Half as many people from ethnic minorities work in the environment charity sector in the UK as do proportionally across the general workforce, research has found.
Just 7% of people working across environmental charities identified as people of colour, compared with 14% in the workforce at large, according to the data from the Racial Action for the Climate Emergency (Race) report campaign.
The campaign believes the research to be the most comprehensive of its kind after 91 organisations, representing a workforce of 7,948 people, voluntarily submitted anonymised data on the racial diversity of employees.
“We’re still a long way from making our sector truly representative. But we have something we were desperately lacking before: comparative data and evidence,” said Manu Maunganidze from the Race report team.
“With this, organisations can hold themselves accountable against their stated aims, identify areas of underperformance, and make the necessary strides to improve diversity as part of a coordinated effort.”
Launched in April, the Race report is intended as an annual temperature check of diversity among environmental charities. Organisers intend the report to be repeated every year.
This year, as the inaugural report, data is anonymised to give organisations an opportunity to respond. However, in future years the names of organisations will be published to encourage them to improve diversity among employees.
Much work is yet to be done. Lack of representation was worse higher up work hierarchies, with people of colour making up only 5% of workers in managerial roles, the report found.
Despite a lack of representation among staff, the environmental charity sector exceeded expectations in other areas: 11% of trustees were people of colour, compared with an average of 8% across the broader charity sector, according to data from 62 environmental organisations.
Many organisations were also implementing diversity-boosting initiatives, and more than half indicated they either have or will soon have spokespeople or patrons that include people of colour.
