Sustainability Executive

Overview

This is an exciting opportunity to help deliver and shape apetito’s sustainability agenda, with focus on ethical trade, nature and social value. Working across the business and with suppliers, you will help turn strategy into practical action and measurable impact.

apetito aims to be one of the UK’s leading companies in ethics and sustainability. This role has a key responsibility in helping deliver that. In becoming leaders, we expect to create real competitive advantage, getting the support of current and potential customers and helping our business to grow. We seek an individual with the passion, drive and commitment to share and deliver on this vision.

We have made considerable progress in sustainability over the past few years and have won multiple awards, including the Kings Awards for Enterprise - Sustainable Development in 2024. We have one of the strongest Net Zero commitments of any business in the UK, with targets independently validated by the SBTi and are proud that we are one of few businesses brave enough to publish our short-term targets. We aim to be open and trustworthy and will not greenwash. We have also introduced a world-first via our closed-loop packaging recycling system for CPET ready meals trays. We have recycled over 45 million of these trays to date and have successfully influenced Government to make changes to packaging legislation to now recognise ours and other closed-loop systems.

We are currently building a new production factory, Kitchen West, a circa £100m investment in one of the most sustainable food production facilities in the UK; this role has a critical part to play in ensuring our new site delivers on our circularity and water lean ambitions of that site – and then to transfer those learnings back to our existing factory, Kitchen East. We are also working on our plans for a new Customer Service and Distribution Centre – this role will be heavily involved in ensuring we develop and deliver on a sustainability framework for that site that maximises circularity and efficient use of resource.

We drive our work via a Group-wide ESG Framework, developed in the UK and now rolled out across the apetito group worldwide; that framework is summarised below.

Who we are

apetito is the UK’s leading food supplier to the health and social care sectors serving more than 1,300 care homes, health care and education settings.

Our meals are expertly crafted by our dieticians and chefs, and then frozen to lock in the goodness.

Wiltshire Farm Foods, our sister company, is the UK’s largest ready meal supplier cooking and delivering over 330 different delicious frozen ready meals across the UK.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities

Ethical Trade -

• Lead apetito’s Ethical Trade programme, ensuring alignment with the ETI Base Code and Modern Slavery requirements
• Deliver the Ethical Trade Action Plan, tracking progress and driving continuous improvement
• Manage key external memberships and relationships (e.g. Ethical Trading Initiative, Food Network for Ethical Trade)
• Oversee supplier due diligence processes, including SEDEX data management, risk assessment and corrective action follow-up
• Support Modern Slavery risk mapping, reporting and the annual statement

Nature, Biodiversity & Agriculture –

• Deliver apetito’s Nature Strategy, tracking progress and driving continuous improvement across biodiversity, sustainable water management and supporting nature friendly supply chains.
• Implement onsite biodiversity enhancement projects across apetito’s sites
• Assess and manage supply chain water risk
• Engage with our supply chain to define ‘Nature friendly supply chain’ and implement requirements.

Social Value -

• Co-lead the apetito Social Value Committee coordinating with committee members from across the business
• Drive social value and charitable activities across apetito.
• Manage our corporate charity partners relationships (e.g. Beyond Dementia & FareShare).

Animal Welfare -

• Support delivery and monitoring of apetito’s animal welfare commitments
• Maintain supplier standards and track compliance

Qualifications/Personal Qualities

About You

Skills & Experience – Essential

• Degree or equivalent qualification in sustainability or related field
• Proficiency in Microsoft office, good computer literacy knowledge
• Strong organisation skills
• Able to demonstrate effective stakeholder management, communication and collaboration.
• Ability to influence key stakeholders

Skills & Experience – Desirable

• Experience across ethical trade, nature and/or social value
• Strong analytical skills, able to interpret data confidently
• Experience delivering successful sustainability projects.
• Good project management and organisational skills – ability to manage numerous projects
• Experience with organisations such as the ethical trading initiative and Food Network for Ethical Trade
• Valid UK Driving License

Personal Qualities

• Passionate about ethical and sustainability issues, with a desire to keep learning and developing
• Clear, practical communicator, able to work effectively with a wide range of stakeholders
• Builds strong, collaborative relationships across teams to get things done and influence decision making.
• Proactive and organised, able to take ownership and work through challenges
• Comfortable working with both detail and the bigger picture
• Able to connect sustainability initiatives to real business and customer outcomes and benefits.

Company Benefits

• Competitive salary – accredited Living Wage employer
• 25 days holiday per year, plus bank holidays
• Option to purchase up to 5 additional days holiday per year
• Discretionary annual bonus scheme
• Pension scheme - employer matched contributions up to 4%
• Life assurance scheme worth at least 1x annual salary
• Subsidised canteen
• Free parking
• Free turkey or voucher at Christmas
• apetito perks scheme including salary sacrifice options and retail discounts

Our Values

As a family-owned business, we take great pride in being a company that makes a real difference and is dedicated to creating outstanding meals to be proud of.

We develop a range of products designed to enhance health and well-being for all our customers.

We are driven by a passion for service and dedicated to feeding some of the UK’s most vulnerable people.

We proudly support British food and farming, focusing on using the best ethical and sustainable produce in alignment with our goal to reach Net Zero by 2040.

Our ethical standards are recognised by the ETI and we are an accredited Living Wage employer.Learn more about apetito’s commitment to a more sustainable future.

We embrace inclusion, empowering individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Our commitment to making a real difference extends to customers, communities, and staff and we're on a mission to build an inclusive workplace where everyone reaches their full potential.