DescriptionARI is one of the world’s longest established and experienced global travel retail companies. With expertise in developing business in new and existing markets, ARI owns and manages retail outlets in 27 airports in 14 countries throughout Europe, The Middle East, Asia Pacific, and North America. From opening the world’s first duty free in Shannon Airport in 1947, ARI now employs over 3,500 people worldwide and manages a turnover in excess of €1 billion. ARI is part of the Irish government-owned daa group.
The Global ESG Lead primary responsibility is to further develop and expand upon the company’s current Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) strategy. Working closely with the ARI Executive team, this is a high profile and key role within the organisation, and you will have the opportunity to positively impact upon our global locations over the coming years.
The purpose of the role is to develop, implement and evolve key strategic ESG initiatives across all areas of business operations and across our global estate. As the ESG Lead within the organisation you will be responsible for ensuring compliance with all relevant Corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance regulations and standards, with a particular focus on ensuring that ARI locations can effectively measure and report on their key ESG metrics in line with the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and requirements of the UN Global Compact, to which daa are now signatories. You will work closely with ESG Champions in each of our locations and you will also work collaboratively with the daa Group Sustainability and ESG team to ensure that the daa Group targets are achieved.
This role is expected to evolve over time as we navigate the changing ESG agenda. It will suit someone who is adaptable to change, is a high achiever and who has the personal drive and determination to push the ESG agenda across our global business. You will need to be a self-starter and have excellent personal initiative with the ability to work across different organisation levels, countries, and cultures. However, most important is that you need to be genuinely passionate about ESG and Sustainability issues, with a proven track record of successful implementation and delivery of relevant ESG strategies in a similar environment.
Responsibilities• Work closely with the ARI Executive Team and play a lead role in both setting strategic ESG objectives and targets, and in ensuring the ARI global estate meets these ESG objectives on an ongoing basis. • Develop, implement, and evolve projects to deliver new/improved operational and strategic initiatives to meet corporate ESG expectations and reporting requirements. • Interpret and critically analyse and assess evolving ESG regulations and frameworks at the local, regional, and international levels, and provide technical expertise and guidance across the global estate on key issues related to environmental and social performance, sustainability, and corporate governance, to support ARI in meeting the expectations of our customers, partners, board, audit, and accreditation bodies.• Develop and implement governance strategies to ensure the timely and accurate compliance with relevant ESG requirements.• Manage inputs to the Group’s ESG reporting preparatory work including materiality assessments, peer benchmarking, stakeholder engagement, gap analysis, and metrics/KPI identification. • Manage the data collection and analysis of all information required from all ARI locations and report on ARI’s global performance on key ESG metrics.• Travel to international locations as required to support with the implementation of ESG initiatives.• Ensure ESG related research and benchmarking is kept updated on an ongoing basis in order to understand and develop solutions to respond to the complex and evolving policy, regulatory, and business environment risks and opportunities associated with ESG.• Analyse ESG reporting data and key performance indicators (KPIs) to identify trends and actionable insights for improvement. Qualifications• Experience as a leader in an ESG / CSR or Sustainability focused role. • Proven ability to influence, motivate, question, and direct across all levels, both internally and externally.• Confident communicator with great interpersonal skills, including the ability to present complex information to stakeholders at all levels of the organisation.• Strategic thinker with the ability to analyse complex topics and the impact on our business.• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret complex data and provide actionable insights.• Strong Business Acumen and understanding of financial KPI’s.• Excellent project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple initiatives simultaneously.• Self-starter with an appetite to embrace new challenges as they arise and a proven capacity to work independently and proactively to enable change.• Cultural and political awareness as this role will interact with our global locations.• Demonstratable success in developing and implementing social innovation strategies and projects that positively impact people & the business.• Experience working in a Retail advantageous but not essential.• Educated to 3rd level. Advanced degree (eg MSc) or relevant certifications in Sustainability, Sustainable Development, ESG, or related disciplines are advantageous but not essential.• Committed to company values.