Elevating Equity

For Racialized Women and Non-Binary Climate Action Leaders

Research Overview

Funded by the Toronto Workforce Funder Collaborative, this research identifies the barriers and enablers that hinder and support the entry and advancement of mid-career racialized women and non-binary individuals in climate action leadership careers across Canada.

The goal of the project is to provide recommendations from a systems-change perspective, aimed at increasing support and creating more opportunities for racialized women and non-binary individuals in climate action leadership positions.

Elevating Equity Report Available for Download

Systemic barriers continue to limit opportunities for racialized women and non-binary individuals, making it harder for them to enter and advance their careers in the sustainability sector.

This report details enablers and barriers that this demographic faces and highlights how leaders, organizations, and the climate action sector can advance equity in climate leadership.

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The Problem

While progress has been made in integrating equity and inclusion into climate action and sustainability efforts, the field of sustainability practitioners in Canada remains predominantly homogeneous, with a majority of professionals being white and middle-class. This lack of diversity hinders the comprehensive and inclusive approach needed to address the complexities of climate change. ¹

Barriers to Entry

Exclusive networking spaces and reliance on existing networks limit access for racialized individuals
High credentialing, expectations of unpaid experience, and prioritization of Canada work experience
Intersectional discrimination

Organizational & Individual Entry Recommendations

Revise job descriptions
Consider relevant experience
Share salaries
Revise hiring processes

Sectoral Advancement Barriers

Dominant ways of thinking
Lack of mentorship, sponsorship and supportive caucused space
Lack of accountability structures
Limited funding of alternate organizations

Sectoral Advancement Recommendations

Resource peer support networks
Invest in racialized women and non-binary individuals’ organizational leadership capacity
Fund the not typically funded

Organizational Advancement Barriers

White supremacy norms
Organizational resistance to speaking about race/equity
Health cost of racism and adversarial workplaces
Unequal access to growth and training opportunities
Uncompensated labour expectations to support diversity and inclusion work

Organizational Advancement Recommendations

Embed equity commitments into policies, programs and practices
Evaluate workplace readiness
Honour and centre knowledge

¹ UNFCCC, 2022, Diversity Institute and FSC, 2022, Diversity in Sustainability, 2021

Project lead researcher

Meet Shagufta Pasta

Shagufta Pasta is a social planner, writer, researcher and emerging somatic practitioner based on the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people. She is a racialized, visibly Muslim woman with a disability/chronic illness that deeply shapes how she moves through the world.

Shagufta holds a Masters of Science in Social Policy and Planning from the University of Toronto, and a Certificate in Social Innovation from Simon Fraser University. Since 2019, she has run a consulting practice called Seriously Planning Consulting focused on helping organizations and individuals birth new ways of being through strategic advising, coaching, research and education.

She can be found most regularly writing a Substack newsletter titled “Practising Hope” where she writes about hope as a disciplined practice, grief, disability and chronic illness and the connections between somatics and social change.

Get in Touch!

If you have questions about this research or would like to see how we can work together, please email us at info@sustainableinnovation.academy

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