Articles
"Diversifying the American Environmental Movement"
As the nation continues to diversify, the environmental movement is left with one of the greatest challenges it will face this century. In order to become an influential and sustainable movement for generations to come, it needs to successfully address its diversity crisis. In this essay, the authors, Marcelo Bonta and Charles Jordan, analyze the problem, acknowledge past and current diversity efforts, provide a comprehensive and strategic approach to diversifying, and stress the importance of diversifying in the right way. They provide action-oriented solutions at the movement, organizational, and individual levels. This chapter was featured in the book, Diversity and the Future of the U.S. Environmental Movement.
"How to Diversify Environmentalism? The Movement's Greatest Challenge is Its Own Lack of Diversity"
Published in Grist Magazine, the Center for Diversity & the Environment's Director, Marcelo Bonta, describes a comprehensive strategy that emphasizes cultural change and action oriented solutions.
"Diversifying the Conservation Movement"
Authors, Marcelo Bonta and Charles Jordan, share their strategy for diversifying the conservation movement. This article was featured in the Land Trust Alliance's Special 25th Anniversary Issue.
"In Oregon and U.S., Green Groups are Mostly White"
"In the mainstream green movement, being any color but white can be a little lonely. Take it from Marcelo Bonta, who's half Filipino. He got a job with the Portland office of a wildlife nonprofit, then began going to national environmental conferences. 'I'd see only one or two or three people of color out of 100 to 200 people in the room,' he says. 'I felt like I'd stepped back a few decades, if not more, in terms of race and ethnicity...
"Diversification, Minorities, and the Mainstream Environmental Movement"
Written in the early 1990s by Charles Jordan and Donald Snow in the book, Voices from the Environmental Movement, this piece is one of the first to address in detail the lack of diversity in the environmental movement. Much of the issues and information presented applies to the movement over fifteen years later.
Mainstream Environmental Organizations Could Benefit by Hiring Qualified, Interested Minority Candidates with Environmental and Engineering Degrees
A study conducted by University of Michigan's Dorceta Taylor shows that many students of color with environmental backgrounds prefer to work for mainstream environmental organizations upon graduation. With only 14.6% of the staff of these organizations being people of color and 35% of these mainstream groups not having people of color working for them at all, there is a huge gap between the willingness of people of color to work for these groups and the hiring practices of mainstream environmental organizations. Taylor's full article, "Employment Preferences and Salary Expectations of Students in Science and Engineering,” appears in the February 2007 issue of BioScience (Vol. 57, No.2).
"A Personal View on the Importance and Imperative of Diversity Work "
Mainstream environmental and conservation organizations have been talking about the importance and challenge of “diversity” for years now without tremendous progress. A sincere and sophisticated approach to diversity is essential to the current success and future relevance of the movements. The author gives both a personal and organizational perspective on the subject as an incentive to action and some thoughts on making that action effective. Her personal experience in diverse working environments leads to a heartfelt belief in the importance of diversity work for the land conservation movement as a whole and for individuals. One organization’s early efforts are described as an example that may be accessible and instructive to others. This chapter was featured in the book, Diversity and the Future of the U.S. Environmental Movement.
Grist Magazine's Poverty & the Environment series
www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/02/13/pate/index1.html
A seven-week series of articles devoted to examining class and socioeconomic status as they relate to environmentalism and the environmental movement. Authors include Francis Beinecke, Eric Mann, Robert Bullard, Sheryll Cashin, Na'Taki Osborne, Matthew Klingle, and Tomasita Gonzalez.
"Global Warming is Colorblind: Can We Say As Much for Environmentalism?"
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/462/
Author, Jennifer Oladipo, shares her perspective working as a black woman at an urban nature reserve in Louisville, Kentucky. She provides insight into the scarcity of people of color in the environmental movement and why environmentalism needs to expand its "mostly white and well-off" base of supporters.
"Rainbow Warrior"
www.grist.org/comments/soapbox/2005/03/15/brown/index.html
Adrienne Maree Brown, "a young woman of color who doesn't do environmental work for a living," discusses how the environmental movement does not resonate with the urban masses and provides fresh approaches to become a more appealing and successful movement.
"All Our Shades of Green: Discovering Northwest Environmentalists- of Color "
A Colors NW Magazine cover story that focuses on environmentalists of color who are making a difference in their communities and the environmental movement in the Pacific Northwest.
"How Propositions 40 and 45 Fared Among Voters"
A 2002 Los Angeles Times exit poll for a proposition that calls for a $2.6 billion bond issue to improve water quality and preserve open space in California revealed 77% of African Americans, 74% of Latinos, and 60% of Asians (while only 56% of Caucasians) approved the measure.
"Assumption is wrong- Latinos care deeply about the environment"
cjtc.ucsc.edu/docs/op-ed_AssumptionIsWrong.pdf
Authors, Manuel Pastor and Rachel Morello-Frosch, site compelling evidence that Latinos care strongly about environment issues, including pollution, sprawl, and habitat conservation issues, and at a degree higher than non-Latinos.
"A Latino Shade of Green"
In a Natural Resources Defense Council blog, Author, Alba Garzon, dispels assumptions of misdirected green marketing approaches to Latinos.
"Poll Finds Latinos Concerned About California's Oceans and Beaches"
An article that provides results of a Public Policy Institute of California poll. The poll shows Latinos supporting environmental issues at a higher rate than non-Hispanic whites. Issues include coastal protection, worry about fish contamination, and weighing the importance of the environmental platform of political candidates in determining their vote.
African American concern for the environment- Dispelling Old Myths
www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1076/is_5_45/ai_102681078
Author, Paul Mohai, presents both statistical and anecdotal evidence that African Americans care about the environment. On many issues, such as protection of open space and national parks, African Americans rated their concern at the same level as their white counterparts. On other issues, such as rain forest extinction and the greenhous effect, African Americans showed higher concern.
"Blacks Deserve More Ink in Green Coverage"
www.blackenergy.com/Article134.phtml
Author, Van Jones, provides a number of examples of African Americans in environmental leadership positions and calls for environmental media coverage to start showcasing the full spectrum of diversity in their stories and images.
"Genessee County Conservation Leadership Coucil to Draw Diverse Groups into Conservation Efforts"
"Not long ago, community leaders turned out in droves to hear about the need to bring more people of color into Flint's environmental movement. It turns out they were actually listening..."
"African-American Campers"
An article describing the lack of African-Americans who visit Washington state parks, some reasons why this happens, and how the State Parks and Recreation Commission is trying to resolve the problem through its Diversity Camping Program
Roger Di Silvestro, National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) in Dispatches, a section of Grist Magazine
www.grist.org/comments/dispatches/2003/01/16/silvestro/index.html
Author, Roger Di Silvestro, describes NPCA's Diversity Program and reminds readers that national parks are for "all" people and efforts should be made to attract non-traditional users (i.e., people of color). "NPCA's goal is to shape a National Park System in which all Americans can feel at home."
"Lebron James Helping Kids Save the Planet"
Lebron James has teamed up with Nickelodeon's The Big Green Help, a campaign designed to explain climate change to kids and to empower them to take action.
Organizations
Green For All
A national organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. By advocating for local, state and federal commitment to job training, job creation, and entrepreneurial opportunities in the emerging green economy – especially for people from disadvantaged communities – Green For All fights both poverty and pollution at the same time.
Verde
An organization that seeks to improve the economic health of disadvantaged communities by creating environmental job training, employment, and entrepreneurial opportunities, fostering the connection between economic vitality and environmental protection and restoration.
Center for Whole Communities
An organization that creates a more just, balanced and healthy world by exploring, honoring, and deepening the connections between land, people and community. It identifies a new land movement that integrates conservation, health, justice, spirit and relationship. Through its programs, Measures of Health, Whole Thinking Forums, and Vision and Values Workshops, the Center strives to reframe values, redefine success, and rejuvenate activists.
Sustainable South Bronx
Founded in 2001 by Dr. Majora Carter, this organization addresses land-use, energy, transportation, water and waste policy, and education to advance the environment and economic rebirth of the South Bronx and inspire solutions in areas like it across the nation and around the world. Its mission is environmental justice through innovative, economically sustainable projects that are informed by community needs.
Redefining Progress
A policy institute that develops solutions to help people, protect the environment and grow the economy. They partner with grassroots communities, labor unions, policymakers, businesses, and academics to shift the economy towards sustainable growth.
Black Family Land Trust
An organization working to ensure, protect, and preserve the natural, historic, environmental, and community resources of African Americans in the United States of America through land ownership.
Environmental Leadership Program
An organization that inspires visionary, action oriented and diverse leadership to work for a just and sustainable future. It nurtures a new generation of environmental leaders characterized by diversity, innovation, collaboration, and effective communications.
National Hispanic Environmental Council
An organization that seeks to educate, empower, and engage the Latino community on environmental and sustainable development issues; encourage Latinos to actively work to protect the environment; provide a national voice for Latinos; and assist Latinos to pursue careers in the environment and natural resources field.
Environmental Justice & Health Union
An organization that identifies tools to help environmental justice activists and environmental health professionals work together to stop environmental disease in low-income communities of color in the United States.
Organizational Diversity
"Mission Critical: A New Frame for Diversity and Environmental Progress"
The values and vision of environmentalism, diversity, and inclusion are
inextricably linked. In the 21st century, the ability of environmental
organizations to catalyze a positive common future for all people,
beings, and places will depend on the commitment of leaders and
organizations to make these explicit, intentional connections in every
facet of their work. Diversity, inclusion, and cultural competence need to
become major priorities at the organizational level if environmental and
social change movements are to marshal the innovation, creativity, and
expansive reach necessary to handle the complexity and scope of
environmental challenges. Organizational and movement-wide impacts
are at risk if diversity is not seen as mission critical. This chapter was published in the book, Diversity and the Future of the U.S. Environmental Movement.
Environmental Stewardship for the 21st Century: Opportunities and Actions for Improving Cultural Diversity in Conservation Organizations and Programs
www.naturalresourcescouncil.org/ewebeditpro/items/O89F3675.pdf (Part I)
www.naturalresourcescouncil.org/ewebeditpro/items/O89F3677.pdf (Part II)
A survey of diversity activities, including internal organization representation, recruitment, outreach, and partnerships, of Natural Resources Council of America group members.
Cultural Diversity in Conservation Organizations and Programs
www.naturalresourcescouncil.org/ewebeditpro/items/O89F5307.pdf
Follow-up survey to the Natural Resources Council of America's Environmental Stewardship for the 21st Century: Opportunities and Actions for Improving Cultural Diversity in Conservation Organizations and Programs report.
Outreach
Building Relationships with Communities of Color: The Western States Diversity Project
Pyramid Communications and The Nature Conservancy conducted surveys and discussion groups among people and organizations of color in Washington, New Mexico, and Colorado with the intent of developing a strategy for increasing partnerships with communities of color. Through analysis of the information collected and the shifting demographics of the western U.S., the authors identified the need for the conservation community to successfully work with communities of color and provided effective outreach strategies and tools.
Guide to Alaska's Cultures
www.akcf.org/pdf/culturalguide.pdf
Authored by the Alaska Conservation Foundation (ACF), this report documents Alaska’s rich cultural diversity, creates a new learning tool, and addresses the need for cross-cultural collaboration and understanding in the conservation field.
Partnerships
Diverse Partners for Environmental Progress
www.partnersforenvironmentalprogress.org
National Summit 2005 (click here to read report)
Western Regional Roundtable 2007 (click here to read report)
This partnership grew from a historic conversation in 2005 at the first national summit held in Wakefield, Virginia. A historic conversation of more than 90 leaders from public health, conservation, faith-based, environmental justice, park and recreation, youth serving, social justice, and community organizations that came together to address the challenges of working together across racial and other barriers and to begin to heal some of the misunderstandings of the past. Since then, a series of regional roundtables and national summits have continued the dialogue, carried out action-based solutions, and built upon the progress of the previous gatherings.
Soul of Environmentalism
www.soulofenvironmentalism.org
Nine economic, environmental, and social policy leaders provide a perspective on the role and connectivity of environmental and progressive movements today. They discuss the crucial importance of race and class in the environmental movement.
Green Industry Career Pathway
www.eagleeyeinstitute.org/Programs_GreenIndustry.html
A collaborative effort among Eagle Eye Institute, YouthBuild U.S.A. and The Trustees of Reservations, the transformational program bridges interested YouthBuild students to careers in arboriculture and the green industry.
Coalition for a Liveable Future
This organization unites over 90 diverse organizations and hundreds of individuals to promote healthy and sustainable communities. By connecting issues, people and organizations, this partnership empowers communities to take action together to shape the big decisions affecting the Portland region’s future.
Asian American Environmental Partnership
This partnership is a non-profit organization dedicated to increase awareness and understanding of environmental issues in the Asian American community by building partnership and inspiring diversity in leadership. AAEPUS.ORG serves the environmental professional field and educates the public about environmental topics that concern the lives of Southern Californians.
Wildlife Conservation Society, Hoopa Valley Tribe, and the Pacific Fisher
www.wcs.org/international/northamerica/pacificwest/HoopaFisher
A collaboration between the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Hoopa Valley Tribe to examine and protect the Pacific fisher on tribal lands.
Projects
Regional Equity Atlas Project
www.clfuture.org/projects/atlas/aboutatlas/document_view
Using data from maps, the purpose of the project is to advance equity - the right of every person to have access to opportunities necessary for satisfying essential needs and advancing their well-being - as a key component of the Portland metropolitan region's development. The project involves a number of partners, including the Coalition for a Liveable Future (and its over 90 member organizations) and Portland State University's Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies (IMS) and Center for Population Research. Sprawl is ultimately more costly for everyone, including the poor, than growth management done right. This project helps to address how to distribute the burdens and benefits of growth more fairly, and how to use growth management strategies to reduce inequities in the region. It will especially help develop new ways of planning for people, not just places.
Conservation Based Affordable Housing (CBAH)
www.resourcefulcommunities.org/CBAH (Arendt's NC sites)
www.conservationfund.org/node/225 (Report on Conservation Based Affordable Housing)
Randall Arendt, renowned landscape architect, developed conservation based affordable housing plans for three North Carolina sites. He met with local community development corporations working to develop affordable housing. Funded by a Clean Water Management Trust Fund grant, Arendt's site designs create high quality neighborhoods by preserving open space and protecting critical natural areas, while minimizing cost.
Building Capacity Through Diversity Project
A project that sought to foster a more diverse and inclusive grassroots movement around health, housing, land use, and environmental justice. Participants engaged in a series of anti-racist, anti-oppression trainings to examine the barriers that exist among their communities and in their work.
Boston Environmental Diversity Collaborative
www.elpnet.org/bostoncollaborative.php
An initiative that provided training, consultation, opportunities for dialogue, and peer mentoring among Boston-based environmental groups that wanted to substantively integrate diversity into their operations to increase organizational impact and effectiveness.
The Koi Group's Environmental Resources
www.koigroup.com/environmentalsites.html
www.koigroup.com/environmentalsites/diversepartnersforenvironmentalprogress.html
The Koi Group specializes in cultural change initiatives and building multicultural collaborations, staff and organizational development, group/meeting facilitation, and team building. Its clients include a variety of environmental organizations, and its website includes diversity resources for environmental audiences.
Programs
Latino Issues Forum's Sustainable Development Program
www.lif.org/display.asp?catid=3&pageid=13
Through this program, Latino Issues Forum works to ensure that all members of California's present and future generations have access to a healthy environment, economic prosperity and social well-being.
The Conservation Fund's Resourceful Communities Program
www.resourcefulcommunities.org
The Conservation Fund's Resourceful Communities Program blends innovative techniques to help North Carolina's underserved communities create new economies that protect and restore, rather than extract, natural resources. The program provides a range of direct assistance to develop the leadership and organizational capacity necessary for sustainable community development. Because Resourceful Communities works closely with local partners, including nonprofit, private and public concerns, we help ensure local ownership of long-term economic, social and environmental change.
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights' Reclaim the Future Program
ellabakercenter.org/page.php?pageid=5
A program of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Reclaim the Future creates opportunities in the green economy for poor people and people of color through policy advocacy, public outreach, and the employment pipeline- the Green Job Corps.
Trust for Public Land's Tribal & Native Lands Program
www.tpl.org/tier3_cdl.cfm?content_item_id=1180&folder_id=217
This is a program devoted to working with tribal communities to acquire and protect their ancestral homelands. It expands partnerships with tribes to assist them in reversing a history of dispossession and meeting their land conservation, natural resource restoration and cultural heritage objectives by getting land directly under tribal ownership and stewardship, or under public ownership where tribal values can be protected.
Educational Pipeline
"Class Notes: Thoughts on Diversity in the Classroom & in Environmentalism’s Past"
Diversity remains an ongoing experiment for environmental
organizations, but efforts to achieve diversity often begin much earlier,
in the college classroom. Here, too, prospective environmental
professionals tend to be overwhelmingly white and affluent. The author, Mathew Klingle, analyzes the connections between diversity and higher education in North America with a focus on the history of environmentalism and its antecedents. Interweaving personal experience with historical analysis, Klingle concludes that creating and sustaining diverse communities of students and faculty is not enough. Educators instead need to teach how environmental problems are insoluble absent diverse disciplinary approaches, from the sciences to the arts and humanities. This chapter was publishe in the book, Diversity and the Future of the U.S. Environmental Movement.
Minority Environmental Leadership Development Initiative (MELDI)
A University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment project that aims to enhance the leadership and career development opportunities available to students and environmental professionals of color.
Environmental Learning for Kids
An organization tha offers science and conservation education, with consistent long-term mentoring by natural resource professionals, to culturally diverse urban youth and their families to ensure they become natural resource stewards.
Outward Bound Adventures
An organization that provides nature-based education that promotes positive self development, environmental responsibility, and outdoor career exposure for at-risk, low income and urban youth
Eagle Eye Institute
An organization dedicated to developing and disseminating innovative environmental education programs that transform the lives of urban youth through hands-on exploratory learning on the environment and career bridging to natural resource fields. Since its inception in 1991, Eagle Eye Institute's programs have worked with more than 3,500 multi-ethnic youth.
Diversity in Outdoor/Environmental Education
aeoe.org/resources/diversity/index.html
An annotated list of diversity resources in outdoor and environmental education housed on the Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education's website.
Association for Environmental Health Academic Programs (AEHAP)
AEHAP promotes and enhance environmental health education to assure the optimal health of people and the environment. AEHAP has emphasized working with minority-serving academic institutions to develop environmental health curricula and programs.
Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS)
A national society that welcomes membership of people of all racial and ethnic group participation in agricultural and related sciences careers. It promotes academic and professional advancement by empowering people of color in agriculture, natural resources, and related sciences.
Metcalf Institute Diversity Fellowships in Environmental Reporting
www.metcalfinstitute.org/fellowships/diversity.htm
Fellowships offered to traditionally under-represented journalists of color interested in studying marine and environmental science and developing environmental reporting skills. Fellows take part in a one-month independent study at University of Rhode Island followed by a nine-month reporting assignment at one of five news outlets. The fellowships are supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Environmental Justice
Principles for Environmental Justice
Guiding principles for environmental justice work that was created at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991
Changing the Social Climate
A conversation between Michel Gelobter, Executive Director of Redefining Progress, and Catherine Lerza, Senior Philanthropic Advisor at the Tides Foundation, about global warming as it relates to economic and social justice (a Tides Foundation publication)
Asian Pacific Environmental Network
An organization that empowers low-income Asian Pacific Islander communities to achieve environmental and social justice
Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice
An environmental justice organization that brings together activists and grassroots organizations from across the Southwest, West and border states of Mexico
Indigenous Environmental Network
An organization that addresses environmental and economic justice issues that affect Indigenous Peoples in North America and globally