Sustainability Team Member - Austin

About the Role

The Sustainability team member plays a key role in ensuring that daily waste‑management procedures are executed correctly across the Austin facility, a large-scale operation spanning roughly 20 different chef teams. This role supports the operational execution of recycling, compost, waste audits, and donation processes, helping maintain clean, compliant, and efficient waste‑diversion systems and reports directly to the Sustainability and Sanitation Operations Manager.

The Sustainability team member is responsible for carrying out daily walkthroughs, completing waste‑audit forms, preparing and coordinating donations, and ensuring correct sorting and disposal of materials in all kitchens and work areas. This role provides essential operational support to the facility by monitoring compliance, identifying contamination, and reinforcing correct waste‑handling behaviors among staff, freeing the Manager to focus on department growth and cross-functional coordination.

You will ensure that Zero Waste procedures are followed consistently and effectively, contributing to CookUnity's environmental operational priorities — with the goal of achieving Zero Waste Certification for the Austin market.

Summary

Execute daily operational tasks related to recycling, compost, waste audits, and donation management within the Austin facility, ensuring compliance with processes and sustainability standards.

Responsibilities:

• Daily Waste Audits: Perform daily bin audits across all kitchens and document findings on the Daily Audit Bin Form.
• Correct Waste Disposal : Ensure proper waste disposal procedures are followed in all kitchens.
• Overproduction Processing: Classify, weigh, and process overproduced food — routing it to charity donation's, compost, or internal reuse (family meal).
• Food Waste Handling : Classify, weigh, and dispose of food waste, including donations, compost, garbage, and family meals.
• Facility Walkthroughs : Conduct daily walkthroughs of kitchens, green stations, fulfillment, and market areas to identify contamination in recycling and compost streams.
• Contamination Control — Check recycling and compost streams to ensure they are free of incorrect materials.
• Material Sorting — Separate and move recyclable and compostable materials according to facility standards.
• Donation Management: Collect, weigh, record, and pack donations; receive donation partners and hand off prepared products.
• Donation Coordination: Coordinate donation pick‑ups with partnered non‑profit organizations.
• Walk-In Raw Ingredient Collection: Support the weekly walk-in collection process — pulling, logging, sorting, and routing recoverable raw ingredients across all 20 refrigerators.
• Too Good To Go Sales: Coordinate the sale of surplus meals through the Too Good To Go platform — including setup, customer handoff, and close-out logging.
• Return Packaging Program: Coordinate logistics and shipping with local carriers to send returned packaging materials off-site for cleaning and sanitization.
• Daily Reporting: Complete daily trackers for recycling, compost, and donation volumes.
• Zero Waste Compliance: Follow all safety, cleanliness, and Zero Waste process standards.
• Operational Feedback: Provide daily feedback to staff to reinforce correct waste‑sorting behaviors.
• Green Leader Support: Support team members as a Green Leader, promoting “Go Green” practices.
• Waste Diversion Supplies: Ensure stations have the correct supplies (stickers, posters, bins) for proper waste diversion.
• Green Station Maintenance: Coordinate with the cleaning team to keep the Green Stations clean and in order.

General Schedule and Workdays

• Full Time (5 days a week – 36 to 40 hrs weekly).
• 7:00 AM – 3:30 PM.
• Available to work weekends.

Qualifications:

• Operational Experience: Previous experience in warehouse, food production, cleaning, or other hands‑on operational roles. Comfortable working in kitchens, warehouse areas, and food production spaces.
• Physical Requirements: Ability to safely lift and move 20 lbs or more throughout the shift..
• Basic Reporting Skills : Ability to complete daily trackers and simple audit forms.
• Communication Skills: Ability to give clear feedback to staff and communicate deviations or contamination findings. Spanish and English
• Interest in Waste Reduction: Genuine interest in recycling, composting, waste diversion, or environmental practices (no prior experience required).
• Language: Basic English required; Spanish is a strong plus.

Compensation:

All final pay rates will be determined by candidates experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data.

Pay Range for this position

$19 USD.

Job Requirements:

• Bilingual – Spanish and English (mainly spoken).
• Basic knowledge of Google Docs/sheets.
• Experience operating both: Forklift; Pallet Jack Forklift experience a plus (certification support available on the job).