ISEP, the Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals

• Ensured that our virtual meetings and webinars are digitally accessible for our members and stakeholders by asking for communication preferences beforehand.
• Ensured that all our virtual meetings and webinars include closed captions.
• Ran a workshop on digital accessibility and shared a compulsory checklist with all ISEP staff.
• Ensured that our image bank contains images of different underrepresented groups, to ensure that this is representative of our membership.
• Add a diversity statement to all our volunteer advertisements and speaker advertisements.
• Ensured that all ISEP staff have received training in allyship, anti-racism and unconscious bias.
• Ensured that staff are aware of the different disabilities, visual & hearing impairments, and neurodiversity so that the team better understand communication styles.
• Continued to make efforts to ensure our job adverts are available and accessible to diverse communities.
• Developed our website, our aim was to create a candidate landing page which includes our Diversity Policy and further details and insight about the culture at ISEP.
• Ensured that our ‘How To Series’ addresses topics that members have marked as barriers, such as ‘lack of self-confidence’ especially by women.
• Trialled a small-scale mentoring programme to support ISEP members of Colour.
• Ensured that the Green Careers Hub begins to address the ‘unclear pathways’ into the profession by sharing case studies by people in the profession and their journeys.
• Ensured that we continue to host a networking session for underrepresented groups for ISEP members at ISEP connect, to allow the opportunity to network with one another and discuss barriers openly.
• Ensured that the Green Careers Hub is inclusive by embedding an EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) strategy.
• Advertised the DSI’s People of Colour network more widely amongst ISEP members.
• We continued to submit our data through the RACE Report. 

We continue to support underrepresented professionals in the sector, whether ISEP members or not through our networks.

Our focus for 2026–2027 is on extending our global outreach, continuing to improve accessibility, and broadening our understanding and action on EDI beyond traditional categories. 

Global representation and outreach 

• Understand what accessibility looks like for global regions by utilising our Global Networks to understand how we can better support our members.
• Continue to showcase diverse environmental professionals from different geographies, this might be via the Transform magazine, social media, webinars or blogs.
• Explore tacking and reporting the geographical diversity of speakers and participants at ISEP events.

Equip staff and volunteers with cultural competency training to ensure respectful, inclusive, and effective global engagement 

• Deliver annual training sessions on intercultural communication, global sustainability practices, and cultural etiquette starting in 2026.
• Consider embedding EDI training for new volunteers.

Make global participation more accessible by addressing time zone barriers 

• Begin committing to explore making virtually hosted events more accessible for a global audience, e.g. resourcing to offer more flexible timings.
• Provide recordings and access to major events and learning sessions to support equitable access regardless of location or availability.

Advance digital accessibility across all platforms and communications 

• Collate the response to the member feedback form and work on what the barriers are around accessibility and how we can support.
• Continue to track and review the use of Reciteme across all ISEP-owned sites.
• Improve search function on the ISEP website to ensure it is more accessible for users.
• Ensure that accessibility is embedded when we are changing any technical processes across the website or our user journey.

Make events more inclusive and accessible 

• Offer live captioning and begin considering more accessibility support options (where possible) at all ISEP events. 
• All staff, volunteers and external speakers encouraged to use accessibility checklists from 2026 onwards.

Inclusive environment

• Explore inclusion results in our ‘Great Place to Work’ survey and review areas that need improving.
• Start to track volunteer diversity data.
• Embed EDI and cultural awareness training within the staff onboarding process.

Broadening EDI scope 

• Review our policies to consider LGBTQIA+ inclusion (e.g trans inclusive policies).
• Ensure our policies reflect acknowledgement of religious holidays.
• Review and refresh internal EDI commitments:

  1. Embed EDI into our internal business case document to ensure this is considered in every project we create.

  2. Continue to review EDI at senior leadership and board level, with dedicated feedback to the team.

• Review GCH EDI strategy in 2026.
• Ask for feedback in the first impressions survey on the accessibility of the sign-up process so we understand where we can Improve.

Recruitment 

• Continue building inclusive and fair recruitment practices:
  
  1. Maintain our commitment to create inclusive adverts, ensuring all roles are advertised with inclusive language and reach a wide range of diverse communities.
  
  2. Continue to advertise on Diverse Jobs Matter.

  3. As part of our salary benchmarking cycle, continue to monitor pay equity, with a focus on gender and ethnicity, and publish high-level findings internally.
  
  4. Explore the Disability Confidence scheme.

• Explore potentially advertising pay externally:
  
  1. Conduct an internal consultation with staff and hiring managers to assess perceptions, practicalities, and concerns around advertising pay by mid-2026.
  
  2. Introduce a pilot to publish salary bandings in job adverts for 1–2 roles in 2026, and gather feedback to determine if this should be scaled further.

• Support inclusive candidate experience:
  
  1. Embed guidance for hiring panels on how to ensure an inclusive and accessible interview experience, including best practices for candidates with neurodivergence, disabilities, or language differences.  

Transparency and accountability 

• Continue to submit to the RACE Report and our DSI EDI commitment to increase transparency.
• Gather and act on feedback via our state of the profession survey and annual members survey to track the progress via our members.

Mentoring 

• Expand and deepen the impact of the ISEP People of Colour Mentoring Scheme:
  
  1. Extend the programme through 2026 with enhanced support for mentors and mentees.
  
  2. Continue to track and evidence individual impact, including outcomes such as career progression, increased confidence, and skills development.
  
  3. Achieve an average scheme satisfaction rating of 8/10 or higher by the end of 2026.

Diversity & Sustainability Initiative (DSI) 

• Strengthen partnerships and engagement across the profession:
  
  1. Sign up at least 4 new ISEP corporate partners to the DSI by the end of 2026.
  
  2. Increase member participation in DSI networks, aiming for a measurable growth in PoC and LGBTQIA+ network membership.
  
  3. Proactively engage the top employers of ISEP members to share DSI insights and promote inclusive practices within their organisations, ensuring the benefits extend to the wider ISEP community. 

• We will continue to update our commitment annually on the DSI website.
• We will discuss commitments with Team Leaders on a regular basis.
• We submit data to the RACE report and keep EDI as a regular update to our board.