World Wildlife Fund (WWF), one of the world’s leading conservation organizations, seeks a Manager, Renewable Thermal Energy & Climate-Smart Land Use to join WWF’s fast moving and influential US corporate climate and renewable energy team. The Manager leads WWF’s strategic and technical work under the Renewable Thermal Collaborative. The RTC is a multi-stakeholder platform launched in September 2017 as a joint initiative of WWF, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) and David Gardiner and Associates. The RTC is the leading coalition for organizations committed to scaling sustainable, renewable heating and cooling at their facilities and dramatically cutting carbon emissions. The manager is also the focal point for the Climate & Energy Team’s work to advance accounting standards and scale implementation for corporate scope 3 targets that impact land use, forests and food systems.
Many large buyers (corporations, cities, education institutions, etc.) with large thermal energy loads are increasingly looking to renewable thermal solutions, just as they have been seeking renewable electricity solutions. However, renewable thermal solutions are far less commercially developed for a variety of reasons, including the availability and sustainability of bioenergy feedstocks. The goal of the RTC is to develop and implement sustainable, cost-competitive solutions. Within the RTC, the Manager will lead WWF’s work to deepen the RTC coalition’s strategy to develop buyer-focused solutions, particularly around biomass and bioenergy. The manager will also collaborate with staff across the WWF organization to drive standards for land-use accounting and target setting and to implement scalable solutions for companies with value chains touching land use, forests and food systems.
- Strategy & Planning for the RTC: Drives the effective development and execution of a joint vision, strategy and work plan for RTC in collaboration with WWF’s RTC partners, RTC members and other supporting organizations.
- WWF and RTC Thought Leadership: Advances WWF and RTC thought-leadership on the impacts and accounting for biomass, bioenergy and land use on climate change with key audiences through research and writing, media engagement, stakeholder dialogues and discussions with policy makers.
- Relationship Management and Recruitment: The Manager leads WWF’s role in the RTC partnership, leads WWF’s RTC recruitment and manages relationships with member companies and cities.
- Fundraising & Budget: In cooperation with the WWFUS Development Team and the Private Sector Engagement Team, the Manager identifies funding opportunities from RTC donors and members, cultivates opportunities, and prepares funding proposals and reports to donors, including joint funding proposals with RTC partners. The manager develops and tracks budgets for WWF’s portion of the RTC initiative.
- Scope 3 Standard Development and Implementation Solutions:Manages internal processes within WWFUS to advance collaborative work among members of the Climate and Energy team, as well as WWFUS’s Food and Forest teams, and WWF Network Climate & Business Hub, on development of accounting standards and scalable implementation solutions to address Scope 3 corporate emissions touching land use, forest and food systems.
- Performs other duties as assigned.
- Must have at least 8 years of relevant work experience, including work on biomass, bioenergy and other renewable thermal technologies; accounting for bioenergy and land use emissions; and process and relationship management involving these issues. A graduate degree in a related field of study may substitute for up to 2 years of experience.
- Experience working within or managing multi-stakeholder processes is desired.
Additional Skills/Abilities
- Strong technical understanding of bioenergy sustainability issues – understanding of the emissions profile compared to fossil fuels, various accounting methodologies and considerations, issues around land-use accounting, and sustainability issues for bioenergy feedstocks and supply chain.
- In-depth knowledge of relevant accounting and sustainability standards for biomass and bioenergy, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and other related voluntary standards, as well as offsets and renewable energy credits.
- Knowledge of and connections with groups/companies/organizations that can advance renewable thermal solutions.
- Relationships with key players on bioenergy accounting and policy standards.
- Experience developing and managing corporate relationships.
- Strong coalition building and management skills.
- Strong program management skills – plan, execute and follow through.
- A problem-solving and positive attitude, including a strong level of emotional intelligence with an understanding of how her/his emotional responses impact others positively and negatively.
- Communicates clearly and concisely orally and in writing, including ability to convey complex information simply to corporate, policy and other audiences.
- Familiarity with trade-offs between natural gas for heating and cooling and renewable alternatives, including electrification preferred.
- Knowledge of a variety of potential solutions for meeting renewable thermal needs, including geothermal, solar thermal, biogas, electrification, etc. preferred.