Deadline for applications : 17 February 2021

About WBCSD

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is a global, CEO-led organization of over 200 leading businesses working together to accelerate the transition to a sustainable world. We help make our member companies more successful and sustainable by focusing on the maximum positive impact for shareholders, the environment and societies.

Our member companies come from all business sectors and all major economies, representing combined revenues of more than USD $8.5 trillion and 19 million employees. Our global network of almost 70 national business councils gives our members unparalleled reach across the globe. Since 1995, WBCSD has been uniquely positioned to work with member companies along and across value chains to deliver impactful business solutions to the most challenging sustainability issues.

Together, we are the leading voice of business for sustainability: with a vision of a world where more than nine billion people are all living well and within the boundaries of our planet, by 2050.

Background

The Redefining Value program helps companies measure and manage risk, gain competitive advantage and seize new opportunities by understanding environmental, social and governance (ESG) information. A significant part of this is looking at how businesses communicate this information to the outside world. Through WBCSD’s Reporting Matters project, every year we analyze sustainability reports from our member companies against a set of comprehensive indicators.

Job overview

We are offering four full-time internship positions to carry out a review of the most recent sustainability reports of WBCSD member companies. The reports will be assessed against a pre-defined framework and the findings will be used to provide confidential scoring dashboards with analysis and anonymized peer group data to WBCSD members. They will also be used as a basis for our flagship Reporting matters publication. One of the internships will be in collaboration with the Food & Nature team to carry out additional topic-specific research for a subset of member companies.

Responsibilities and competencies

Key responsibilities include:

• Systematically analyze approximately 50 WBCSD member company sustainability, annual or integrated reports against a pre-defined framework;
• Identify and write up good reporting practice examples from leading companies;
• Identify trends, commonalities and good practice examples by sector and region;
• Provide editorial support and other activities to support the project team; and
• Provide support for Global Network partners implementing the framework.
• The fourth intern will analyze approximately 25 reports and help support the Food & Nature team in additional research with the balance of their time.

Qualifications and competencies include:

• University degree in a discipline related to sustainability or corporate communications – master’s degree is preferred;
• Fluency – both written and oral – in English;
• Ability and willingness to quickly learn and apply our rigorous, pre-defined framework for evaluating sustainability reports in a collaborative atmosphere with fellow interns;
• Ability and willingness to read and analyze hundreds of pages of English language text each day independently once the training phase is complete;
• Ability and willingness to incorporate direct feedback from the technical lead to continue to refine analysis;
• Background in corporate sustainability reporting and different frameworks such as SASB, GRI and <IR> is a plus; and
• Proven research, analytical and organizational skills with strong attention to detail.

The work environment

WBCSD is a purpose driven, forward-thinking and action-oriented organization, characterised by diversity of gender, nationalities and work experiences.

WBCSD offers a competitive, modern, and flexible working arrangement:

• Geneva-based organization with offices in London, New Delhi, Singapore and New York City
• Competitive compensation and benefits
• State-of-the-art facilities and ICT-enabled working tools
• Flex-time and part-time possibilities
• Dynamic working atmosphere
• Open culture encouraging interaction and sharing of ideas and opinions

The contract period will be for six months based remotely and reporting to the Geneva-based Manager, Redefining Value. Candidates wishing to work in Switzerland must hold a valid Swiss work or student permit and/or be a Swiss or EU national. Candidates wishing to work remotely should be within two hours of Central European Time and will work on an external consulting contract.

Candidates must be available to start full time on Tuesday 6 April 2021.

Closing date for applications is Wednesday 17 February 2021. We will be screening and interviewing candidates at the end of the job posting period. Please note that WBCSD will only respond to candidates selected for the interview process. Interviews will be held via videoconference the week commencing 22 February 2021 and will be accompanied by a pre-interview activity that should take about three hours of time to complete.

Please specify interest in the joint Food & Nature position in your cover letter if applicable.