Sustainability Assistant Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Job Summary:

The Sustainability Assistant Manager, reporting to the Environmental, Health amp; Safety Manager, leads and coordinates Yamada North America's sustainability activities. This position owns sustainability data, reporting, planning, and project coordination needed to support Yamada Group objectives, customer expectations, and YNA's long-term carbon-neutrality efforts. The Assistant Manager translates energy, greenhouse-gas, water, waste, materials, and supplier information into practical initiatives that reduce environmental impact, control operating cost, and strengthen business performance. The role works closely with Operations, Engineering, Maintenance, Purchasing, Production Control, Finance, Information Technology, Human Resources, Quality, customers, suppliers, utilities, and outside partners to produce measurable and well-documented results.

Essential Functions:

1. Develop, maintain, and execute YNA's sustainability roadmap, annual business plan, objectives, targets, and key performance indicators in alignment with Yamada Group direction and applicable customer requirements.

2. Maintain YNA's greenhouse-gas inventory in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, including Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and relevant Scope 3 categories as required. Document organizational boundaries, data sources, emissions factors, assumptions, base-year changes, and calculation methods.

3. Collect, validate, reconcile, and analyze electricity, natural gas, fuel, refrigerant, water, wastewater, waste, recycling, production, and other sustainability data. Maintain traceable records, data controls, dashboards, intensity metrics, and supporting evidence suitable for management review and audit.

4. Prepare accurate and timely sustainability submissions, questionnaires, scorecards, and progress reports for Yamada Group, customers, governmental or voluntary programs, and other stakeholders. Coordinate internal review and approval before information is released externally.

5. Build and manage a prioritized decarbonization and resource-efficiency project pipeline for YNA's manufacturing operations, including aluminum melting and holding furnaces, heat treatment, compressed air, HVAC, lighting, motors, pumps, machining, assembly, process controls, idle-time reduction, and building systems.

6. Develop business cases for sustainability projects, including baseline performance, technical feasibility, capital and operating cost, incentives, energy and carbon savings, payback, return on investment, implementation risk, and measurement and verification plans.

7. Partner with Engineering, Maintenance, Operations, and Finance to implement approved projects; establish owners and schedules; track cost, savings, and environmental results; resolve barriers; and verify that benefits are sustained after completion.

8. Coordinate utility-data management, rate and demand analysis, metering and submetering, peak-demand reduction, utility incentives, demand-response activities, and other energy-management opportunities. Investigate significant usage or cost variances and recommend corrective action.

9. Evaluate and coordinate renewable-energy and clean-energy options, including on-site generation, renewable-energy certificates, utility programs, and power-purchase arrangements. Maintain documentation needed to support credible environmental claims and prevent double counting.

10. Lead water-conservation planning and projects involving process water, cooling systems, reverse osmosis, leaks, sanitation, wastewater, and feasible reuse opportunities. Establish water balances and performance measures where useful.

11. Lead waste-reduction and circularity efforts by characterizing waste streams, improving segregation, increasing reuse and recycling, reducing landfill disposal, working with recyclers and vendors, and identifying beneficial uses for scrap, packaging, pallets, oils, coolants, and other materials.

12. Partner with Purchasing, Production Control, Quality, Engineering, and suppliers on responsible sourcing, supplier sustainability data, packaging reduction, transportation efficiency, recycled content, material efficiency, and customer sustainability requests.

13. Support product carbon-footprint, life-cycle, and process-emissions analyses for YNA components when requested by customers or Yamada Group. Maintain consistent methods, source documentation, assumptions, and version control.

14. Integrate sustainability considerations into capital planning, equipment specifications, process design, facility changes, procurement decisions, and project-approval processes so that energy, water, waste, and carbon impacts are evaluated before commitments are made.

15. Coordinate with the EHS Manager to align sustainability programs with ISO 14001, environmental aspects and impacts, legal and other requirements, management review, internal audits, and corrective-action processes without duplicating regulatory-compliance ownership.

16. Establish appropriate data-quality, document-control, and assurance practices. Support internal, customer, corporate, and third-party reviews of sustainability data and close identified gaps or corrective actions promptly.

17. Lead YNA's sustainability committee, employee education, awareness campaigns, suggestion activities, and recognition efforts. Build practical understanding of how Associates and departments contribute to energy, water, waste, and emissions performance.

18. Monitor emerging sustainability standards, automotive-industry expectations, technology, utility programs, tax incentives, grants, and best practices. Assess relevance to YNA and provide fact-based recommendations to management.

19. Prepare monthly, quarterly, and annual updates for the EHS Manager and executive leadership that clearly communicate performance, financial impact, project status, risks, forecasted results, and actions required to meet targets.

20. Administer assigned sustainability budgets, consultants, software, utilities, contractors, and service providers. Ensure that public or customer-facing environmental claims are accurate, supportable, appropriately approved, and not misleading.

21. Perform other duties as assigned.

Other Functions

1. Maintain regular and predictable attendance and sufficient plant-floor presence to understand YNA's processes, engage project owners, verify data, and support sustainability activities across the three-shift operation.

2. Interact professionally with Associates, management, customers, suppliers, utilities, recyclers, consultants, community partners, governmental representatives, and Yamada Group personnel.

3. Support environmental, ISO 14001, audit, training, and special-project activities assigned by the EHS Manager while maintaining primary responsibility for sustainability programs.

4. Continuously improve data systems, project-management methods, work processes, and communication tools while promoting a culture of resource conservation and shared accountability.