Race, inclusivity and environmental sustainability

Research has shown that the environment profession is amongst the least diverse occupations in the UK.  We've worked with IEMA and The Equality Trust to find out more.

In 2017, the think tank Policy Exchange attempted to measure the extent of ethnic diversity across occupations in England and Wales, finding that ethnic diversity has been unevenly distributed across different sectors and that ‘environment professionals’ were the second least diverse profession in the UK.  In response to this finding, NUS, IEMA and The Equality Trust  formed a partnership with the intention of shedding further light on the findings of the Policy Exchange’s analysis through further research.  The project has sought to consider two perspectives: 

• Further detail on the diversity of organisations working across the environment sector, including ‘environment professionals’ but also those working for organisations focused on achieving environmental sustainability.
• Insight into the perceptions of the sector amongst future potential employees (students currently in higher and further education) to understand where different experiences and view exist according to ethnicity.