Sustainability Manager

Who is CenTrio?

CenTrio is a leading provider of sustainable energy services for higher education, healthcare campuses, and cities, managing utility infrastructures across 10 U.S. cities and serving over 170+ million square feet. We deliver efficient electricity, steam, hot water, and chilled water, offering reduced costs, lower emissions, and exceptional reliability. As a subsidiary of a global Infrastructure Investment Consortium, CenTrio benefits from strong financial backing and manages high-quality, long-term assets that ensure stable, growing cash flows.

Why Join CenTrio?

CenTrio offers a dynamic and friendly work environment, dedicated to nurturing a top-notch team culture Additionally, CenTrio offers an array of fabulous benefits and perks.

• Medical Benefits first day of hire
• Medical, dental, vision, Life & AD&D benefits
• Option of supplemental Life & AD&D benefits
• Company paid High Deductible Healthcare Benefit Plan
• 401k plan with % match
• Training Opportunities and career progression
• Competitive salaries that reflect the value of skills and experience
• Dynamic and friendly work environment in a rapidly expanding industry with a national presence
• Remote, Hybrid, and In Office schedules available dependent on job responsibilities
• 24-hour Employee Assistance Program/Hotline
• Corporate discounts (Travel, Entertainment, Home, Auto, Apparel, Health and Wellbeing, and other various retail options)

Job Summary

CenTrio in partnership with Eastern Michigan University is searching for a new Sustainability Manager. The Sustainability Manager will play a key leadership role in setting and implementing campus and community sustainability policy, practices, and initiatives. They will work to enhance the educational value of campus and community sustainability initiatives and may develop, communicate, and assess the feasibility of new sustainability initiatives.

This position offers a hybrid work structure, allowing flexibility to work remotely or from the office based on business needs. While remote work is an option, working from the office is encouraged for tasks requiring high collaboration or on-site completion. Office attendance can vary as required.

Core Responsibilities

The Sustainability Manager will oversee many Office programs, such as campus sustainability reporting, the internship program, scope GHG mitigation efforts, media accounts, and behavioral change campaigns. They will serve as the administrative support for the University’s Committee on Sustainability. The Manager will engage with the CenTrio and campus administration as well as campus faculty, staff, students and community members on ways to maximize the sustainability, resilience and environmental performance of the University and the larger community. They may also function as a liaison between the partnership among CenTrio and the University and wider community, enhancing EMU’s connection to and engagement with local, regional and national sustainability initiatives.

Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Engage with and serve as a liaison between the sustainability-lead utility modernization efforts and student-led groups that focus on sustainability issues. Identify and pursue opportunities to support student initiatives that align with the college’s environmental policies and priorities as well as the guiding partnership documents between CenTrio and EMU.
• Manage the Utility Modernization effort internship program, catalyzing unique, meaningful projects for students and spurring their professional development.
• Supervise student employees, fellows, and interns as well as advising relevant undergraduate organizations.
• Collaborate, develop, and focus on Scope 1 and 2 GHG mitigation efforts, and contribute to Scope 3 as able.
• Collect and collate data, and lead the reporting for various environmental ranking systems, such as those required by the Climate Commitment, STARS and other sustainability commitments.
• Measure and monitor Utility Modernization program effectiveness related to the College’s STARS reporting including its climate commitments.
• Research and present relevant and timely information to the Campus and CenTrio administration and campus community regarding opportunities to improve environmental performance of the institution and its sustainability-oriented programming.
• Research and develop opportunities to enhance the educational value of sustainability initiatives at EMU in both academic and residential contexts. Seek collaborations with departments and faculty to accomplish this goal. Seek opportunities to contribute to and participate in academic classes that integrate campus sustainability initiatives into the curriculum. Assist in efforts to integrate the study of resource flows through campus into the curriculum.
• Create and implement educational campaigns and activities that promote sustainability among all members of the campus community. This may include orchestrating the annual conservation competition and community event.
• In collaboration with others, develop and promote initiatives that foster sustainability-related behavior changes, such as resource conservation among students, faculty and staff.
• Develop and cultivate relationships with outside parties including the City of Ypsilanti, local community organizations, and other educational institutions with which the University can collaborate. Provide ongoing connection to national sustainability initiatives.
• Track trends in higher education and related organizations and industries.
• Share and promote EMU's sustainability achievements and leadership. Actively research and apply for awards that recognize and promote EMU’s leadership in sustainability initiatives.
• Lead outreach and engagement marketing efforts: oversee the utility modernization website, newsletters, and social media presence, plan and execute campus events, and write articles.
• Present at local and national conferences and events to highlight EMU’s sustainability leadership.
• Participate and support cross departmental functions, including Human Resources onboard process for new staff and faculty.
• Collaborate with other departments, city and community organizations on initiatives to promote and optimize sustainable forms of transportation. Such initiatives may include electric vehicle adoption.

Professional Experience & Knowledge:

• Two or more years of experience in the field of sustainability, working on topics such as carbon management, green buildings, climate change mitigation and resilience, energy efficiency, communications, and related initiatives.
• Bachelor’s degree in economics, environmental studies, organizational change, city planning, phycology, ethics, sustainability or a related field.
• Knowledge of GHG Scope levels and reporting
• Deep knowledge of sustainability including understanding: energy systems and units; travel and transportation systems; waste management and diversion options; best practices for sustainability in higher education.

Technical Skills & Requirements:

• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite; Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with great attention to detail
• Proficient in schedule management

Diversity Statement:

CenTrio and our partnership with Eastern Michigan University is committed to the creation and nurturing of a diverse community of individuals through inclusive excellence. Diversity involves recognizing the value of differences and the inclusion of all members of the community including those that experience discrimination or under representation. This is a core value of the organization as we strive for a culturally diverse work force as well as campus made up of the student body, faculty and staff that reflect the multicultural nature of the nation and our world and bring unique strengths and abilities, which contribute, to CenTrio as well as the University.

EMU Student Senate Tribal Land Acknowledgment:

As members of the Eastern Michigan University community, we humbly acknowledge that the campus on which we reside occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of diverse indigenous people. The taking of this land was formalized, in a process alien to native cultures, by the Treaty of Detroit in 1807, with the Anishinaabe (ä-ni-shi-ˈnȯ-bā), including the Odawa, Ojibwe (ō-ˈjib- wā) and Potawatomi (pätəˈwätəmē) (also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie), and with the Wyandot (wī-ən-ˌdät). Many other indigenous people lived on this land at different times including the Fox, Sauk ( ˈsȯk ), Shawnee ( shȯ-ˈnē ), Kickapoo ( ˈkikəˌpü ), Miami (mē-ä-mē), Musketoon ( ˌməskəˈtün ), and Cherokee ( ˈcher-ə- ˌkē ).

Since the origin of the college in 1849, we have benefited from the use of this land where we work and study, and respect its life, beauty, and spirit. We recognize our responsibility to understand and care for this land, and we honor, with our deepest gratitude, the indigenous people who have stewarded it for generations.

Acknowledgment by itself is a small gesture. But let this step be an opening to greater public consciousness of indigenous history, sovereignty and cultural rights, and a step toward equitable relationship and reconciliation.