That is according to the third annual RACE Report, which reveals that just 4.5% of staff identified as PoC and other racially or ethnically minoritised groups last year, compared to 16% across all sectors.
Although this is below the 6% recorded in 2023, the researchers explained how the far larger sample size for this year’s report means the two data points are “not statistically comparable”.
The picture is more nuanced when organisation size is taken into account, with 14.1% of staff in those with 10-49 employees identifying as PoC and other ethnically minoritised groups, but just 1.8% in those with 500-1,000 employees.
A record 161 organisations are represented in the latest RACE Report to some extent, however, just 4.8% of senior leaders across 131 identify as PoC, with 10.1% of governance or trustee board members across 115 also doing so.
“Let’s face it – environmental organisations are still very white, especially at the top,” commented Areeba Hamid, co-executive director of Greenpeace UK. “I find myself in CEO meetings where I’m the only person of colour 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.”
The most commonly reported actions by organisations to improve racial diversity last year were regular reviews of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) activities, statements promoting EDI within all new recruitment materials, and giving a senior leader responsibility for EDI.
IEMA's Diverse Sustainability Initiative (DSI) aims to transform diversity within the sustainability profession and wider environment sector, and recently launched a first-of-its-kind mentoring scheme for PoC.
CEO Sarah Mukherjee MBE also appeared on a special episode of the ENDS Report’s Eco Chamber podcast in November, titled Access Denied: The environment sector’s problem with race.
In a recent blog, she explained: “EDI is a crucial component to discussions about a just transition – greening the economy in a way that is as fair and inclusive as possible to everyone, creating decent work opportunities and leaving no one behind.
“Access Denied brings together people from various aspects of sustainability and environmentalism, to investigate what lies behind the sector’s problem with race and the implications for the environmental profession and its future.”
Listen to the podcast here.
Chris Seekings is the Deputy Editor of IEMA’s Transform magazine, which is published biomonthly for IEMA members. Chris’s role involves writing sustainability-related news, features and interviews, as well as helping to plan and manage the magazine’s other day-to-day activities.
| Type | Subject | Value Type | Value |
|---|
