National Sustainability Assistant - Agriculture & Animal Welfare

Working closely with the National Sustainability Manager, you'll play a vital role in making sure everything runs smoothly.

National Sustainability is part of our core values, so you'll be on the front line, celebrating best practice with industry bodies, NGO's, retailers and suppliers. You will be considered a specialist in your given field and will be immersed in a wide variety of different tasks involving putting proposals together, training new staff members and liaising with stakeholders. 

We do things our own way at Aldi. But whatever we're doing, we must be getting it right. With a wave of impressive sales figures behind us, we're opening new stores at lightning speed. And that means managing our National Sustainability is more crucial than ever before.

Our National Sustainability Assistants are more than just ‘Assistants’. They’re all specialists in different areas, such as Nutrition and the Environment. Together, they create a formidable team who are busy ensuring that Aldi keeps best practice right at the heart of the business.

We have an exciting opportunity in the National Sustainability for an Assistant to join the team, focusing on Agriculture and Animal Welfare. This is an area that receives a lot of attention, not only from external stakeholders but also across the rest of the business.The role will be crucial in developing the strategy and initiatives to deliver against Aldi’s targets for farming, animal welfare and environmental impact in our supply chains, principally on-farm carbon emissions.

Success in this role requires an eye for detail and good organisational skills. You’ll also be great in a team – someone who we can rely on to share our passion and our strong ethics.

It is an exciting time to join the team, with a lot of activity planned for 2024.

If you’re always striving to improve and want to join a really important part of the business, apply to join #TeamAldi today!

Your New Role

• Support with overarching sustainability and animal welfare initiatives across meat, dairy and eggs supply chains.
• Manage national policy development in GB & IE for Animal Welfare (food & non-food).
• Support the business to achieve its national and international targets and objectives.
• Manage existing farm partnerships with suppliers including communication, marketing, research and development and community activities.
• Develop future farm partnerships, and support meetings and project development.
• Manage agriculture charity relationships. 
• Maximise marketing communications including website updates and the Specialbuys magazine.
• Work with our external animal welfare consultants and international sustainability teams to review animal welfare policies across species in line with industry or strategic changes. Collect animal welfare data/KPIs from key suppliers.
• Work with buying teams and suppliers to identify key activities to support the above and to answer questions/provide recommendations.
• Maintain regular contact and attend meetings with key external stakeholders for each topic (including consultants, industry groups, Non-Governmental Organisations and Government bodies) to understand changes to farming legislation and how best to support farmers. Understand and evaluate the impact of legislation on the business and our supply chains.
• Regular contact with the International Sustainability department to input into global strategy and attend working groups on topics of responsibility (animal welfare, climate, nature and biodiversity)
• Develop and strengthen policies across key proteins.
• Regular research of the market for competitor comparison, media trends, NGO campaigns to inform strategy and policy development. 
• Work closely with the National Assistant for carbon emissions to support Scope 3 carbon reductions on farm to meet our net zero carbon commitment. 
• Draft letters, memos, presentations and communication materials for each topic. 
• Manage reporting against international targets to show progress year on year.
• Co-ordinate feedback for specification systems and advise technical service providers (TSPs).
• Provide support to the National Sustainability Manager.

About You

• Experience in the areas of farming, animal welfare and/or environmental impact of agriculture.
• Knowledge of livestock farming, farmed animal welfare and environmental impact of agriculture.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to communicate externally to various stakeholders including farmers, NGOs and processors.
• Enthusiastic, confident, professional and articulate.
• Able to liaise and build relationships with people at all levels.
• High level of attention to detail, organisation and time management skills.
• Able to manage and prioritise multiple projects and tasks.
• Able to work and deliver under own initiative.
• Experienced in Microsoft Office - especially Excel and PowerPoint.
• Knowledge of livestock farm systems and on-farm emissions.
• Understanding of animal welfare and husbandry.
• Knowledge of issues around antimicrobial use in farmed species.
• Awareness of agricultural policy.

What You'll get in Return