Event and Campaign Execution
Organise promotional events designed to increase the range of demographics involved in energy
Manage complete marketing campaigns from objective setting to final reporting
Relationship Building
Support existing projects, including HEAT, SCE, SBN, and other ZCG projects, with the goal of removing participation barriers in community energy and environmental projects in Surrey
Expand collaboration with non-environmental organisations across Surrey to support their members in engaging with existing energy and climate activities
Engage with partner organisations to create new volunteering opportunities for under-represented demographics and recruit volunteers to those roles
Analytics and Reporting
Track and report on marketing metrics including social media engagement, website traffic and campaign performance
Work with ZCG’s Project Development Manager to monitor project and charity reporting metrics against our funding KPIs
ZCG Team Member
Be an integral part of ZCG’s operational team, delivering regular reporting updates at team meetings
Keeping up to date with correspondence on our online workspace, Slack, joining fortnightly Operations meetings (usually on a Tuesday evening) and contributing to Operations activities and decisions.
Liaise with our volunteer coordinator to support volunteers from under-represented demographics to remove barriers to participation and increase benefits and positivity of volunteering experience
Manage volunteer expense claims within the Community Energy People team
Nurture a small team of ZERO volunteer marketeers to assist you with content creation across all projects
Positively engaging members of the public who contact the charity online, by phone and through email
Actively champion our equality and diversity policy to foster an inclusive environment ensuring that all projects are enjoyable and a welcoming place to volunteer.
Undertake training as required.
Person Specification:
No formal experience in an energy-related job is required
Candidates should have solid experience in developing and implementing social media, email and web based communications and engagement strategies
Candidates should be extremely passionate and motivated about energy, tackling climate change and willing to invest time in becoming a community energy expert
Candidates should be highly personable, be willing to listen and learn to cultural or social sensitivities, and capable of nuanced and empathetic conversation
Candidates should be able to demonstrate their past experience in putting equality, diversity and inclusion principles into practice
Candidates should be well organised and ideally have some project management experience
Candidates will ideally have some experience within the voluntary or co-operative sectors
Candidates must be able to speak fluent English with excellent written and spoken communication skills
Candidates should have strong IT literacy, including the use of Office, Slack / Zoom, and online marketing and customer management tools, with experience in social media, web and email marketing tools
Practicalities:
Working Hours: 3.5 days per week, flexible working hours to suit the ideal candidate
Location: ZERO, 168 High Street Guildford, with flexible working from home
Remuneration: £22,087 (FTE - £31,553)
Contract length: 12 months, with potential to extend over a 3 year period
Leave: 25 days plus bank holidays pa for full time employees, prorated to working hours
Reports to: ZCG line manager, and ZCG Charity Chair
Benefits:
Your travel expenses to a location other than your normal place of work, and expenses for work-related communications will be paid
Pension contribution
How to apply
Please submit your applications via email to recruitment@zerocarbonguildford.org by Sunday 3rd November 2024.
Please include a CV and a cover letter, explaining why you would like to join our team, and what you think you can bring to the Charity within this role. Your application will not be considered unless you provide us with a cover letter.
Applications will be reviewed, and shortlisted applicants will be asked to attend an interview during the last two weeks in November. Note that because your interviewers will include volunteers, your interview may need to be in an evening or on a weekend day.
Comments