Let’s Talk About RACE

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This blog was written by Leigh Abbott, CIEEM’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Engagement Officer.

As I celebrate a year of working at CIEEM as the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Engagement Officer, I find myself reflecting on both areas of success and areas where more work needs to be done. 

One topic that I feel is always in the back of our minds is the ethnic diversity of the profession. A topic that we know needs our attention, awareness, and most importantly, action if we are to increase representation in our profession of the multicultural and ethnically diverse society in which we live.  

Ethnic Diversity in Ecology & Environmental Management

The Radical Action for the Climate Emergency (RACE) report gathers employment and volunteer data annually from participatory environmental organisations in order to measure racial equity. This helps organisations to identify gaps, to take accountability, and to measure their own progress but also enables us to measure progress as a profession. From the participatory submitted data of over 100 organisations, we can see that the environment and conservation professions are still amongst the least diverse in the UK, standing at 4.7% of staff identifying as people of colour or from an ethnic minority background compared to the UK employment average of 17%. However, what we can see is that organisations who have participated over the past 3 years in the RACE report, representation of people of colour has increased from 6.2% in 2022 to 8.4% in 2025. This demonstrates that when organisations participate and engage in action, real change can happen. 

Creating Change in Your Organisation

I often get asked how can I/my organisation create change, as many of the organisations and people I speak to want to act and have the ambition and drive to do so, but are at a loss with how to start/continue momentum. There are multiple answers for this, so I will highlight the specific actions we have taken in CIEEM to embed a culture of inclusion and belonging into all our work as we try and increase the diversity of our profession. Hopefully some of these you will be able to take away and implement yourself/into your organisation. 

Joining specific ethnic diversity initiatives, all of which are free:

  • RACE report– open to all environmental NGOs and funders, it means submitting your organisation’s data, contributing to a transparent sector-wide picture, and committing to take meaningful action based on the findings. There is also a section on staff perception survey, so you can gain insights into the culture of your organisation. 
  • Ethnic Diversity Route Map– does what it says on the tin! A route map and guidance manual to measure progress in ethnic diversity at your organisation. 
  • D&I Sustainability Initiative– collaborative programme of work with the vision to transform diversity within the sustainability profession and wider environment sector. We submit a form each year on our actions and join partner meetings for collaborations and support.  
  • Natural Catalysts– although CIEEM has not yet joined the programme, we are avid supporters of it and want to see a profession where people of colour/from an ethnic minority background are in senior and leadership positions in the sector. You can support too! 

CIEEM’s Vision and ED&I Data Collection 

As well as internal data collection via the RACE report, we also want to know how representative our membership is of the professional and of society as a whole and where we can take further action to increase diversity. As part of this, we… 

  • State our vision for diversity internally and for our profession on our website, where you will also find our transparency cards 
  • Conduct outreach- we created Green Jobs for Nature as a communications and outreach campaign to promote the breadth of green jobs for nature available to young people and career changers across the UK and Ireland. We highlight the diversity of people who work within different roles on our website and at our events, as well as going into career fayres and schools to promote the roles some may want to attain in the future. In addition, we hold ourselves accountable to our ED&I Steering Group of the campaign. 
  • Ask our members to submit their ED&I data via MyCIEEM. If you haven’t done so, do please submit! 

Now to Capture it 

To monitor our journey and to provide a visual representation of how inclusive, diverse, and equitable we are as an organisation, we use the Diversity & Inclusion Progression Framework. The free and downloadable excel sheet provides a step-by-step guide and actions to complete within different areas to progress onto higher levels.  

We understand that capacity is an issue across the profession, which is why we have decided to take collective responsibility and action, and I hope the above helps.  

We also understand that if you are a person of colour/from an ethnic minority, that networking support may be helpful, so below are some groups in which you can join. 

Minority Ethnic Support Groups for Those that Work in the Profession 

We are by no means perfect, and we are still learning, listening and collaborating. But, by taking action together, we can become a profession within which everyone belongs and feels represented. Wouldn’t that be a great achievement!