Sectors meant to help make the world better should not be exclusionary and inequitable. In order to ensure the sustainability sector lives up to its mission, people of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and walks of life must have equal opportunities in the field.
We spoke with Marie Jurcevic, Co-Founder of Diversity in Sustainability, about how this organization is equipping BIPOC leaders with the network, resources, and support they need to accelerate our transition to a sustainable and just future.
Tell us about Diversity in Sustainability’s mission.
Our mission is to equip current and future Black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) sustainability leaders with the skills, networks, and resources to accelerate the transition to a sustainable and just future. We also aim to shift the wider ecosystem in sustainability to create an inclusive sector for underrepresented populations.
What inspired you to start Diversity in Sustainability?
Our organization was founded in 2020. At that time, waves of protests were sweeping the globe in support of racial justice, building upon decades of action on issues of civil rights and social and environmental justice. During this moment of reckoning, we turned the lens on ourselves as sustainability practitioners and thought about our own experiences in the sector. We realized that even as a sector that is trying to create a more just world, the people in the sector were not diverse and organizations were not equitable.
This conclusion prompted us to create the organization, and we also conducted some research in our State of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Sustainability Survey that validated this. We believe that it’s incumbent upon those of us who were able to break into the field to use our voice to challenge the status quo and create opportunities to live up to what this field is supposed to stand for, which includes diversity, equity, inclusion, and social and environmental justice.
What were some of the challenges you encountered?
One of our challenges is resourcing both from the perspective of time and finances. All three co-founders have day jobs, and we manage our organization on top of full-time jobs, other volunteer commitments, and young families. This also applies to our volunteers and Advisory Panel members, as the organization is volunteer-driven.
It’s also challenging for us to find and secure funding for our organization as our current governance structure limits our ability to access certain grants. We also want to ensure that we’re thoughtful about where our funding comes from so we’re not compromising the values of our organization; we seek to partner with like-minded organizations.
What do you consider Diversity in Sustainability’s biggest success?
We’ve managed to accomplish a lot over the past three years, and our achievements have been possible with the network we’ve built. Our organization has a network of about 5,000 people who are members of our Google group, our various social media platforms, and those who attend our events and support our work in various capacities — and all this has grown through word of mouth. This strong network of supporters has enabled us to continue to build the organization.
In addition, we’ve been amazed to hear back from people in the network about how it has helped them grow, find new opportunities, positively impacted how they hire, and connected previously disparate networks.
What makes Diversity in Sustainability unique?
What makes our organization unique is our focus. There are many organizations focused on sustainability and organizations dedicated to addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion, but there are only a handful that are doing both. As diverse sustainability practitioners, we’re proud to be taking a leadership role in fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion within our field of practice, and we also think that we are doing important work in cross-pollinating new concepts, organizing groups, and connecting people to new opportunities in many different geographies and of many different backgrounds.
How do you feel Diversity in Sustainability makes the world better?
We make the world better by fostering a sustainable world built through diversity, equity, and inclusion. BIPOC are disproportionately affected by social and environmental issues, yet our voices and perspectives are not often included nor are we part of critical conversations to address sustainability challenges. Our perspectives must be valued and integrated into institutions at every level, particularly at a time when societal systems and institutions are being rethought. Centring the needs and thoughts of the most vulnerable will help create the most resilient systems for all of us to thrive. It is our goal to ensure that diverse people and perspectives are advanced in our field.
How would the world be better off if it were more diverse, equitable, and inclusive?
There is a lot of great research on this question. First of all, creating an environment where diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the centre, underpinned by a sense of psychological safety, helps us make better decisions. These different viewpoints help us to understand different dimensions of problems. This has many benefits, including:
- Increased profitability: According to a McKinsey study, companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.
- Innovation: A diverse and inclusive workforce is crucial to encouraging different perspectives and ideas that drive innovation. A Boston Consulting Group study found that companies with more diverse management teams have 19% higher revenues due to innovation.
- Team collaboration and commitment: Workers in highly diverse and inclusive organizations tend to see a significant increase in team collaboration and team commitment.
- Employee retention: Employees at highly diverse organizations also reported a higher intent to stay than peers with lower levels of diversity.
- Enhanced decision-making: According to Cloverpop, inclusive teams were also found to make better decisions 87% of the time.
Tell us about Diversity in Sustainability’s goals.
Our goals are to contribute to a sustainable world and inclusive society by centring BIPOC voices in the mainstream, including BIPOC individuals within institutions at all levels, helping build a continuous pipeline of BIPOC talent, increasing opportunities for BIPOC practitioners, and working with non-BIPOC allies to contribute to enabling inclusive environments.
Are there any upcoming initiatives or projects you’d like to share?
We’d like to share more about our Inclusion Blueprint Dialogues. To provide a bit of context, in 2021, we conducted the inaugural State of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Sustainability Survey. The survey explored the demographics, barriers to entry and advancement, and individual experiences of those within the sector, as well as organizational support on diversity, equity, and inclusion for sustainability practitioners. It also highlighted the inherent privilege in the sector and the value of further discourse and conversation to drive concrete action on diversity, equity, and inclusion within the sector.
For example, 75% of survey respondents come from middle-class backgrounds or higher levels of social mobility, 62% have at least a master’s degree and 90% have at least a bachelor’s degree, and only 27% feel as though the leaders in their organizations are diverse.
Following the survey, we created the Inclusion Blueprints Dialogues. Building an inclusive sector of sustainability requires active participation from all corners of the sector. We are looking for those participants and partners who wish to inquire deeply, build empathy, and take bolder interventions in their professional roles and environments to create an inclusive sector. Through the Inclusion Blueprint Dialogues, we aim to work together to build a plan to get us there. The dialogues were formulated by assessing the life cycle stages of a sustainability professional — looking at youth, admissions, academics, career counsellors, recruiters, HR practitioners, and sustainability leaders of different backgrounds and examining key influences, inhibitors, and enablers to entry and advancement.
To learn more about this initiative please go to our website: Inclusion Blueprint Dialogues – Overview — Diversity in Sustainability. We’d love to have more people involved.
What do you most want people to know about Diversity in Sustainability?
We want people to know that our organization is here to support current and aspiring BIPOC sustainability practitioners. Our vision is to foster a sustainable and prosperous world built through equity and inclusion, and anyone that wants to support our efforts to achieve this vision is welcome to join us in whatever capacity they can. We encourage them to reach out to us to learn more about our organization.
How can people help or contribute to Diversity in Sustainability’s mission?
There are many ways to contribute to organization, which include:
- Volunteering for our organization – Please reach out to [email protected] if you want to learn more about volunteer opportunities with our organization.
- Donating to our organization – More information on how to donate can be found on our website: Donations/Sponsorship — Diversity in Sustainability.
- Attending our events, which include community calls and career series – We host quarterly community calls, which are an open forum for sustainability practitioners to learn from one another, share resources, and ask for career advice. We also host career series sessions where we profile BIPOC sustainability practitioners who work in various sustainability roles.
- Joining our Google group – We created this group as a space for current and future BIPOC sustainability professionals and allies to share resources and learn from each other, whether it is job/board/speaking opportunities, relevant events, and articles. To sign up and learn more about our Google group, please go to our website: DiS Google Group — Diversity in Sustainability. Currently we have around 2,500 members.
This story was featured in the Make The World Better Magazine:
