Sustainability Coordinator

Description

City of Carbondale, Illinois

Job Description/Job Opening Announcement

Title: Sustainability Coordinator

Dept./Div: Development Management

Nature of Work: The Development Management Department is looking for a civic-minded and hardworking professional to join their team. This position requires a high degree of self-motivation and independent judgment. An ideal candidate would be creative, innovative, and have strong customer service skills with a passion to serve the community. This is a regular, full-time position that will perform a variety of activities including; implementation of the Carbondale Community’s Sustainability Action Plan; ensuring the City of Carbondale’s progress towards carbon neutrality by 2050 and a 45% reduction by 2030; interdepartmental advising; interdepartmental strategic planning; grant writing; special project(s) management; community engagement; and other duties as assigned. This position reports directly to the Development Manager.

The Sustainability Coordinator is responsible for facilitating, managing, coordinating, and advising the development, implementation, monitoring and improvement of policies and initiatives that promote local resilience internally and externally. The Sustainability Coordinator will perform work across urban/regional planning, transportation, public health, housing, agriculture, energy, and children and families. The Coordinator will collaborate with fellow staff and foster working relationships with external partners to achieve local resilience. This position will also coordinate with existing public transit entities to address public transit needs in Carbondale.

Essential Duties:

Facilitates collaboration with administration, city staff, and community partners to develop, coordinate, and guide implementation of initiatives to achieve community-scale carbon neutrality by 2050 and a 45% reduction by 2030, including but not limited to: municipal policy review and revision, capital projects, facilities improvements, community programming, strategic and comprehensive planning, research, and pursuit of funding.

Assists the City Manager and departmental leadership in defining goals, performance metrics and long-range action plans for implementing sustainability programs and policies.

Coordinates the completion and dissemination of community-scale greenhouse gas emissions inventories (GHG) with the support of ICLEI USA.

Leads the implementation of goals adopted in the Sustainability Action Plan and tracks performance to assess program effectiveness.

Works with all segments of the community, including residents, vendors, businesses, industry, and staff to promote an understanding and awareness of the importance of adaptation and mitigation by coordinating informational training and presentations, including but not limited to: energy, water and wastewater, biodiversity, waste, net zero construction, landscape design, sustainable development, transportation, procurement of green products, etc.

Serves as liaison to the Sustainability Commission and between various committees and groups to assure communication and resource coordination for sustainability programs and projects. Meetings regularly occur outside regular office hours.

Coordinates with JAX Mass Transit District and other local public transit entities to build public transit opportunities available to residents.

Serves as liaison to the Carbondale Community Cabinet for Children and Youth.

Develops marketing and educational materials surrounding initiatives and works with the Public Relations Officer to schedule public outreach and education campaigns.

Communicates verbally, electronically and in writing with citizens, state and local officials, etc.

Reads professional journals and attends professional meetings to stay apprised of current information in the sustainability field.

Efficiently and effectively utilizes Windows-based computers. Proficiency in Microsoft products including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint is desired.

Operates audio and visual equipment at meetings and elsewhere, including but not limited to set up of screens, microphones, audio, and videotape recorders and cameras, laptop computer, and digital cameras and projectors.

Manually operates office machines including but not limited to copying machines, fax machines, and personal computers.

Illustrates and displays charts and graphs.

Uses tact and good judgment and utilizes strong and effective interpersonal skills in interacting with co-workers, members of the community, agencies, and organizations; work effectively both independently and as a team member.

Drives City vehicle(s) to project sites, meetings, libraries, agency offices, etc. Travel in City car and public transportation to meetings in nearby and distant communities.

Other Duties: Perform other duties as necessary to accomplish the mission, goals and objectives of the City of Carbondale.

City of Carbondale Organizational Philosophy: As a responsive and caring community, Carbondale’s success is not just based on “what we do,” but also “how we do it.” Our core values define the behaviors important in our interactions with residents, visitors, and one another. These are the values that guide our work: accountability, integrity, fairness, communication, honesty, and teamwork.

Work Environment: Work is performed both indoors and outdoors exposing the employee to extreme heat/cold weather and working around moving vehicles. Protective equipment which may be worn includes hard hats, safety vests, safety glasses, gloves, earplugs, and the like.

Physical Demands: Office work is essentially sedentary with occasional walking, bending, lifting of objects under 25 pounds, and requires the ability to sit for extended periods of time, operate personal computers, and to perceive and/or discriminate colors, sounds, depth, and texture. Work outdoors requires frequent to continuous walking, at times over uneven or rough surfaces; standing; occasionally lifting and carrying moderately heavy objects between 15-49 pounds and occasionally heavy objects 50 pounds or over.

Minimum Acceptable Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree from an accredited four-year college or university in Urban Planning, Geography, Environmental Sciences, or a related field; and, one to two years of progressively responsible related experience required. Any equivalent combination of education, training and experience, which provides the required knowledge, skills and abilities to perform the essential functions of the job, considered. Experience with transit planning is a plus.

City Limit Residency Boundary Requirement: As a condition of employment with the City of Carbondale, the Sustainability Coordinator is required to maintain their primary residence within a 9-mile radius of City Hall.

Benefits Include:

Medical/Dental/Vision

Life Insurance

Retirement Pension

457 Deferred Compensation Plan

Employee Assistance Program

10 days of vacation per year

12 days of sick leave per year

11 City holidays plus one floating holiday

Section 125 pretax deductions

Dependent Care Reimbursement Plan

Healthcare Flexible Spending Account

Regular, Full-time, Overtime Eligible

Salary Range 6 $55,308.00 – $62,328.00 (Salary Commensurate to Experience)