Environment Officer
Climate change will significantly impact the Environment Agency’s work. As part of our commitment to protecting people and nature, we are responsible for:
- Taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
- Regulating low-carbon and renewable energy schemes
- Helping people and wildlife adapt to the impacts of a changing climate
We consider the effects of severe weather and a changing climate in everything we do. To ensure we are prepared, we:
- Assess how climate change affects the environment and what it means for our customers—for example, the impact on water demand and availability
- Design our flood defences and infrastructure to remain effective in a changing environment
- Develop robust plans to respond to emergencies such as floods and droughts
- Provide advice, guidance, and technical information to help customers and partners factor in climate change—for instance, supporting local planning authorities in using future flood allowances when assessing flood risk
By taking these steps, we help communities, businesses, and the natural environment build resilience to climate change.
Environment Officer
As an Environment Officer, you will play a vital frontline role in protecting and improving the environment, helping to create a cleaner, safer, and healthier world for people and wildlife. You will tackle a wide range of environmental issues, from regulating permitted and illegal operations to protecting rivers and waterways.
As a regulator, you will be expected to take enforcement action when businesses or individuals fail to comply with relevant legislation. In some cases, this may involve providing evidence in court.
Responding to incidents is a key part of the role. You will be required to take on an incident role and be available to respond to environmental emergencies or support business continuity during an incident.
We have Environment Officers across our Waste, Land & Water, and Water Industry Regulation teams in various offices. While all roles share common responsibilities, each team focuses on specific areas, allowing you to develop specialised technical knowledge depending on your chosen role.
Training & Development
You will enter the role at EOA grade and follow a structured development programme to progress to EOB grade. This process is expected to take up to 18 months and is awarded upon demonstrating the required capabilities.
In the initial months, some training will be residential, lasting 3 to 5 days at a time for at least 3 weeks in total. This will require travel and overnight stays to complete the training.
Explore the different Environment Officer roles and find the one that’s right for you. Click below for more details on each team:
Waste Environment Officer
Based in one of our area offices as an Environment Officer – Waste, you will be responsible for regulating a range of waste management companies related to their permitted activities. You will be expected to regulate a wide variety of waste industry sectors and business models from small individual operators to large corporate bodies, who use a wide variety of chemical, biological and physical treatment processes in their waste management activities ensuring they are carried out without polluting the environment or causing harm to people. The sectors we regulate include landfill, biowaste, textiles, food & drink and metals.
You will also be responsible for:
- Enforcing regulations, taking action against breaches, and potentially providing evidence in court.
- Tackling illegal waste activities to protect legitimate businesses and prevent environmental harm.
- Working with external partners, including local authorities, police, fire and rescue services, and the public.
- Understanding business financial incentives and helping industries adopt sustainable practices.
- Engaging with local businesses and communities, using strong customer service skills.
- Responding to environmental incidents, sometimes out of hours (with potential additional payment).
You will also:
- Work collaboratively within a team, receiving backup from colleagues and incident support staff
- Using your excellent customer service skills to engage with local business, communities, and operators
- Enforce environmental regulations and ensure waste management companies improve their performance
- Travel frequently and sometimes unexpectedly to various sites to conduct inspections and take action if environmental regulations have been breached
The waste industry faces challenges to constantly strive to minimise and reduce waste, recycle and prevent waste going to disposal routes which have higher environmental impact. This makes the waste industry one of the most interesting, varied and innovative sectors to work with. Learning how the industry works, how to follow the financial incentives for business, and future proof industry is an extremely interesting and rewarding part of the role that will equip you as a regulator to engage positively with industry partners.
Land & Water Environment Officer
Based in one of our area offices as an Environment Officer – Land & Water you will join one of our customer-facing frontline teams working directly to help create a cleaner, safer and healthier environment.
You will be responsible for regulating activities that could affect the quality of water or the quantity of water in the environment. Land & Water teams are busy and get involved with a wide range of regulation activities, these include regulating:
- Water companies who may hold a range of permits related to their activities, to ensure they are carried out without polluting the environment or causing harm to people.
- Agricultural premises ranging from small family farms, larger scale farm holdings and intensive agricultural permits that produce pigs and poultry.
- Abstraction licences which permit the holder to take amounts of water out of watercourse and groundwater for certain uses including the watering of crops, cooling systems and drinking water.
As a regulator you will be expected to plan and deliver the necessary compliance activities against such permits, this may also require enforcement-action where the operator fails to comply with the relevant legislation, which for the most serious offences can require giving evidence in court. This role offers continuous learning opportunities and the chance to deepen your expertise in environmental regulation.
You will also:
- Work collaboratively within a team, receiving backup from colleagues and incident support staff
- Using your excellent customer service skills to engage with local business, communities, operators and customers that are passionate about their environment
- Enforce the diverse environmental regulations that Land & Water EO’s regulate and ensure the environment is protected for the future
- working with colleagues from other teams to ensure a local perspective is provided to proposed development
Travel frequently and sometimes unexpectedly to various sites to conduct inspections and take action if environmental regulations have been breached
Water Industry Environment Officer
Based in one of our area offices as an Environment Officer – Water Industry Regulation, you will join one of our customer-facing frontline teams working directly to help create a cleaner, safer and healthier environment.
You will be responsible for regulating a water company who may hold a range of permits related to their activities, to ensure they are carried out without polluting the environment or causing harm to people. As a regulator you will be expected to plan and deliver the necessary compliance activities against such permits, this may also require enforcement-action where the operator fails to comply with the relevant legislation, which for the most serious offences can require giving evidence in court. This role offers continuous learning opportunities and the chance to deepen your expertise in environmental regulation.
You will also:
- Work collaboratively within a team, receiving backup from colleagues and incident support staff
- Using your excellent customer service skills to engage with local business, communities, and operators
- Enforce environmental regulations and ensure water companies improve their performance
- Travel frequently and sometimes unexpectedly to various sites to conduct inspections and take action if environmental regulations have been breached
Testimonials
Waste Environment Officer
I am an Environment Officer (EO) for the Waste team in Hertfordshire and North London. Having joined the Environment Agency only 19 months ago, my journey as an EO is still very much in its inception. This is, in no small part, due to the myriad of roles and development opportunities, both assigned and offered to you as a member of the broader Regulatory Team.
The breadth of responsibilities afforded encompass not only the day-to-day regulation of the waste industry, but also include incident response, intelligence gathering for illegal operations, joint working partnerships with the Emergency Services and consultancy for a variety of planning proposals.
The role of an EO in waste regulation is crucial, our societies incessant and nihilistic passion for consumption, exacerbated by decades of deregulated, profit driven business models, has led to an industry of excessive production focused on convenience and disposability over sustainability. Resulting in unprecedented amounts of waste and bringing the industry, among others, to the forefront of environmental concern. It is for this reason that regulating this industry is so rewarding.
Irrespective of the importance of the Environment Agency’s part in environmental protection, there is a strong focus here on employee wellbeing. Flexible working hours allow for a great work-life balance and your mentors and managers are always there to support you.
Land & Water – Environment Officer
I have been an Environment Officer (EO) for 5 years and work in a Land and Water team. Land and Water teams have varied EO roles that provide incident response to water quality pollution incidents, regulate the water companies ensuring compliance with permits, check that water is being taken from our watercourses (water abstraction) correctly and regulate the agricultural sector. I specialise in regulating the agricultural sector and work in a virtual team working across the whole of the West Midlands.
The thing I love most about the day job is the variety of work, one day I can be on a planned farm visit ensuring the pollution risks of the farm have been addressed and legislation is being complied with, the next day I could be investigating a sewage spill into a river and ensuring the environmental impact is limited and the site stops it’s pollution. Tracing pollutions can turn you into a detective and when you find the source and stop the pollution you have a huge sense of achievement. Getting outside to see the effects we are having on our environment and being able to both advise and enforce on legislation makes this an interesting job. The mix of both planned and reactive work is exciting.
On a personal level, being a father with 2 young children and having a positive work life balance is very important to me. The Environment Agency provides great flexibility and really benefits my home life which allows me to be my best in work.
Water Industry – Environment Officer
I joined the Environment Agency as an Environment Officer a few months ago as part of the new Water Industry Regulation Team in Lincolnshire.
My main role is to regulate water company wastewater treatment works and associated infrastructure in order to protect and improve the condition of watercourses in the area. It feels great to be able to have a direct impact on improving the environment and be part of this new focused team. Everyday is different and I am enjoying the variety the role provides. Each site you visit has a slightly different set up or permit and new elements to investigate. Training has also included information regulating agriculture, waste and water resources so that I have wider knowledge to support my role.
I also have a supported incident role which means responding to water quality pollution incidents which could come from all types of sources, such as overturned tankers, burst sewer pipes or water from treating a major fire. To be on the front line reducing the environmental impact from pollution is exciting and rewarding.
My experience working for the Environment Agency has been really positive. The training has been interesting and well planned and I have already had opportunities to attend site inspections with experienced Environment Officers. My new colleagues have been welcoming and supportive, always having time to answer my questions and help me learn. The flexibility that comes with the role has been beneficial in balancing home and work life.
I am really looking forward to improving water company compliance and many years working for the Environment Agency.
—Lynn – Environment Officer
FAQ
For more information, check out our FAQ document, which covers common questions about the role and application process.