Sustainability Project Specialist

What is your role?

Contribute to a sustainable, profitable, and enjoyable future for dairy farming. At Lely, our hearts beat faster for this mission. We contribute to a better life for farmers, cows, and the planet, and strive to provide safe and healthy food for everyone.

Lely plays an active role in the sustainability dialogue and ensures that valuable insights and developments are brought into the organization. In addition, we support our colleagues in taking ownership of their sustainability goals, so that together we can contribute to a more sustainable future.

We aim not only to make dairy farming more sustainable, but also our own operations. Your knowledge and experience can make a crucial difference in reducing emissions from our business, products, and services. Are you a natural connector with experience coordinating and initiating sustainability projects? Do you have experience with circularity, mobility, and waste management? Then read on!

What will you do as a Sustainability Project Specialist?

In this role, you will work on a broad range of sustainability topics across Lely. You will advise and support colleagues and departments in integrating sustainability into their daily activities and projects, based on the sustainability programme. This may include procurement initiatives, change projects, policy development, and operational improvements. Themes range from sustainable procurement and waste management to circularity, mobility, energy, and product quality.

You will translate strategic ambitions into practical actions, helping teams deliver long-term sustainable impact. The primary objective of this role is to embed sustainability into the tasks, roles, and responsibilities of employees across Lely. You will do this by providing advice, guidance, and hands-on support for sustainability initiatives and projects.

What are your key responsibilities?

ESG Culture & Community Building

• Build and maintain an internal ESG community, connecting ambassadors and sustainability-minded colleagues across departments.
• Facilitate knowledge-sharing sessions, peer learning, best-practice exchanges, and cross-functional collaboration on ESG topics.
• Stimulate bottom-up initiatives and empower employees to take ownership of their sustainability goals.

Training, Education & Capability Building

• Develop and coordinate ESG training programmes in collaboration with HR and the Lely Academy.
• Deliver tailored sustainability workshops for teams such as Procurement, Operations, R&D, and Commercial.
• Support managers in embedding ESG expectations into team routines, objectives, and performance cycles.

Communication, Events & Employee Engagement

• Coordinate communication on sustainability progress, challenges, and successes through newsletters, intranet updates, and dashboards.
• Organize ESG-related events such as Sustainability Week, impact sessions, guest speaker events, and site visits.
• Ensure alignment with Corporate Communications to maintain consistent messaging and strong employee engagement.

Sustainability Projects & Advisory Support

• Bring external ESG developments into the organization and translate them into actionable improvements.
• Lead and support sustainability projects across various domains, including circularity, mobility, waste, energy, and sustainable procurement.
• Translate strategic ESG priorities into actionable work plans for teams.
• Provide coaching and hands-on project support to help teams achieve meaningful results.
• Monitor progress, identify barriers, and ensure effective follow-through.
• You report to the Head of Sustainability & Public Affairs and work closely with the Sustainability Data Specialist, the Sustainable Farm Model Specialist, and the Manager Public Affairs.