Job Description

What would you do with over 30million to help 7 communities transition to a low carbon future? If that question gets your mind cogs turning, and you would thrive being part of a hard working mission-led team living Cornish life to the full, then read on....

What we do

CfR is a mission-led community interest company which helps communities generate their own energy.

Since setting up in 2012, CfR has worked in over 40 localities from villages to cities to help deliver locally-owned energy generation ranging from solar panels on school roofs to some of the largest community solar farms in the UK.

CfR's work involves:

Community energy enterprise set-up (including company formation, business planning, governance set-up, policies, company admin set-up and community and stakeholder engagement);

Community wind and solar project development (including feasibility studies, planning consent, landowner engagement and legal agreements, grid connection and construction contractor procurement);

Shared ownership - managing the purchase of development-stage and operational wind and solar projects from commercial developers into community ownership;

Raising construction and long-term finance from commercial lenders, social investors and community share / bond offers;

Ongoing company and asset management covering all aspects of running a community wind or solar project and community company on behalf of the board and members.

Developing and implementing business models to help our clients innovate and grow their local energy enterprises beyond their 'anchor asset'.

Who we work with

CfR's 'Local Energy Collective' of local energy enterprises own nearly 50 megawatts of community solar across 7 diverse localities. They are all not for profits, governed by local volunteer directors and operating for the benefit of their communities. Together they are projected to generate over 30million of surplus income (after operating and finance costs) over their lifetimes to support net zero transition, fuel poverty and other community projects in their localities. Each year they produce around 50,000 megawatt hours of electricity from the sun, equivalent to the consumption of 13,500 homes.

This is a start, a seed from which they can support their communities' response to the climate change emergency and transition to an equitable local low carbon economy.

Values and culture

CfR's contribution to the community energy sector has been recognised through CfR winning a number of industry awards and being listed in the Natwest SE100 index of top UK social enterprises.

As a Community Interest Company (CIC), any surplus made by CfR is re-invested in supporting further community energy projects.

CfR has an open source culture and we encourage all team members, regardless of their role and experience, to contribute ideas towards the effective running of the company and furthering our mission.

CfR's team are its most important asset. CfR provides long-term services and, therefore, needs to build a team committed and supported for the long-term. CfR nurtures a working environment which supports the long-term aspirations, health and economic needs of its staff and has a progressive employee-centric ownership model, including eligibility for a profit share-based team bonus after one year.

The role

1/ Communications

You will be responsible for managing communications for the community energy enterprises we manage. The audience includes investor members, local households and local community organisations and stakeholders. Your role will include:

Working with the volunteer boards to define their communications objectives and develop their strategies. Helping the community energy enterprises to develop their local networks. Producing regular newsletters, website and social media content covering the activities of the local energy enterprises and their community impact activities. Maintaining client websites (currently in Wix and Wordpress) and social media accounts. Managing client CRMs and GDPR compliance. Co-ordinating volunteer board meetings. Drafting annual reports. Organising annual general meetings and events (on line and in person).

2/ Local impact

Each of the local energy enterprises we manage generate between 20,000 and 50,000 of surplus income per year (after operating and finance costs) to support local community initiatives. Some are building up significant community funds to deploy (in some cases well over 1million). The community funds are used to support local community projects, address fuel poverty and support the transition to vibrant net zero communities.

The sorts of things the local energy enterprises have used their funds for include:

Supporting low income households through the covid crisis including funding laptops and resources for home earning, supporting the Food Banks and home meals. Application-led community grant funds with funding going to forest schools, community arts, playground facilities, health and wellbeing support, youth environmental action, wildlife projects, community food growing, community sports, community transport and energy efficiency measures for community buildings. Setting up and funding energy advice services which help people keep their homes warm and healthy, access energy related welfare payments, deal with energy supplier issues and access grant funding for insulation, boiler replacement and energy efficiency measures. Helping low income families struggling with the cost of living by topping up free school meal and school trip funds. Supporting biodiversity and habitat restoration projects - for example Ferry Farm Community Solar in Selsey has provided 55,000 of funding to support the Sussex Kelp Restoration Project, led by Sussex Wildlife Trust. Soft loans for local schools and community buildings to install solar panels. Local school visits to the solar farms.
You will be responsible for co-ordinating community benefit activities for the community energy enterprises we manage including:

Work with the local energy enterprise volunteer boards to develop their social impact objectives and strategies. Grant fund announcements, contacting and supporting local community organisations who might be interested in applying, co-ordinating applications and awards. Helping the local energy enterprises develop new business model to increase their revenues and social and environmental impact. Organising school visits.

3/ What else?

If you're super-efficient and get all that done, there's potential to get involved other things we do, including:

Supporting community share and bond offers to raise investment for new community wind and solar projects. That could involve: collating content and drafting offer documents, managing graphic designers and developing and implementing marketing campaigns.
Developing and implementing business models to help our clients innovate and grow their local energy enterprises beyond their 'anchor asset'. For example, we have developed a 'Solar Soft Loan' model to use surplus income from the big community solar farms we manage to fund solar PV across schools and community buildings in their community. We are currently working with Burnham and Weston Energy CIC to understand how they could help local homes invest in energy efficiency measures.

Keeping an eye on policy developments and feeding into consultations.

Requirements

With the support of the CfR team, you will take responsibility from the outset for communications and local impact. Within weeks you will contributing your ideas on how we can do things better. You will be self-motivated, imaginative, able to work things out for yourself, passionate about the net zero transition and improving people's lives and have excellent organisational skills. As a starting point you will have:

An evidenced interest in the net zero transition and working with communities. Relevant degree and/or professional experience. Evidenced skills in reporting writing, research, networking, communications and project management. Website management and social media skills. Commitment to CfR's mission and values and living and working in Cornwall. Ability to travel occasionally to meet the community energy enterprise boards and be present in their communities.
Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Pay: 30,000.00-35,000.00 per year

Benefits:

Casual dress Company pension Employee mentoring programme Flexitime Free parking On-site parking Profit sharing Sick pay Work from home
Work Location: In person

Application deadline: 08/08/2025
Expected start date: 25/08/2025