Organisations are working hard to ensure people of colour are better represented within the charity environmental sector, according to The RACE Report published today (5 February).
The Orchard Project was one of 142 environmental organisations across the UK to voluntarily contribute data for this study, as part of a collective effort to improve transparency within the sector.
“This report is designed to act as a catalyst for meaningful action and help tackle the barriers preventing people of colour from working and thriving in the sector,” says Kath Rosen, CEO, The Orchard Project. “We know there’s still a lot of work to do. For example, our staff team is currently underrepresented in terms of racial diversity, and we are working on measures to improve this.
“We will continue to learn how to meaningfully address racial injustice through our work, and we may not always get it right, but we are led by a vision that as a biodiverse orchard system teaming with wildlife is much more resilient, so are diverse organisations.
“We need everyone’s voices, strengths and solutions to help create the equitable, resilient sustainable societies we so desperately need.”
Among the actions currently being taken by The Orchard Project include:
- Delivering funded training programmes to help people get jobs in the environment sector. Our Certificate in Community Orcharding (CICO) course offers bursaries to people from the global majority or those who are economically disadvantaged. On our most recent course, 44% of students identified as Black or a person of colour.
- Carrying out programme development work with new partners, who are led by Black and people of colour, to develop orchard programmes that better reflect need in these communities.
- Promoting race equity and inclusion within all new recruitment materials and offering a guaranteed interview scheme for Black and people of colour who meet essential criteria. Our recruitment criteria are also based on experience, rather than academic qualifications.
- Advertising roles through specialist diversity jobs boards and carrying out blind recruitment to overcome unconscious biases. We also track diversity data through each recruitment round to identify where we can improve our processes and actively look for solutions to help our workforce become more diverse.
You can read more about our stance on diversity in the environmental sector on our blog. Our EDI statement can also be found here.
The overall findings of The RACE Report – which collected data from April to October 2023 – remained broadly consistent with the previous year’s report: 6% of employees identify as people of colour and other racially or ethnically minoritised groups within the environmental sector, compared with an average of 15% across the entire UK workforce.
Swift changes are needed to address this lack of representation and ensure the environmental sector reflects the diversity of the modern British workforce. However, the report suggests that a higher proportion of participating organisations have either fully or partially implemented inclusion-boosting initiatives over the past year compared with last year.
“It’s encouraging to see how much the sector’s engagement with racial diversity has grown in just one year,” says Manu Maunganidze, from The RACE Report team. “The more data we have at our disposal, the better equipped we are to shape best practice and ensure we are amplifying underrepresented voices in the fight for social and environmental justice.
“Each organisation who has come forward to contribute to this report has done a brilliant thing in voluntarily submitting their data. We now need to make sure that this engagement translates into more meaningful progress.
“That means reflecting on what the data tells us, but also really listening to the lived experiences of the individuals who power our sector. It’s only through having these difficult conversations, learning from each other, and implementing inclusive practices that we’ll ensure next year’s report tells a story of both an appetite for change and tangible improvement.”
About The RACE Report
Launched in 2022, The RACE Report is a UK-wide data transparency initiative aimed at encouraging environmental charities and funders to improve the racial and ethnic diversity of their workforce and governing bodies. It is the only study of its kind in the UK.
The inaugural report, released in December 2022, saw 91 organisations representing 7,900 employees submit data on the racial diversity of their workforce. The latest report, released today, sees a 56% increase in organisation participation and a 63% increase in the number of employees represented.