Do you have questions about diversity and inclusion?

No, it is free to make the commitment to diversity. There will be opportunities for you to get more involved in certain projects and contribute funding or resources. For example, we might create a survey that can be used to gather data from all partners about diversity and experiences. We’d then use the survey to create reports for individual organisations and create a sector wide report that we could repeat over a certain amount of time to show progress. To do this, we will ask if any organisations can contribute to the cost.

Your commitment is specific to you and your business, please read our commitment guide before signing up. Don’t forget that we will be asking for updates on your commitment!

Once we receive your commitment, this will be uploaded to the website and we will get in contact to offer a call with our DSI assistant Caris, who can update you on the current progress, any upcoming meetings and projects, and build an idea of where you are up to/any support we might be able to offer.

Three years ago, a Policy Exchange survey identified the environment and sustainability sector as the second least diverse out of 202 professions in the UK. This is a statistic that is often quoted, but until now has been seldom acted upon.

3.1% of environment professionals identify as minorities compared to 19.9% in all occupations*.

Given a rapidly changing, more urban and more mixed-race population, it is imperative that the environment sector changes and adapts. If it does not, there is a danger that it will become irrelevant, and unworthy of financial or political support, by the communities with which it seeks to work in partnership on a transition to sustainability and zero-carbon.

* Race, inclusivity and environmental sustainability report conducted by NUS, IEMA and The Equality Trust.

You are a champion!

You can present the issue to the decision makers, to those in HR, your Executive team, or better yet, you can create the space that your organisation needs in order for diversity to thrive. You can drive the change by implementing mentor schemes for those identifying within minority groups, or create ‘safe spaces’ to raise and address challenges, barriers and prejudices.

Of course. Please contact info@diversesustainability.net and we can arrange a phone call to see how you could get involved. We appreciate your support!

There are so many ways that you can improve the diversity and inclusion in your team! We would always recommend ensuring that you have an inclusive environment before trying to increase diversity. You can provide training for the team, reverse mentoring, encourage the team to support international days and encourage regular team meetings to help build relationships. Keep the underrepresented groups at the fore when creating any action plans, as it is important to give them an opportunity to get involved or voice their opinion, although we mustn’t add too much pressure.

See our list of Partners here.