European Sustainability Academy Jackson A. & S. OE Drapanos, 73008 , .

www.EuroSustainability.org

Job Specification

Role Title: Business Development Manager

Reports to: Managing Director

Supervises: Events Co-Ordinator

Start date: 1st September 2014

Working Location: ESA Drapanos, , with off- site meetings and attending events as necessary.

Working hours: 40 hours per week (core hours 10am – 6pm) with flexibility according to business needs.

Salary: Starting salary 21k – 24k euros P.A. gross salary, dependent on expertise.

Review after 6 months with potential for salary increase depending on performance.

Other: Budget for travel and subsistence for business related expenses.

New lap- top and phone will be provided for ESA business.

1. Introduction- European Sustainability Academy (ESA) Purpose

ESA was built in 2011, in Crete, as a bespoke, ecological centre for teaching international people from large corporations, SMEs and start-ups , how to set up, manage and lead sustainable business.

Sustainable business means an enterprise which makes profit and at the same time contributes a positive net impact on the environment and the community it is located in. This is called ‘Triple Bottom Line’ business, which means the success of business is measured by more than just financial profit.

ESA opened in June 2012 and after 2 years of start- up and testing phase, the business is ready to develop and expand its management training and development products and programmes. The role of ‘ Business Development Manager’ is a new position which is a strategic role, working closely with ESA Founder and Managing Director, in the growth and development of ESA as a globally recognised, international academy for ‘Sustainable Business’ education and research.

Since building ESA, 3000 people from around the world have visited and a significant amount of income has been contributed to the local economy from ESA activities. See appendix, ESA background, for more information. European Sustainability Academy - Tax number 998064065 - B tax office, Chania 2. ESA Programmes and Activities

ESA main objective is to teach people skills and to share knowledge about setting up and managing sustainable enterprise. That includes living a sustainable life and managing a ‘sustainable self’ as a leader and manager.

The core programmes at ESA are:

2.1. Empowering Leaders for Sustainability

Including: 2.1.1. Making Sense and Leading Change for Sustainability This learning intervention can be adapted to suit managers and leaders of businesses of any size and at any stage of business development. Programmes can be tailored as short seminars at ESA or in-situ at the business, or as a deeper transitional learning experience retreat at ESA Crete.

2.1.2. Citizen Scientist Leadership for Sustainability Based on the successful Earthwatch model, www.earthwatch.org , these programmes actively contribute to scientific research about the environmental pressure of climate change in Crete, whilst at the same time participants gain a deeper understanding about sustainability and learn new leadership and teambuilding skills.

2.2. Empowering Women for Sustainability

Including: 2.2.1. Women Innovators in Social Enterprise (WiSE) EU funded programme in collaboration with ESADE University Barcelona and St. Gallen University Switzerland with Corporate Partners KPMG, Athens. ESA is the consortium leader in Greece for the WiSE project www.Wise4Women.eu. It is well documented that women entrepreneurs can be effective drivers for economic growth. In Greece a 6 month study conducted by ESA (January 2014 – June 2014) indicates a number of barriers which discourage women from setting up business. The WiSE programme prepares Greek women to overcome these barriers and at the same time provides evidence and written papers to challenge barriers to enterprise at policy level and cultural level.

2.2.2. Women Empowerment Summit and award giving At this annual event, ESA welcomes extraordinary women from around the word including famous gender activist Princesses from Africa and other pioneers helping women in India and Argentina. The inaugural ‘Women Empowerment Award’ was given in 2013 to the women founders of Crete based hand-made natural soaps and personal care products enterprise Fisika www.fisikashop.com

2.3. Empowering Artists for Sustainability

Including: 2.3.1. The Drapanos Art Foundation Academy, which brings art students from UK to ESA Crete.

2.3.2. Creative Entrepreneurs Programme Aims to help Greek artists, musicians, photographers and film makers set up their own businesses. October 2013, ESA Crete hosted a music event with famous Brooklyn DJ ‘Gramatik’. This enabled 2 local Greek music entrepreneurs Sprialmaze from Chania and Blue Square from Athens to support an internationally famous person to help develop their career as musicians. Over 400 young people from across Crete attended the Gramatik event at ESA. It was a seminal event for Crete.

European Sustainability Academy - Tax number 998064065 - B tax office, Chania From 2015 ESA will launch a new training programme for aspirational Greek musicians and artists with entrepreneurial flair to help them become successful.

2.4. Educating Children for sustainability

Including: 2.4.1. ESA Eco- Kids learning Local children have been engaged with ESA from the start, including learning how to make adobe bricks during the building phase. Since ESA opened, children have attended sustainability learning sessions about local flora and fauna, the need to reduce waste and increase re-use and recycling and understanding climate change in a Greek context. Some of the parents of the children have said that ESA has made them look at and appreciate the local natural environment in a different way. They now see the land that ESA is built on as beautiful, in a way that they had not noticed before.

2.4.2. Panasonic sponsored Eco- Schools learning projects Over 500 children from schools in the Chania and region have attended ESA to learn about climate change, solar power and new technologies for energy. Panasonic provide practical learning kits for children including eco- diaries, hybrid electric car kits and LED lantern which they make and take home.

3. Main Functions of the Role

The Business Development Manager will be responsible for:  Establishing and growing new ESA programmes already identified.  Identifying new programme opportunities according to market demand.  Producing financially underpinned strategic plans for new programmes.  Working with Founder/Director to develop and enhance overall ESA strategic business development plan.  Representing ESA in strategic partnerships with academia, business, business networks, funders and sponsors.  Identifying new strategic partnerships.  Representing ESA at relevant conferences.  Day to day operational liaison and collaboration with Events Co-ordinator and website/ social media co-ordinator.

4. Qualifications, Skills and Experience Necessary

Education: Masters degree in business, social enterprise or sustainability as a minimum.

Experience: At least 3 years professional experience in a manger role in a business or organisation (sustainability related business/organisation preferable but not essential).

Personal Attributes:  A deep understanding about sustainability challenges in the world.  Desire and inquiring mind to know more about sustainability challenges.  A values based passion to create positive change in the world.  Creative thinker.  Good relationship management skills.  Team player and also with entrepreneurial flair.  Attention to detail and ability to see strategic big picture. European Sustainability Academy - Tax number 998064065 - B tax office, Chania  Honest, accurate, reliable, trustworthy and discrete.  Self- motivated, self- directed and ability to use own initiative.  Confident to make business decisions and take responsibility for consequences of decisions.  Flexible attitude and open to change.  Thirst for adventure (previous overseas travel/ experience preferred).  Good sense of humour and tolerant to diverse humours of others.  Must be prepared to travel.

Skills and Competencies  Proficient written and verbal skills in Greek and English.  Strong communications skills, written and verbal.  Self- organised and good time management.  Understanding of business accounting, basic profit and loss financial planning.  Ability to support and guide people in internal working relationships.  Ability to influence, enthuse and engage external partners and stakeholders.  Proficient in using MS Office spreadsheet, word processing and presentation applications.  Strong report writing and presentation skills.

CV should give examples and illustrations of the above requirements.

NOTE: This specification covers the core tasks and responsibilities of the role. As this is a new role it is possible that other tasks may be assigned as the role develops according to the business needs. At the 6 month review the Employee and Managing Director will reconsider the role from a practical point of view.

5. Timeline

In the first instance please send a CV (in English) by email to [email protected] with names and contact details for references, NO LATER THAN 1st AUGUST 2014.

Interviews: Face to face interviews will be conducted in Athens between 6th and 8th August.

Face to face interviews will be conducted in Chania between 11th and 13th August.

Skype interviews can be arranged if necessary.

References will be followed up.

Successful applicants will be notified by Monday 18th August.

European Sustainability Academy - Tax number 998064065 - B tax office, Chania

APPENDIX

ESA Background

The underpinning ethos of ESA is that sustainability is about actions and values rather than text book theory. In many traditional classroom lectures about sustainability, when participants return to their business very little actually changes in their thinking at a profound level or in their behaviour in an operational context. The ESA view is that truly understanding about ‘sustainability’ requires an experiential intervention and a connection with personal values. To that end, ESA teaching programmes are designed and delivered using experiential, action-learning and peer group knowledge exchange principles and methods. Prior to ESA being built in Crete, these programmes have been run successfully in Tasmania and in Shanghai since 2001.

Crete was chosen to build ESA in a central European location which has easy access for visitors, participants and students to attend learning programmes from UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa. Crete has many similarities to Tasmania – an island state which is part of a larger country framework but with a unique identity and culture. From a teaching perspective, also like Tasmania, Crete has a strong history and story- telling with traditional communities mixed with contemporary modern communities. In terms of the environment, there are natural wonders combined with worrying environmental neglect and degradation. There are many elements of Crete that can be weaved into experiential sustainability training and development programmes.

Drapanos is a very small, rural hill top village in Apokoronas region of Crete. The village was selected because although ESA should be in an environmentally beautiful place which is suitable for retreat and a sanctuary for learning, it is also important that ESA activities should contribute to a local community. Until the last decade of building boom in Crete it consisted of just 10 houses. Drapanos has not been a financially wealthy village but it has been a sustainable community. There are many teaching points in Drapanos, from the simple hospitality shown by the villagers, the natural beauty of the area with panoramic views of the sea and the 2300m white mountains; and in contrast the visible damage of poorly regulated building of holiday homes since 2004 which have changed the nature of the village and at times depleted resources such as water.

Designing ESA during 2010 and building ESA in 2011 was very challenging at times. ESA is a large building with strict ecological requirements necessary for its credibility. One building specification was that no tree or large rock formation should be damaged during the construction process. Usual building practice in Crete is to decimate all natural flora and fauna for building purposes, therefore this specification was not understood by local building contractors. Secondly, instructions were made to the contractors that ALL materials used in the construction must be ecologically friendly with no toxic content and any wood must be certified from sustainable forest etc. This was a constant ‘project management’ battle to constantly check the materials brought on to the site and rejecting any materials that were not appropriate.

The ESA building project was a unique initiative and understanding about ecological construction (at that time) was very low. Therefore, building ESA became a teaching process for the constructors and engineers involved. Mostly people from the hill top, local villages were employed to build ESA and they learned new ecological building skills. Since opening, many people visit ESA for inspiration and guidance for their own ecological construction in Crete and in mainland Greece. The team of people who worked on the design and construction of ESA have gained more work, in ecological construction, during the past years of crisis and demise of building projects in the region.

The villagers and services of Drapanos and surrounding villages, have continued to be employed at ESA. Since opening ESA doors in June 2012, 3000 people from all over the world have visited and ESA has contributed significant revenue to the local community during times of Greek economic crisis. European Sustainability Academy - Tax number 998064065 - B tax office, Chania

For more information: www.EuroSustainability.org https://www.facebook.com/European.Sustainability.Academy

European Sustainability Academy - Tax number 998064065 - B tax office, Chania