Campaigns Strategy Lead/

Contract Type: Flexible fixed term freelance.

Remuneration: £40-£46.6 per hour depending on experience.

Time: 9 months / 38 weeks, 15 hours per week. Flexible & remote working.

Start Date: 6th February 2023 (depending on candidate availability)

About ACAN

ACAN is a network of individuals within architecture and related built environment professions taking action to address the twin crises of climate and ecological breakdown. We are a community benefit society currently run by volunteers.

Role Background:

ACAN have recently received grant funding from the Laudes Foundation to increase organisational capacity, and further our strategic development along three key themes:

• Campaign strategy development (Work package 1)

• International Outreach (Work package 2)

• Longer term financial sustainability.

Role Description:

We are looking for an individual, or organisation, with political and/or environmental campaigning and strategy experience, who wants to shape ACAN’s work going forward, and maximise our impact. Your role will be to deliver work package one above, and include the following responsibilities and outputs:

• The creation of a short term (2 year) campaigns strategy that highlights the most effective action we can take to achieve our three core goals*.

The strategy will:

• Analyse our current campaigns and their effectiveness

• Focus our action to achieve our goals in the current economic, political and environmental context

• Suggest next steps to further our current campaigns and introduce new campaigns where necessary. Establish connections and collaborations with other organisations where synergies might exist.

The strategy must be grounded in the knowledge that ACAN has a decentralised decision making structure, with thematic groups who self-determine actions.

• Development of a Campaign Delivery Plan – a framework for campaign delivery to maximise reach and impact in the short and long-term. This will include working with ACAN volunteer groups to operationalise the delivery plans for our leading campaigns**, and refine a replicable framework to structure future campaigns.

• Facilitating workshops with ACAN’s coordinator groups, to develop the campaigns strategy and delivery plans.

• Report back to ACAN’s Steering group, and feed into an end-of-initiative learning report, which will be compiled by the Administrative Lead.

Who might suit the role:

Successful candidates will be passionate about the work that ACAN does, and our three core goals*:

• Decarbonise Now

• Ecological Regeneration

• Cultural Transformation

You will have campaigning and / or strategy development experience, and may have a background in sectors including: the built environment, politics, climate change, climate justice, health or the environment. The role is likely to develop iteratively and in collaboration with you.

We are looking for someone who can work proactively and independently in a start-up environment. This requires the successful application to be highly organised, confident in communications and reaching out to people, and has clear leadership qualities.

Previous involvement and understanding of ACAN as an organisation is advantageous but this role is open to all applicants. By taking on this role you would be playing an important part over the next 10 months for ACAN as we reimagine power systems and seek radical change. Through this work, you will actively support grassroots campaigning to decarbonise our built environment, and the growth of an international network of climate activist architects.

We are conscious of the need to build inclusive workplaces, we encourage applications from all backgrounds.

**Information on examples of our lead campaigns:

National regulation of embodied carbon emissions in the UK – link here

ACAN is calling for the urgent introduction of policies to reduce embodied carbon emissions generated by construction activities in the UK. As previously highlighted, these emissions amount to just under 50MtCO2e per year and as it is calculated that approximately 49% of the UK total carbon emissions are attributed to buildings, their contribution to the global greenhouse effect is significant. To date, circa. 1500 industry professionals have signed a petition to the Government.

Government action on retrofit – Link here

The UK has almost 29 million homes and they are amongst the oldest and least energy efficient houses in Europe. Increasing amounts of precious energy is wasted in heating and cooling these leaky buildings. In order for the UK to meet legal obligations under the Climate Change Act and commitments under the Paris Agreement to stay below 1.5C, emissions from heating and powering homes must be reduced by 78% in less than 15 years and then to zero by 2050. To date, circa 1300 householders have signed a campaign declaration.

ACAN is committed to equality, diversity & inclusion, we are conscious of the need to build inclusive workplaces, we encourage applications from all backgrounds.