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Roots to Work is a project of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.

Job description

Energy Garden is recruiting a full-time Green Infrastructure Engagement Officer to play a key role in delivering new green spaces and community programmes across London. The role sits at the intersection of landscape development, community engagement and environmental education, helping communities build lasting ownership of their local green spaces. This is an exciting opportunity to work at the forefront of urban greening, bringing people and nature together to create greener, healthier and more resilient neighbourhoods. 

Salary: £32,000 – £36,200 per annum  

Location: London   

Hours: Full Time (5 days / 40 hours per week)  

Contract: Permanent 

Preferred Start Date: early October 2026 

How to apply: Email CV and cover letter to silas@energygarden.org.uk (Subject: Application – Full-Time Green Infrastructure Engagement Office Role)

Application deadline: Sunday, September 6th 2026 

Interview process: We will hold in-person interviews the week commencing September 14th, 2026. 

Role Overview

Working closely with Energy Garden’s Green Infrastructure Lead, you will help bring new green infrastructure projects to life, supporting their transformation from concept designs into thrivingcommunity spaces.. As a Green Infrastructure Engagement Officer, you will take ownership of community engagement, landscape installation, ongoing stewardship, and school-based activities across select green infrastructure projects. This will involve working closely with residents, community groups, schools, Energy Garden’s youth trainees, local partners and the wider Energy Garden team.  

You will bring a strong understanding of green infrastructure, horticulture, and environmental education, along with the ability to communicate confidently with a wide range of audiences. You will be expected to work independently, take ownership of key areas of delivery and develop new ways of improving community involvement in our projects.  

Your role will be spread across a range of Energy Garden's green infrastructure projects, some of which include: 

• Treescapes: you will lead on the engagement and stewardship of Energy Garden’s new community treescapes – facilitating community consultations, organising community planting and stewardship events, as well as seasonal tree care workshops. 

• Community gardens: you will support the Engagement team in the facilitation of weekly gardening sessions at different sites, guiding volunteers in different gardening tasks, teaching them new skills, and fostering curiosity and independence. 

• Outdoor classrooms: you will attend schools in the vicinity of our different green spaces to co-facilitate one-day horticultural workshops alongside Energy Garden’s Education Lead. This will involve working with children in KS2-KS5. Applicants would be expected to pass an Enhanced DBS check.

This role requires extensive travel across London, working outside in all weather conditions, and performing physically strenuous tasks. You will be supporting and collaborating with green infrastructure, engagement, education, trees and biodiversity officers. With this in mind, we are looking for a flexible and dynamic person who can work as part of a team and communicate effectively. 

In this public facing role, you will represent Energy Garden, working alongside the rest of the team, volunteers, station staff, community groups and other stakeholders at each space under your care. You will support the development of green infrastructure projects in accordance with agreed landscape and horticultural plans, community consultation, and partner feedback so that the spaces improve the health and wellbeing for those visiting our spaces.

Key Responsibilities

•  Support the Green Infrastructure Programme Lead in taking projects from design into delivery, including site preparation, planting, establishment and handover. 
• Help coordinate planting delivery across new green infrastructure projects, including establishment watering, seasonal maintenance and replacement planting.  
• Planning and facilitating engaging workshops and activities across our network of green infrastructure projects, helping local volunteers build practical skills, connect with their community and become stewards of their neighbourhood green spaces. 
• Undertake regular site visits, identify practical issues and maintenance needs, and coordinate appropriate responses with colleagues, contractors, partners and volunteers. 
• Providing tree/horticultural expertise to community volunteers and project partners. 
• Growing a volunteer base for sustained engagement with and stewardship of our spaces. 
• Planning and coordinating a programme of activities across multiple sites, managing materials, equipment, volunteers, partners and logistics to ensure activities are well organised, inclusive and effectively delivered. 
• Maintain clear records of planting, engagement, volunteer participation, site condition and maintenance activity to support project management and funder/client reporting. 
• Work with different Energy Garden teams on the development, establishment, and maintenance of green infrastructure projects, while developing practical aftercare plans with communities and partners to ensure that interventions thrive beyond initial installation 
• Writing copy and creating content for upcoming newsletters and events. 

Skills & Experience

Essential

• Minimum 2 years’ experience in a similar role – delivering community engagement activities, workshops or volunteering programmes, ideally within environmental, horticultural, green infrastructure or community settings. 

• Demonstrable experience working directly with volunteers and community groups 

• Experience facilitating workshops or activities for different audiences, including children, young people, and adults. 

• Practical landscaping/horticulture/tree experience and a good understanding of plant needs, seasonal maintenance tasks and how to establish healthy green spaces. 

• Experience doing physical work outdoors in all conditions.  

• Experience managing multiple projects or activities across different sites at the same time 

• Experience planning and coordinating events independently, including organising logistics, materials, and volunteers. 

• Experience developing effective partnerships with key stakeholders and external bodies.  

• Understanding of tree pests and diseases and ability to carry out appropriate maintenance tasks.  

• Understanding of horticulture and ability to integrate tree and plant species in engagement activities.   

• Ability to prepare and present clear written reports and responses fit for the relevant audience. 

• Understanding of the role green infrastructure has in climate resilience. 

• Excellent organizational abilities, including the skill to set and deliver targets. 

• Ability to work both as part of a team and alone/on own initiative. 

• Experience/ability to discuss and resolve issues in a diplomatic way. 

• Ability to work occasional weekends and evenings as required. 

Desirable

• Experience developing community stewardship programmes or helping local people take ownership of their green spaces.  
• Experience working in green infrastructure within the London context.  
• Experience working with local authorities, schools, housing associations, rail organisations or other large institutional partners.  
• Experience working with trees, in urban forestry or community tree planting.  
• Knowledge of SuDS, rain gardens, urban biodiversity, climate adaptation or other forms of green infrastructure.  
• Experience collecting feedback, monitoring engagement and contributing to project reporting and evaluation. 

Personal Qualities

• Energetic and proactive, working autonomy in all weather conditions!  

• Friendly and collegiate, able to engage and collaborate with people from different backgrounds  

• Strong communicator, effective at supporting people with the right skills, tools and networks.  

• Team player, comfortable working with community groups to deliver shared goals  

• Flexible and organised, can work in a fast-paced environment with evolving priorities  

• Ability to rise to a challenge

• Experienced and knowledgeable about the local area  

• Passionate about sustainability and committed, with a strong desire to support local people to make lasting change in their borough. 

About Energy Garden

Energy Garden is a not-for-profit Community Benefit Society working across London to bring together people, place and power to build city-wide urban resilience. We deliver training and education, and create and support community-led greening and community-owned renewable energy, empowering local people to take an active role in shaping and caring for their local places.

Since 2012, Energy Garden has developed and maintained a network of community gardens and solar projects across London, transforming under-utilised urban spaces into vibrant green spaces that improve biodiversity and enable food growing on transport infrastructure. Each garden is managed by a dedicated engagement officer working closely with local communities and station staff and is supported by our wider team of education, biodiversity, arborist and horticulture experts. Regular volunteering sessions held throughout the year are used to create and maintain these spaces, with larger seasonal events used to bring volunteers together from across our network. Collaboration is central to our work and every garden reflects the community that lives and travels there. With over 1.2 billion passenger journeys on the London Underground and Overground each year, our energy gardens are seen by millions of people each year and the average station will see 15,000 passenger visits a day. 

Our volunteers benefit from access to green space, the ability to connect with fellow community members, participating in practical gardening design and maintenance activities, as well as expert sessions on horticulture, biodiversity and energy. Energy Garden also runs education programmes that further connect our gardens to local communities, engaging and educating future generations on a range of social and environmental issues. Specifically, we work with local schools (key stages 2 to 5) and our paid AQA accredited Youth Training Programme (for young Londoners aged 18-24) also offers opportunities for interacting with our gardens, green infrastructure projects and sustainability hubs.

Central to our model is the use of community-owned solar energy to provide a sustainable source of funding for delivering social and environmental benefits to communities. That many of the gardens have an off-grid micro solar installation, our activities are primarily funded by revenues from large-scale community solar PV projects installed on rail depots across the UK. These award-winning projects fund our social and environmental community programmes (gardens and education), decarbonise the rail, and generate a reasonable financial return for members.

Disclaimer

• This position involves working with children and constitutes a 'regulated activity.' Therefore, this role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Applicants are legally required to disclose all convictions and cautions, including those that are spent, unless they are 'protected' under DBS filtering rules. The successful candidate must clear an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checkand a review of the Children’s Barred List before starting work with children. Knowingly applying for this role while barred is a criminal offense.
• You must have the right to live and work in the UK. Non-EU nationals who require a work permit to take up employment will not be considered.  Energy Garden is an equal opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy and maternity. 
• We regret that we will only be able to reply, and give feedback, to short-listed applicants.

Application information

Email CV and cover letter to silas@energygarden.org.uk (Subject: Application – Full-Time Green Infrastructure Engagement Office Role)

https://www.energygarden.org.uk/jobs

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