Sizewell C Site Environmental Sustainability Adviser Industrial

This is an environmental and sustainability role based on a very large nuclear construction site in Suffolk, working for the project itself or one of the contractors building it. The job is about making sure the day-to-day work on site — earthworks, concrete pours, drainage, deliveries, waste, fuel storage — complies with environmental permits and planning conditions, and that the project meets its own sustainability targets on things like carbon, waste reduction and responsible sourcing. The "Industrial" tag usually signals the role sits within the industrial/construction delivery side of the project rather than in a policy or corporate-affairs team, so the work is practical and site-facing.

Starting salary: £27k–£35k
Live graduate jobs: Search all jobs
Main way in: Graduate schemes run by large civil engineering and…
They usually ask for: A degree in environmental science, environmental management…

Approximate graduate salary

Typically around £27,000–35,000 to start for a graduate or assistant environmental adviser on a major UK infrastructure project, though this varies widely by employer, and roles on large remote projects sometimes add allowances for travel, accommodation or site working. Salaries tend to rise quite quickly once you have a few years of site experience and professional membership.

What you'd actually do

Walking the site to inspect works in progress — checking silt fences and settlement ponds are working, fuel bunds are intact, dust suppression is running, and material stockpiles are not causing runoff into watercourses
Logging environmental observations and non-conformances in a reporting system, chasing the responsible site team to fix them, and closing them out once verified
Reviewing method statements and risk assessments submitted by contractors before work starts, flagging where an activity could breach a permit condition, disturb protected species or create noise and dust issues for nearby residents
Collecting and checking monitoring data — noise, dust, water quality, groundwater levels — and compiling it into monthly reports for the project team and, in some cases, for submission to the regulator or local authority

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Tracking waste movements and recycling rates, chasing waste transfer documentation from subcontractors, and reporting on diversion from landfill
Running or supporting toolbox talks and inductions so that site operatives know what the environmental rules are on that particular work front
Working on sustainability initiatives such as measuring fuel and energy use, supporting low-carbon concrete or plant trials, or gathering data for responsible sourcing and biodiversity commitments

How graduates get in

Graduate schemes run by large civil engineering and construction contractors — these are common and usually rotate you through sites, with a major infrastructure project being one placement; applications typically open in autumn for the following September
Direct entry as a graduate or assistant environmental adviser/advisor on a specific project, applying to the site team or contractor rather than through a scheme — very common on big infrastructure jobs where headcount is needed quickly
Via the client-side organisation delivering the project, which also runs graduate intakes in environment, sustainability and consents roles
Environmental consultancy first (ecology, contaminated land, EIA support) for a couple of years, then moving to a contractor site team — a well-trodden route and often better paid later on

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Summer placements or industrial placement years with a contractor or consultancy, which frequently convert into graduate offers
Non-graduate or technician entry into site support roles followed by part-time study — less common at this level but it does happen, particularly for people already working on site

What employers ask for

A degree in environmental science, environmental management, geography, earth sciences, civil engineering, ecology or a related subject — the subject does matter more here than in a lot of graduate roles, because you need to understand soils, water and pollution pathways
A 2:1 is the common ask on structured graduate schemes; direct-entry site roles are often more flexible and will take a 2:2 with relevant placement or site experience
Working towards or willing to work towards membership of a professional body — IEMA (Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment) is the main one for this field, and many employers fund Practitioner membership and later Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) status
CSCS card (Construction Skills Certification Scheme — the card that lets you on a UK construction site) and usually a site safety qualification such as SMSTS or SSSTS; employers normally arrange these, but having a CSCS card already helps

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A driving licence and willingness to be on site in all weathers — this is not a desk job, and the site is in a rural part of Suffolk, so relocation or a long commute is realistic
Because this is a nuclear new-build site, security clearance and vetting apply. The level varies, but expect background checks, and in some cases nationality or residency history requirements. Check the specific advert — these conditions are set by the project, not negotiable by the hiring manager

Skills that matter

Reading and applying permits and consent conditions

Most of the job is knowing what the Environmental Permit, planning conditions and Development Consent Order actually require and translating that into instructions a site team can follow.

Data handling in Excel (and often Power BI or similar)

You will be pulling monitoring and waste data from multiple contractors into monthly reports, and spotting the number that looks wrong before it goes to a regulator.

Holding your ground with site staff

Stopping or changing a work activity costs the project money, so you need to explain the environmental reason calmly and be confident enough not to back down when a supervisor pushes back.

Clear, auditable written reporting

Inspection records and incident reports can end up in front of the regulator or in a public inquiry, so what you write has to be precise, dated and defensible.

Basic field competence — sampling, monitoring equipment, map and drawing reading

You need to take a water sample properly, calibrate a dust monitor and locate yourself on a construction drawing without someone holding your hand.

Understanding of carbon and resource accounting

Sustainability targets on large infrastructure are increasingly measured in tonnes of embodied and operational carbon, so knowing how fuel, concrete and transport data turn into a carbon figure is genuinely useful.

Putting these on a CV? We counted which skills 12,914 live graduate adverts ask for, and what to do with the answer — part of our application advice.

Where it leads

Graduate or assistant environmental adviser for roughly the first one to three years, usually supervised and working across a defined area or work package of the site
Environmental adviser or environmental manager for a work package, taking ownership of inspections, reporting and contractor management for your own area — this step usually comes with IEMA Practitioner membership
Senior environmental manager or project-wide sustainability lead, responsible for the environmental management system, regulator relationships and performance against project targets. Timelines vary a lot depending on how fast the project grows and whether you move employers
From there, routes split: some people stay with contractors and move between major infrastructure projects (the pattern on large UK schemes is that teams migrate from one project to the next); others move client-side into consents, permitting or ESG roles; others go into consultancy, the regulator (such as the Environment Agency) or local authority environmental roles
Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) status via IEMA, or chartership through another route, is the usual professional milestone and tends to come several years in rather than on a fixed timetable

What people get wrong

“Because it is a nuclear site, the job is mostly about radiation and nuclear safety.”

During construction, the environmental work is overwhelmingly conventional construction environment: silt in watercourses, dust, noise, protected species, waste and fuel spills. Radiological protection is a separate specialism with its own staff and qualifications, and becomes relevant much later in a station's life.

“A sustainability job means working on climate strategy and green policy.”

On a construction site it means chasing waste transfer notes, checking whether a bund is full of rainwater and arguing with a groundworks supervisor about where the wheel wash is. Strategy exists, but it is written at corporate level and your job is making it happen in the mud.

“You are there to stop work and enforce rules, so site teams will resent you.”

The effective people in this role spend most of their time upstream — reviewing plans before work starts so problems never happen — and are judged on whether the project keeps running without incidents, not on how many things they shut down.

“It is a nine-to-five office role with occasional site visits.”

Expect early starts aligned to site hours, PPE, outdoor inspections in bad weather and sometimes shift or weekend cover. On a project of this scale there may also be rotas for out-of-hours environmental incident response.

Where this varies

The title covers quite different jobs depending on who employs you. Working for the project client tends to mean more assurance, reporting and regulator-facing work — checking that contractors are doing what they said. Working for a tier-one contractor or a subcontractor means much more hands-on site inspection and firefighting. Pure sustainability roles (carbon, responsible sourcing, social value) are sometimes separate from compliance roles on very large projects and sometimes merged into one job on smaller ones; read the advert carefully to see which balance is intended. Nuclear sites also carry security vetting, controlled site access and documentation requirements that you would not meet on a typical highways or housing project, and this can lengthen the time between offer and start date.

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General guidance about the role across the UK market, not about any specific employer. Entry routes and requirements vary — always check the individual job advert.