Earthwatch Europe is an environmental charity with science at its heart. We drive the change needed to live within our means and in balance with nature. We do this by connecting people with the natural world, monitoring the health of our natural resources and informing the actions that will have the greatest positive impact.
In 2023:
Updates on 5 commitment areas in 2023
1. Ensure Earthwatch is a place where individuality is embraced and everyone has the opportunity to thrive
• Active EDI working group, supported at an Executive level which all staff can and do feed into
• Bringing together policies and procedures that were relevant to both the UK and Netherlands employees.
• EDI sessions for new starters continued and were made longer to ensure new employees fully understood what the EDI group were working towards.
• Mental health training was provided to all line managers to embed understanding in this area.
• Shared Parental Leave policy has been made more robust, in line with our Maternity and Adoption Leave policies.
2. Identify and remove any barriers to greater equality and inclusion within our recruitment processes
• Advertising for key Director of Science and Policy role through diverse job boards: Diverse Jobs Matter and Pink Jobs!
• We added a statement to our job descriptions advising that we are aware that our requirement list may not acknowledge all relevant transferrable skills and encouraged applicants to apply even if they did not meet all essential criteria.
3. Put a plan in place to build a more diverse Board of Trustees
• We looked to further expand the diversity of our trustees' skills, experience and networks particularly linked to engaging younger people and people from less advantaged and underrepresented communities on environmental issues. We worked with Diversifying Group, a Diversity and Inclusion Services organisation, to recruit new trustees; which led to five successful appointments in January 2024.
4. Review equity within the organisation, starting with a gender equity plan
• We completed another situational report in 2023 to refine our Gender Equity Plan. The up-to-date document is published on our website.
5. Review our existing programmes and develop new programmes aimed at giving increased equity and increased diversity, starting with young minority ethnic people
• Naturehood Oxford: In 2023, National Lottery funding enabled Earthwatch to empower five communities in Oxford, which historically have suffered from lack of support or funding, to create thriving networks of wildlife-rich space that create better, healthier places to live. Naturehood particularly focuses on connecting with young people aged 16-24, minority and disadvantaged communities, who traditionally have had limited access to public green space. The project will run until June 2024.
• Branching out to underrepresented communities via the Climate Action Fund (CAF): Through the CAF project, Earthwatch has recruited a Community Engagement and Diversity Manager to develop activities that focus on engaging with underrepresented groups to ensure diversity of participation at Tiny Forests. Through this funding, we plan to connect a further 12,000 people (engaging an average of 200 people per Tiny Forest, with at least 7,200 (or 60%) of people from underrepresented groups) with nature through taking local climate action at Tiny Forests. We will work in partnership with GoodGym in England and NatureScot in Scotland focussing on underrepresented groups in 20 existing TFs and 40 new sites across England and Scotland which are economically and environmentally deprived.
This project will contribute to Earthwatch’s goal of ‘nurturing a network of 500 Tiny Forests across the UK and Europe, targeting under-served communities in the majority of locations and engaging 100,000 people by 2030’.
• Earthwatch Science Camps - successfully recruited a diverse range of participants through developing a rich training programme containing many different voices and lived experiences and then spending time on targetted outreach to get the programme in front of the right people.
In 2024:
2024 commitments
1. Ensure Earthwatch is a place where individuality is embraced and everyone has the opportunity to thrive
• Add EDI as a standing item at Executive and Trustee Meetings.
• Build on current monitoring systems and contribute data to the RACE report
2. Identify and remove any barriers to greater equality and inclusion within our recruitment processes
• Continue to improve our processes for both attracting more diverse candidates (using platforms and forums which get our roles in front of a diverse range of candidates) and retaining a diverse workforce.
3. Put a plan in place to build a more diverse Board of Trustees
• Work with our new diverse board of trustees to continue to embed EDI across all our programmes of work - especially with marginalised and under - represented groups
4. Review equity within the organisation, starting with a gender equity plan
•Identify another area of equity to review within the organisation, alongside gender
5. Review our existing programmes and develop new programmes aimed at giving increased equity and increased diversity, starting with young minority ethnic people
• Secure funding for programmes which supporting working in urban areas with underserved people who have poor access to nature, particularly marginalised groups.
• Ensure all our brand and communications are inclusive, equitable and speak to all our audiences