Could a career in sustainability be right for you?
From protecting wildlife and biodiversity to creating opportunities for local communities, there are many ways you can build a career in sustainability. At Balfour Beatty, these roles help ensure our infrastructure projects consider their impact on both the environment and the communities we work in.
But how do you get into sustainability, and what skills do you need?
We spoke to three of our sustainability leaders - Sam Bower, Head of Natural Environment; Kari Williams, Head of Social Sustainability; and Geri Straine, Operational Sustainability Director - about their career journeys, what their teams do and the opportunities available.
Their experiences show that while some roles require specialist technical knowledge, others draw on transferable skills from areas such as project management, procurement or stakeholder engagement.
Your career doesn’t have to follow a straight line - especially at Balfour Beatty.
What does working in sustainability involve?
Sustainability offers a range of opportunities at Balfour Beatty, from protecting the natural environment on construction sites to working with communities and helping the business make responsible decisions.
For Sam Bower, Head of Natural Environment, that means working with project teams to protect and enhance the environment in and around our sites. His team includes specialists in ecology, biodiversity and arboriculture, who help colleagues understand environmental risks and find practical ways to manage them.
Pic: Sam Bower, Head of Natural Environment
This could involve identifying protected species before work begins, advising on habitat management or finding a solution when environmental requirements affect a construction programme.
As Sam explains, the work goes beyond technical expertise. “If you put the technical knowledge to the side for the moment, what the job is really about is problem-solving.”
Kari Williams and her social impact team focus on the people and communities connected to our projects. Their work includes creating opportunities for local people, supporting skills development and working within community organisations to understand what matters most to them.
Pic: Kari Williams, Head of Social Sustainability
Kari describes sustainability in terms of “people, place and planet” with social impact rooted in the needs of each location. “Everything we do is centred around the place,” she explains. “So, where that community is based, and what the priorities are around that area.”
For Geri Straine, Operational Sustainability Director, collaboration across the business is central to managing environmental risk, improving performance and supporting informed decision-making. “Our project Environmental Sustainability teams at Balfour Beatty work in close partnership with our operational delivery teams to manage environmental risk and support safer, faster and more reliable programme delivery. Protecting and enhancing the environment is a cornerstone of our approach to delivering projects.”
Pic: Geri Straine, Operational Sustainability Director,
Together, these roles show the breadth of sustainability careers at Balfour Beatty, whether strengths lie in technical expertise, working with communities or advising and supporting teams across the business.
What skills do you need for a career in sustainability?
There’s no single route into sustainability, and the skills you’ll need depend on the role you’re interested in.
Sam’s career is a good example. He studied philosophy and drama before moving into conservation, forestry and habitat management. He later completed a master’s degree in environmental conservation and joined Balfour Beatty in 2013 as a Senior Ecologist on a highways contract.
He describes his career as a “very long and winding route”, but it’s given him a broad perspective on what makes someone good at their job.
For technical roles within the Natural Environment team, specialist knowledge in areas such as ecology or biodiversity is important. However, Sam also looks for people who can think critically, communicate clearly and collaborate with others to find solutions.
Sam points to colleagues who have entered the profession through different routes, including apprenticeships and practical experience, reinforcing his view that technical skills can be developed in different ways.
What skills do you need for a social impact role?
Kari’s career shows how experience from other professions can provide a foundation for working in sustainability.
She began her career on a degree apprenticeship at Rolls-Royce, spending 17 years working across procurement, supply chain, sales and business transformation. While working in Thailand, she developed a corporate social responsibility strategy, which sparked her interest in how businesses could make a lasting difference to local communities.
After joining Balfour Beatty in a transformation role within Power Transmission & Distribution, she later moved into her current role leading social impact across the Group.
That breadth of experience influences the skills Kari looks for in her team. Depending on the position, programme and stakeholder management, risk management and project management can all be valuable. Experience in procurement may also provide a useful foundation.
Kari describes her career as “really squiggly”, with curiosity and a willingness to try something new helping her to move between different areas. That breadth of experience is something she values when recruiting into social impact.
The team offers a range of opportunities, from entry-level roles and apprenticeships to Social Impact Advisors, Managers and senior positions supporting major projects. Regional leads also coordinate social impact resources across geographical areas.
“The skillsets I look for when hiring for Regional Social Impact Leads, for example, as they’re more general resource management, would be programme and stakeholder management, and risk management.”
Kari is particularly driven to make careers accessible to people from different backgrounds. “All skillsets are valued within social impact,” she says. “I am really passionate about social mobility and inclusive recruitment.”
How can you develop your sustainability career?
A career in sustainability can develop in different ways, whether that means deepening your technical expertise, taking on broader responsibilities or moving into a new area.
Geri’s career illustrates how opportunities emerge over time. After studying geography at UCL and completing a master’s degree at Imperial College London, she began working in environmental consultancy before joining Balfour Beatty as a Sustainability Manager in 2010. Since then, she’s worked across different parts of the business and gained experience on major infrastructure projects including HS2, Crossrail and the A14.
Working with different teams helped her to broaden her knowledge, build relationships and understand how sustainability can support projects and the wider business in different ways.
Geri has also helped shape her own career, making the case for an Operational Sustainability Director role. “Sustainability is a constantly changing industry, which means there’s an ability to forge your own path, and create new paths,” she explains.
For Sam, progression has also meant developing his expertise and becoming the best he can be in his field. His journey from environmental roles to leading the Natural Environment team shows how specialist knowledge and experience can support career growth.
Kari is also focussed on helping colleagues see social impact as a long-term career, with opportunities to develop their skills and explore different roles as the function continues to evolve.
Together, their experiences show that career development can mean different things to different people. There may be opportunities to deepen your expertise, broaden your experience or take on new challenges as your interests and the business develop.
What’s it like working in sustainability at Balfour Beatty?
Working in sustainability means collaborating with people across the business, sharing knowledge and feeling able to speak up when challenges arise.
Geri believes open communication helps teams tackle issues early and learn from experience.
“I like bringing people together and I want people to communicate openly, and not be afraid to fail,” she says. “Creating an environment where people can raise concerns and ask for support helps teams find solutions and make better decisions."
Sam takes a similarly collaborative approach to leading his team. He values the different strengths and perspectives each person brings. “It’s not ‘my’ team, it’s ‘our’ team,” he says.
For Kari, the most rewarding part of social impact is seeing how the work can make a real difference to people and communities. It’s an approach she continues to bring to her work at Balfour Beatty, helping ensure social impact actively responds to local priorities.
Although the work varies across the Sustainability teams, the common thread is working with others to make a positive difference to the environment and the communities connected to Balfour Beatty’s projects.
Find your sustainability job at Balfour Beatty
From environmental expertise to social impact, sustainability offers opportunities for people with different skills, experiences and ambitions.
You might be starting your career, developing specialist knowledge or looking to apply experience from another profession in a new way. As Geri, Sam and Kari demonstrate, there is more than one route into sustainability – and opportunities to continue learning and developing along the way.
Explore current Sustainability vacancies at Balfour Beatty to discover where your experience could take you.
Explore open Sustainability roles at Balfour Beatty