The UK’s leading conservation groups have launched a campaign designed to boost workforce diversity in the environmental charity sector, pledging to do more to make their organisations more inclusive to people from all backgrounds.
WWF-UK, Wildlife and Countryside Link, RSPB, The Wildlife Trust, CPRE, and the National Trust have signed up the Force of Nature campaign, which is being led by community charity Groundwork.
The organisations have pledged to establish an action plan to make their workforces more inclusive and diverse, adopt recruitment practices that proactively address the sector’s lack of diversity, and open up pathways for diverse talent by creating entry-level positions with prospects for career progression.
The environmental sustainability sector is among the least diverse fields in the UK, with a recent study finding that just 4.8 per cent of employees in the sector come from an ethnically diverse background, compared to an all-profession average of 12.6 per cent.
A separate study from the Race Report found that just seven per cent of people working in 91 environmental charity organisations were ethnically diverse, compared to an economy-wide average of 14 per cent.
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust, The Royal Parks, Zoological Society of London, and the Woodland Trust have also backed the campaign, which is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
On top of being crucial for social justice, boosting workforce diversity can help deliver better outcomes for an organisation, with various studies highlighting the link between a diverse workforce and innovation, productivity and performance.
Green groups and businesses have also faced repeated calls to try and boost recruitment of people from diverse backgrounds to help tackle the worsening skills crisis that threatens to undermine the net zero transition.
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