Environmental Diversity writes about who gets to work in, lead and enjoy environmental work in the United States, and what it takes to widen that circle.
New here? Start with our annotated resources list or the landmark reports, explained in plain language.
People of color in the U.S.: about 4 in 10 residents at the 2020 Census, roughly 140 million people*
The year no single group is projected to be a majority of Americans: about 2045*
People of color on the staffs and boards of the environmental organizations studied in 2014: no more than about 16%, the so-called green ceiling**
Black Americans are about 40% more likely to live where heat deaths are projected to rise most with 2°C of warming***
Communities of color are about three times as likely as white communities to live in nature-deprived places****
* U.S. Census Bureau
** Dorceta Taylor for Green 2.0
*** U.S. EPA, 2021
**** Center for American Progress & Hispanic Access Foundation, 2020
“A movement that asks the whole public for support has to look like the public, listen like it, and be led by it.” ~ the editors
Our sections include:
Our brief on why conservation needs a broader base of support, the barriers that keep it narrow, and a checklist for land trusts and conservation groups that want to change.
Notes on an influential 2007 essay by a land-conservation executive, and what has and hasn’t changed since.
Most small nonprofit boards are built the same way. Someone on the board knows someone, that person joins, and a few years later the board is a group of…
Read the story: Recruiting a Board That Reflects Your Community: A Guide for Small Green NonprofitsOn a community garden plot in late summer you might find bitter melon climbing a chain-link fence, a stand of perilla gone to flower, yardlong beans hanging in…
Read the story: Seeds From Home: Immigrant Gardeners and the Craft of Saving SeedThe solar panels that lower your electric bill don't have to be on your roof. They might sit on a warehouse across the county, a closed landfill at the edge of…
Read the story: Community Solar for Renters: How It Works and What to Check Before You SignIn 1908, Congress set aside more than 18,000 acres within the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana as a refuge for bison, and for more than a century…
Read the story: Co-Stewardship, Co-Management and Land Back: A Plain-Language GuideFor most of the year, visitors to Zion National Park in southern Utah cannot drive their own cars up Zion Canyon Scenic Drive. Since 2000, when the park…
Read the story: Transit to Trails: How a Bus Ride Changes Who Reaches Public LandIn 2007, Felicia Marcus, then the chief operating officer of the Trust for Public Land, wrote an essay for a Yale collection on diversity and the future of the…
Read the story: Count Who Stays: Retention as the Real Diversity Metric in Environmental Work
