Student & Graduate Placements

The Organisation

The University of Edinburgh is committed to making a significant, sustainable and socially responsible contribution to Scotland, the UK and the world. To achieve this the University is working towards embedding sustainability across operations, research, learning and teaching.

The University’s Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability is seeking to recruit a Sustainability Benchmarking Assistant, to support the internal mapping of sustainability activities and impacts across academic schools and support groups.

Understanding more about how sustainability is being embedded will allow the University to raise awareness of examples of best practice and to coordinate where more support is required.

The Role

The Sustainability Benchmarking Assistant will be based in the University’s Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability, where they will work closely with the Programme Manager.

The Sustainability Benchmarking Assistant will produce a comprehensive overview of what academic schools and support groups within the University are doing to embed sustainability. The mapping will be undertaken against an internal framework, which includes a range of sustainability metrics. Due to the size and breadth of the University, the work cannot be exhaustive, instead it will provide a snapshot, providing important information for understanding and reporting on sustainability progress.

The work will include:

• Desk based research reviewing the proposed framework and structure of an internal benchmarking framework in relation to other existing frameworks
• Collating and analysing available information from academic schools and support groups across a range of sustainability metrics. This will include making use of our department contact management software and meetings with department members
• Inputting data into the internal sustainability benchmarking framework. 
• Writing up summaries of academic schools and support groups highlighting available information and gaps in available information.
•  Writing up an overall summary which provides recommendations to improve the internal sustainability benchmarking framework going forward, including keeping information up-to-date.
• Depending on time, potentially contacting key stakeholders within the University to get information about how sustainability is being embedded across several different areas.
• Liaising with colleagues to develop engaging methods of communicating notable findings and best practice from the mapping.

Key tasks will include:

• Desk-based research.
• Data entry into internal sustainability benchmark framework.
• Interviews and meetings with key stakeholders.
• Report writing (drafting summaries based on available information and an overall project summary)

The desired outcomes from the internship include:

• Collated and received some degree of information from all academic schools and support groups within the University about progress with embedding sustainability.
• All information obtained to be entered into the internal sustainability benchmarking framework.
• Short summary reports highlighting existing information to support senior staff in the department and in the University on existing good practices
• A good understanding / snapshot of how sustainability is being embedded across academic schools and support groups, identifying where additional support is required.
• A plan on how to improve the internal sustainability benchmarking framework and the process around collating data and keeping this up-to-date.

Sharing of ‘best practice’ identified through the mapping to University staff and students, and the wider sector (if merited).

The Candidate

This internship will interest someone with a passion for social responsibility and sustainability.

The ideal candidate will possess the following skills:

• Good knowledge of social responsibility and sustainability issues, ideally within a university context.
• Strong communication skills, confidence in engaging with diverse stakeholders.
• Good IT skills are essential, with sound knowledge of Microsoft Office, in particular Excel and Word, and Windows.
• Good research and analytical skills are essential.
• Confidence to work independently.

Willing to work in a team and assist colleagues to identify creative solutions to problems.

Part-time and flexible working hours will be considered for the right candidate.

Please ensure your CV is tailored to the role you applying for.

Interviews will take place on Monday 7th of May.