Environment Agency
"We work to create better places for people and wildlife, and support sustainable development."
The Environment Agency is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.
We were established in 1996 to protect and improve the environment. We have around 10,600 employees. Our head office is in Bristol and we have another office in London. We have offices across England, divided into 14 areas listed below. See a map of our areas
Our Responsibilities
- regulating major industry and waste
- treatment of contaminated land
- water quality and resources
- fisheries
- inland river, estuary and harbour navigations
- conservation and ecology
- We are also responsible for managing the risk of flooding from main rivers, reservoirs, estuaries and the sea.
Our Priorities
- work with businesses and other organisations to manage the use of resources
- increase the resilience of people, property and businesses to the risks of flooding and coastal erosion
- protect and improving water, land and biodiversity
- improve the way we work as a regulator to protect people and the environment and support sustainable growth
Our Strategy
This is our ambition for how we plan to create better places for people, wildlife and the environment.
This document includes our purpose, priorities, culture and values as well as how we will help to deliver the 25 year environment plan. It includes the metrics we will be measured against so we know when we are succeeding in our ambitions. This document also describes 3 long term goals that will drive everything we do today, tomorrow and to 2025.
Our Roadmap To Net Zero
Our Roadmap To Net Zero
This document outlines the actions the Environment Agency will take to:
- cut its carbon emissions
- reach net zero by 2030
This sets out our commitment to cut our carbon emissions by at least 45% and offset the rest. It breaks down the sources of our emissions and the tangible actions we will take to reduce them.
Doing so will:
- benefit people and nature
- tackle our own contribution to climate change
- support the government’s ambition of a net zero nation by 2050
Green Careers at the Environment Agency
You’ll do vital, purposeful work that influences and protects lives, places and communities now and in the future. We’ll invest in you and allow you to grow and shape your career. We’ll encourage and empower you to collaborate and embrace the opportunities this brings.
What’s more, you’ll have access to our great benefits package, including generous annual leave, an excellent pension invested with ethical and renewable energy businesses, flexible working arrangements and the opportunity to be part of a variety of staff networks.
Above all, it’s your environment, so we want you to play a role in its protection.
Tackling the climate and biodiversity emergencies requires us to think and work differently, both in terms of what we do and how we do it. The commitment of our colleagues and partners and culture of our organisation is one of our greatest strengths.
This is summed up in ‘how we do things’:
- One team, one mission – create a better place.
- Focus on outcomes: deliver our commitments.
- Think big, act early, be visible.
- Seek partnership, show leadership, take responsibility.
- Innovate, move fast, stay agile.
- Value difference: include everyone.
- Be kind, stay safe and grow.
This is what we want everyone in the Environment Agency to feel and experience: our reason for being is protecting and improving the environment. We do this by being a delivery organisation – a category one responder, a regulator and a partner. We work creatively, inclusively and lead and respond to change. And we put individuals at the heart of this: valuing diversity; focusing on wellbeing and being kind.
For more information on careers at the Environment Agency, please visit: