Racial diversity in the environmental charity sector remains “substantially” below the UK workforce average, according to new research.
Some 4.5% of staff in the environmental charity sector identify as people of colour (POC) and other racially or ethnically minoritised groups compared to 16% of the UK national workforce, the annual Racial Action for the Climate Emergency (RACE) report revealed today.
The report, the UK’s largest analysis of the racial diversity of the environmental charity and funder sector, surveyed 161 environmental charities and represented over 28,600 employees this year.
It found that smaller organisations had more diversity across their workforce.
Some 14% of staff in organisations with 10 to 49 employees identified as POC and other ethnically minoritised groups, while 1.8% of staff in organisations with 500 to 1,000 employees identified as POC and other ethnically minoritised groups.
More EDI initiatives
The RACE report, which started in 2022, found that participants who have contributed to the report since its inception have improved their implementation of equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives.
For example, 23% of charities now have a policy to ensure racial diversity in recruitment and interview panels compared with 4% in 2023 and 2022.
And 58% of participants now include a statement on a recruitment page stating areas in which the organisation is underrepresented compared with 37% in 2023 and 31% in 2022.
Some 68% of charities conduct a regular review of equality, diversity and inclusion activities to ensure they remain effective and impactful compared with 47% in 2023 and 36% in 2022.
‘We need to move from talking about the issue to doing something about it’
Manu Maunganidze, from the RACE report team, said the environmental sector could be more effective if its staff better reflected British society in terms of racial diversity, socio-economic background, gender and age.
Maunganidze told Civil Society: “If you don't have a diverse range of perspectives deciding on how it does things and why it does things, then you've got a lot of blind spots.”
Greenpeace UK’s co-executive director Areeba Hamid said: “Let's face it - environmental organisations are still very white, especially at the top.
“I find myself in CEO meetings where I'm the only POC in the room, and it just doesn’t feel right in 21st-century Britain.
“Since measuring a problem is the first step towards solving it, it’s good to see more and more organisations publishing data about their staff’s ethnic diversity.
“But, as a sector, we now need to move swiftly from talking about the issue to actually doing something about it.
“There’s no magic formula to fix this problem, but at Greenpeace UK we have tried several initiatives around recruitment, retention and career progression and got some good results, showing that progress is possible.
“POC are at the sharp end of many environmental crises, from climate change to air pollution - they deserve much better representation in the green sector.”
Related articles
