The Warehouse Group Looking for Sustainability Partner at Northcote, Auckland Full Time

As NZ’s largest general merchandise retailer with a footprint accessible to every kiwi, we are uniquely positioned to influence change.  Here at The Warehouse Group (TWG) we recognise sustainability as a strategic priority so we’re harnessing our resources to drive towards a low carbon and circular economy. In fact we’ve recently changed our vision to make sustainable living easy and affordable for everyone. To support our new vision we have made new commitments and set new targets in products, solutions, circularity and emissions.  Our new vision and targets are putting sustainability at the heart of who we are. They require a true end to end redesign of our value chain, the development of new data capabilities, and recognizing that we do not yet have all the solutions we need to achieve our new ambitions.

Our efforts and growing commitment continue to build on the programmes we have established over the past few years – they represent our founder’s legacy and demonstrate the Group’s purpose of helping ‘Kiwis live better every day.’ 

To adapt quickly to ever-changing customer needs, we’ve adopted an agile structure with a focus on collaboration, productivity, and speed-to-market. We’ve said goodbye to traditional business structures and have welcomed in bold new ways of moving our business forward.  For our leaders and team members this means we focus on communicating better, being empowered to make decisions quickly, and getting us back to the innovation that made us great.

Did you know: 

• In 2019 we were the first large NZ Company to go carbon neutral. 
• In 2019 2% of our private label sales came from products with sustainability attributes. In FY22, we achieved 22%, with some categories such as apparel at more than 50%!
• Torpedo7 launched the world’s first sustainable kayak made with wool.
• Our ‘I Was A Bottle’ pencil case range is made from 100% recycled plastic. 
• 98% of our light vehicle fleet is made of EV

The Role:

We are embarking on a sustainability transformation with our sustainability team in growth mode, with this role being new FTE. Our sustainability partners have a focus and expertise across several verticals: our products and packaging, our climate practice, our circularity and post-consumer waste solutions, and our business operations. Our sustainability partners work both on delivering practical solutions to our group sustainability targets. They also create new value pools still unseen or untapped by our organisation, and driven by the global shift in capital allocations, government policies, and consumer behaviours.

These program areas are powered by our internal sustainability learning and development, our ESG data capabilities, and our sustainable living consumer engagement programs.  

Reporting into our Chief Sustainability Officer, your role will play across all of those verticals mentioned above and will have vast exposure across several functions which will offer you broad business understanding and variety to your work. For example you could be working with our data team right through to our corporate affairs team or our logistics team. Secondly, you will lead sustainability initiatives delivery, leveraging your proven project management skills – for example an initiative may centre around solar, or hydrogen, and you will need to understand the operational elements of such a programme of work and carry out the ‘delivery” by liaising with a rich network of partners, suppliers, and team members across functions.  

Your affinity with data, and ability to uncover ‘value creation’ through business case creation will be key, along with your comfort and skill to build rapport with wide-ranging stakeholders, truly playing to your generalist expertise. 

About You:

• Purpose Driven: Passionate and enthusiastic about tackling sustainability issues and opportunities and driven to positively impact our business, our people, our communities and our planet 
• Relationship Builder: Strong internal and external stakeholder management with the ability to educate, inform and influence  
• Exceptional project management skills: You have a track record of driving successful outcomes  
• Critical Thinker: Strong data analysis abilities, coupled with a knack for cutting through complexity to achieve clarity of thought 
• Curious & proactive: A growth mindset with a love of learning, you stay at the cutting edge of sustainability and use your knowledge to drive continuous improvement  
• Bold and Courageous: You are capable of challenging the status quo, educate our team members about new ways of delivering sustainability outcomes while driving commercial opportunities.

Your deep technical understanding of sustainability and ESG issues and broader sustainability practice (including public policy) will be relied upon and valued. 

About Us:

What’s in it for you? We offer a dynamic, supportive team environment within a business that cares about and recognises individuals. The business is at an exciting point in its life story.  By empowering our teams and increasing cross-collaboration, we aim to make TWG New Zealand’s best place to work!      

When you join us, you also get discounts across our brands, great team member benefits, and excellent career development opportunities no matter where you are in the business!  We have a flexible working policy that can see you balance your week with up to 2 days working from home (if you wish).    

This really is that career defining role to join our organisation that is committed and empowered to lead sustainable practices and sustainable living for all new Zealanders – if you think you’ve got what it takes we would love to hear from you!