Sustainable Households Manager

Urban Green Lab

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Job Summary

SUSTAINABLE HOUSEHOLDS MANAGER
Help us share solutions with households.

Summary

Urban Green Lab is searching for a full-time manager of its Households Division to help us fulfill our mission of teaching communities how to live sustainably.

Urban Green Lab

We teach communities how to live sustainably. Founded in 2009 in Nashville, Tennessee, Urban Green Lab envisions a city where learning how to live sustainably is just a part of life. We organize, train, and connect people in classrooms, households, and workplaces – places where culture begins. Learn more about our story and our people here.

Our Values

• Sustainability is for all of us. Sustainability is a human right and our work is for everyone regardless of race, place, and identity. To us, living more sustainably is a journey rooted in compassion, inclusion, and justice.
• Education leads to action. We believe education is the first step toward taking meaningful action, and that learning to live sustainably can be simple and fun. We empower people to try little changes that make a big difference.
• Collaboration makes us stronger. Nothing is achieved alone. Our diverse partnerships allow us to work creatively, accountably, and in harmony. We believe we go further together.
• We are good stewards of our organization. Taking good care of what we have is at the heart of who we are and what we do. We are committed to using your gifts of support responsibly and transparently to deliver credible work toward our shared goals

Our Educational Philosophy

We believe learning how to live sustainably should just be a part of life. That means it needs to be systemic and woven into the existing fabric of who we are. Learning how to make more sustainable choices should begin with thinking “upstream” about how we can protect what we care about most in all the places where we learn, work, and live. We think these spaces can serve as laboratories for learning, taking chances, and exploring our life-long responsibilities as stewards of the earth. To us, a little change goes a long way.

Job Summary

Learning how to live sustainably needs to be more accessible in Nashville homes. That’s why Urban Green Lab created its Households Division, to help families and individuals find simple solutions. Supervised by the Executive Director and in collaboration with the entire team, the Sustainable Households Manager is a newer role meant to organize residents, train them how to guide conversations with families and friends and connect them with impactful resources as well as each other. The position is full-time, exempt, and based in Nashville.

The Households Division is one of three divisions at Urban Green Lab, which include our Classrooms and Workplaces Divisions. The Sustainable Households Manager will collaborate with those divisions – as well as our special initiatives around food waste and environmental justice – to ensure that our shared long-term outcomes of organizing champions, training them to teach others, and connecting them to resources that make a difference are achieved. We’re looking for someone to grow with the organization and supervise support staff in time. In addition to serving as a general resource for neighborhoods, the Sustainable Households Manager will lead our newest program called the UGL Volunteers, which they will take over after a planned pilot this summer. UGL Volunteers will train residents how to serve as “green teams” for their own homes, helping navigate solutions around more sustainable household consumption, like recycling right, reusing materials, and reducing wasted food. The Division is helping Nashville reach its goal of curbing emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

Company Culture

Urban Green Lab takes pride in being a human-centric organization, and we design our policies to reflect that principle. We believe people work best when they’re treated best, and are growing both personally and professionally. Examples of this include our flexible hybrid-work schedule (two days in the office plus three days working from any location); collaboratively-created goals, metrics, and performance expectations; quarterly “silent retreat” weeks in which staff have permission to focus on uninterrupted work time followed by a full-team “big-picture” strategy meeting; separate goals and budget just for professional development; regular one-on-one check-ins with supervisors for guidance and planning; a staff-led green team; free coffee, frequent team lunches, and onsite composting; and an overall collaborative and inquiry-friendly culture. We’re always learning from each other.

Work Environment

Urban Green Lab enjoys a flexible work-life balance and all staff is responsible for managing their own schedules during the week. Staff is expected to spend reasonable time with the team at our Marathon Village office and partners in the community. Reasonable accommodations may be made for individuals with disabilities. The employee is regularly required to sit, stand, walk, talk, listen and feel, reach hands above the shoulder, occasionally stoop or crouch, and lift or move items weighing 10-25 pounds.

Equal Opportunity

Urban Green Lab is fully committed to Equal Employment Opportunity and to attracting, retaining, developing, and promoting the most qualified employees without regard to their race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, citizenship status, veteran status, or any other characteristic prohibited by state or local law. Urban Green Lab welcomes applicants from a diversity of backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and ideas.

Disclaimer

This job description is not necessarily an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills, requirements, or conditions. While intended to be accurate, it is not meant to exclude that other, different tasks may be required when circumstances change (such as during emergencies, personnel changes, workload alterations, rush jobs, or technological developments or advancements).

For the most up-to-date job posting, please always refer to the post shared on our website. 

Job Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

• The UGL Volunteers: Lead and grow the new UGL Volunteers program, which will be piloted in 2023. Strategically recruit, train, and retain volunteers, lead year-round orientation sessions, offer monthly challenges to volunteers and disseminate educational resources, collect and analyze field reports, bring volunteers together to share and network, and provide general support through troubleshooting and in-person observation.
• Sustainable in the City: Co-host Sustainable in the City, a monthly virtual community education series in partnership with Metro Nashville’s Zero Waste Nashville program, which includes experts and panels discussing emerging issues of sustainability in Nashville. Help identify episode themes and speakers, research topics and prepare the run-of-show, facilitate questions from the audience, and track and report progress.
• Community Engagement: Serve as an overall point person and resource for families and individuals along their sustainability journeys in Nashville. Connect residents with services, experts, reports, curricula, assessments, funding, news, and films and books to help achieve their goals. Respond to public inquiries, engage neighborhood-based groups to better understand household needs, and represent Urban Green Lab at strategic community events.
• Advisory Committee: Help grow and lead a committee of diverse residents meant to advise and strengthen the new Households Division over time. Meet one-on-one and collectively with advisors throughout the year, solicit their perspectives around identifying the needs of households and improving the division’s programming, and encourage the exchange of best practices between them. Keep advisors updated on divisional goals, metrics, and outcomes.
• Everything Else: Lead advisement of Nashville Earth Day, which Urban Green Lab co-presents. Work closely with Development to identify and sustain funding relationships, with a particular focus on individual contributors. Team up with Communications to shape key messages and spotlight the work of resident champions. Maintain the Households portion of the strategic plan. Attend regular team or organizational meetings, and generally represent the organization in the community. Duties may evolve over time.

Qualifications

Personal Attributes

• Passionately committed to Urban Green Lab’s mission and values
• Entrepreneurial and goal-orientated with a keen sense for innovation
• Proactive, dependable, and on-time – a team player to the core
• Diplomatic with excellent community relations and listening skills
• Positive and flexible with intellectual curiosity and ability to adjust to change
• Inclusive and empathetic with an understanding of what it means to be equitable
• Humble and gracious under pressure with a high sense of integrity and humor

Experience & Knowledge

We’re searching for someone who has the following ideal experience and skills:

• At least 3-5 years of professional experience
• Great sense for relationship-building with strategic community partners
• Experience organizing, training, and connecting groups of diverse stakeholders
• Proven record engaging in complex programs with multiple long-term outcomes
• Experience working with nonprofits and volunteers, or serving as a volunteer
• Understanding of household sustainability-related issues in Nashville
• Excellent, clear writing skills and public speaking ability
• An educational or training background

Additional Information

Benefits

How to Apply

How to Apply

Please email your cover letter and resume to Noah Spiegel, Sr. Director of Operations, at careers@urbangreenlab.org. Combine all documents into one PDF file with your full name as the file name and write “Sustainable Households Manager” in the email subject line. Incomplete submissions and follow-up inquiries will not be considered. Only applicants selected for consideration will be contacted. Applications are accepted until the position is filled. All correspondence is confidential. Background check required.

Details

• Date Posted: April 11, 2023
• Type: Full-Time
• Job Function: Educator
• Service Area: Education
• Salary Range: 52,000-55,000
• Working Hours: M-F 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.