OUR COMPANY

Established in 2017, Lestari Capital is a conservation finance company, based in Southeast Asia, that develops innovative, nature-based products that enable companies to deliver on their sustainability objectives. We accomplish this by mobilizing new finance for initiatives that protect and rehabilitate important natural landscapes around the world.  The Indonesian word “Lestari” means sustainable, or everlasting, signifying our commitment to developing long-term sources of finance for high quality conservation and restoration initiatives.

Lestari Capital’s impact model addresses a critical need for long-term operating capital for conservation and restoration projects run by local communities, non-profit organizations, and environmental services companies. Lestari Capital aims to strengthen Southeast Asia’s emerging ecosystem services marketplace, by connecting demand for on-the-ground conservation efforts among commodity producers/buyers with projects that are protecting or restoring forests where these companies operate, to protect at-risk areas.

POSITION OVERVIEW

The Senior Climate/Carbon Specialist plays a key part in company’s efforts to scale up conservation and restoration through the design, development, and implementation of projects transacting climate-based (carbon), biodiversity, or ecosystem services nature credits. The Senior Climate/Carbon Specialist will also contribute to our Science Based Targets (SBTi) Scope 3 Initiative, assessing the suitability of projects to deliver these Scope 3 emission reductions to meet evolving demand from our clients.

The Senior Climate/Carbon Specialist’s responsibility is to ensure that our project portfolio delivers robust and technically sound outcomes in response to market demand. (S)he will ensure that our processes and practices for project rapid assessment, feasibility study, certification/validation, monitoring and reporting, and verification (MRV) are of the highest quality. As a member of the NBS Project Development team, (s)he will also support origination efforts and portfolio management of the NBS business line, research and development of new certification standards, framework, and methodologies, ensuring that Lestari Capital remains relevant, innovative, and a thought leader in the space.

Reporting to the Director of NBS, the scope of the role involves:

1. Climate: Developing field data collection guidance, robust quantification tools and solid approaches for carbon emission reduction/removal credit estimates throughout the design, development, implementation, and monitoring processes across company’s projects portfolios to meet the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), as well as leading relevant project validation and verification tasks.
2. New Standards: Taking a leading role in the research and development (R&D) of new climate, carbon, or other nature-based credit mechanisms, framework, methodologies, and innovative approaches that continue to meet evolving market and stakeholder demands.
3. SBTi Scope 3: Supporting the company in creating sustainability roadmaps and strategies to inform company’s program development of Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) Scope 3 emission targets.

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Serve as technical lead on carbon emission quantifications

• Actively engage with cross-functional office and field team members, client/partners, and field consultants to provide expert guidance and recommendations regarding carbon-related best practices for data collection, aggregation, quality assurance and control, and monitoring.
• Stay informed about updates in project validation and verification standards, framework and methodology changes and requirements, and advocate for project design and development approaches that support adoption of highest standards and quality.
• Develop and implement refined project rapid screening tools, for methodologies related to but not limited to, avoided deforestation and degradation, wetland restoration, improved forest management, to inform company’s origination decision-making and portfolio management.
• Work with cross-functional technical team members, partners, or consultants to develop automated or semi-automated systems used for project rapid assessment, feasibility study, project description (PD) for validation, monitoring report (MR) for verification.
• Lead carbon emission reduction/removal quantification efforts for projects at feasibility study, PD, and MR levels, and work closely with the geospatial/IT team members to produce tools which the calculations can be iterated and automated as much as possible.
• Contribute to the development and revision of feasibility studies, PD and MR documents of VCS, Sustainable Development Verified Impact Standard (SD VISta), or CCB programs (either in house or through service providers), to support project validation and verification processes.
• Develop and implement the methodologies for project MRV at both at project and portfolio levels, and work with technical team members, partners, or consultants to develop a streamlined process to enable technology and system automation.

2. R&D for new NBS project types

• Stay updated regarding new climate/carbon, or other nature-based credit mechanisms, framework, methodologies, and innovative approaches.
• Through the R&D results, inform potential new business opportunities to the NBS origination and portfolio development efforts.
• Ensure the NBS portfolio meets evolving market and stakeholder demands.

3. SBTi scope 3 emission reduction/removal

• Support company’s new business development in creating a mechanism that supports client needs to reduce scope 3 carbon emissions and meet SBTi targets.
• Provide technical support in response to the SBTi business line’s portfolio management.
• Ensure company’s SBTi program meets client’s needs for ESG benchmarking and ensure the outcomes meet client’s ESDD processes.

POSITION KEY REQUIREMENTS

• Master’s degree in ecology, forestry, environmental science, natural resource management, sustainability development, or a related field from an international university.
• Minimum 5-10 years of professional experience in carbon projects or related fields, with a strong understanding of carbon accounting methodologies and climate change mitigation strategies.
• Knowledge and hands-on experience in international carbon accounting standards and guidelines, such as the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards, and REDD+ framework.
• Proven experience of developing and implementing Verra and/or Plan Vivo compliant projects in a variety of contexts and geographies.
• Strong quantitative, analytical, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to provide innovative technical solutions. Competent statistical skills, such as familiarity with R programming tools, is highly preferred.
• Advanced project management skills, from both a technical and administrative standpoint, and demonstrated ability to guide multi-disciplinary teams.
• Experience in managing and overseeing forest carbon projects, including project planning, implementation, and monitoring, for conducting field assessments, data collection, and analysis related to carbon projects.
• Excellent English in written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to develop technical writing materials, and effectively communicate technical information to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Work conditions

The candidate will be based ideally in Indonesia, Singapore, or Southeast Asia, although we will consider broader geographic regions of home base with suitable cross-team functions. The candidate needs to commit to travels for meetings and field visits if/when needed.

TO APPLY:

Send cover letter and CV to jobs@lestaricapital.com