Posted on 5/2/2009

On March 10th 2009, the New York Times published an article by Miraya Navarro entitled Looking to Add Diversity in Environmental Push. A link to the article can be found below:

New York Times - Looking to Add Diversity in Economic Push

Bridge Partners LLC composed a response to the article, which can also be found below:

The business case for senior level diversity leadership in any organization revolves around the same four key constituents: investors, employees, customers, and the community.

In Bridge Partners LLC’s experience, the majority of clients that we meet with who have a need to diversify their senior management team have two key motivators – their employee-base, and the customers/communities they serve.

Today, more than ever, these same motivators apply to the need to diversify the senior leadership teams of the national environmental organizations mentioned in this article (and, of course, others that are not mentioned):

- Effective diversity recruitment has become a crucial in the war for talent, providing companies with access to the broadest possible pool of high-caliber candidates, and positioning national and international businesses as Employers of Choice for both majority and minority groups. Once hired, a diverse workforce and leadership team is also a powerful retention tool. With a focus on “green jobs”, issues of recruitment, retention and employer branding are key, particularly as research suggests that a diverse employee-base is also seen as an increasingly important factor in improving employee engagement and corporate performance.

- With an employee base that more accurately reflects the communities they represent, environmental organizations will be better-able to develop a deeper understanding of the diverse needs and beliefs of their end users, as well as an increased richness of ideas.

With such a clear business-driven imperative, it is disheartening to understand that little progress has been made to increase minority representation in senior leadership within the environmental sector, until fairly recently.

We believe that what might be missing with regard to diversity is touched upon in this article - a clear vision of inclusivity that is driven by a business case, is sincere, and is oriented toward the long-term. If diversity is being sought solely for the sake of diversity, rather than an economic (or environmental) imperative, it is always going to be more challenging.

Then again, increasing diversity throughout an organization is a lon-term commitment, not a goal to be achieved overnight. It involves stepping outside of one’s “natural network” and proactively soliciting new talent or participants. In order for environmental organizations to attract passionate and diverse executives, they will have to first examine their intentions toward increasing diversity and communicate them clearly to potential/future employees….and ultimately to the communities they serve.

Keywords: diversity, environment, environmental, recruitment, retention, business case, community, employees