Our News

Image credit: The RACE Report

We’re very proud to have been a part of The RACE Report for the third year since its launch in 2022. We joined a record 161 organisations representing 28,600 employees across the environmental charity sector to submit data on the racial diversity of our team members.

What is the RACE Report? 

The RACE Report aims to boost transparency and encourage action amongst UK climate and environmental charities and funders when it comes to the racial and ethnic diversity of their workforce and governing bodies. As political landscapes evolve, the need for diverse representation in the climate sector remains crucial in ensuring that its work is inclusive and reflective of the communities most affected by climate change.

How were we involved? 

Involvement in the report is voluntary and requires the submission of data on the racial diversity of our organisation, from part-time team members to our Trust. This data is then collated and analysed to produce a report on the state of diversity within the sector.

The Carbon Literacy Project and other participating organisations also receive a transparency card, which maps out our data submission and shows progress in different areas, year on year.

We were one of 57 organisations to have submitted data for all three years of The RACE Report, helping to provide a valuable and consistent baseline for tracking racial diversity progress.

What were the overall findings? 

Despite more organisations being involved in 2024 and a rise in the number of larger organisations sharing their data, The RACE Report found that racial diversity in the environmental charity sector remains substantially below the UK workforce average, with 4.5% of staff across the sector identifying as people of colour and other racially or ethnically minoritised groups (POC), compared to 16% of the UK workforce nationally.

Whilst this figure is lower than the 6% recorded in 2023, the different, far larger sample size of this year’s survey means the two data points are not statistically comparable. Notably, the picture is more nuanced when organisational size is taken into account, with smaller organisations reporting far more diversity across the workforces.

When the percentage of staff in each ethnicity group across is averaged across all participating organisations, the results are more positive; with 11% of staff identifying as people of colour or from other ethnically minoritised groups. This highlights the journey some larger organisations still have to take to create more diverse teams and the longer timelines which may be involved in seeing these ambitions come to fruition.

Reflecting on our results 

Our data collection was done anonymously to protect the identity of team members and as a voluntary contribution. We had a 61% participation rate in 2024, slightly lower than the 70% rate in 2023. This difference can be somewhat explained by the fact our team almost doubled in size between these years, moving us from the ‘10-49 employees’ bracket to the ’50-249 employees’ bracket. However, we already have plans in place to improve participation in 2025 to get a clearer picture of the makeup of our organisation and what areas need improvement.

Nevertheless, we have seen an increase in the diversity of our staff, both permanent and non-permanent, when comparing our 2023 and 2024 transparency cards*. We have also continued our action to progress equality, diversity and inclusion, including incorporating additional measures into our HR processes. For example, we now routinely provide interview feedback to unsuccessful applicants who are people of colour and ask about issues relating to race equity and inclusion in routine exit interviews. We have also continued and thus ‘fully implemented’ our partnership with the 10,000 Black Interns programme to help create a talent pipeline for people of colour in the organisation.

We are pleased with the progress we have made as we continue striving to create an inclusive and welcoming environment. However, we know that we still have a long way to go in terms of improving the diversity in our team to be more in line with the representation of people who contribute to the UK workforce. There is also more action we can take on equality, diversity and inclusion, including the measures reported on our transparency card that are still in process, or we have not implemented yet.

Where do we stand now? 

Reflecting on the 2024 Report, Manu Maunganidze, from The RACE Report team, said:

“In just two years we’ve almost quadrupled the number of staff represented in The RACE Report. That’s a huge achievement. Each year we’re building a more complete picture of the state of play in our sector. We’re learning how diversity varies across organisations of different sizes, identifying the steps organisations are taking to improve inclusion, and uncovering areas where progress is still too slow.

“The more we uncover, the more we realise there’s still much work to do – but that’s not a setback, as long as we stay committed and grounded in why racial diversity matters in the first place. People of colour may be minoritised in the UK but, globally, they’re on the frontlines of climate change. Those most affected by environmental disasters – floods, wildfires, rising tides – are too often those who aren’t given a seat at the table. This is why representation is so critical.

“Each organisation that submitted data this year did so with the understanding that representation isn’t just a box to tick; it’s a fundamental part of making the environmental sector truly effective and just. We applaud them all for taking part. Of course, we want to see the representation numbers improve year on year, but to make those improvements, we need to stay plugged into reality – especially as places like the USA, often a global trendsetter, begin to roll back equity, diversity, and inclusion measures. The hard-fought progress we’ve made cannot be taken for granted, and we must remain committed to advancing inclusion in our sector.”

We’d like to thank everyone in The RACE Report team for their ongoing support. We hugely value being involved in the Report, as we know that measuring where we are currently at, versus where we need to be, is the only way we can better understand and improve, year on year.

*Find our transparency card and read the 2024 RACE Report in full at race-report.uk.