Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Environmental Health (EH)

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Environmental Health (EH)

By Ketan DattaniMarch 24, 2023Advice, Exclusive, Story

What is Diversity?

Diversity is recognising, respecting and celebrating each other’s differences. A diverse environment is one with a wide range of backgrounds and mindsets, which allows for an empowered culture of creativity and innovation.

What is Inclusion?

Inclusion means creating an environment where everyone feels welcome and valued. An inclusive environment can only be created once we are more aware of our unconscious biases, and have learned how to manage them.

What is Equality?

At its core, equality means fairness: we must ensure that individuals, or groups of individuals, are not treated less favourably because of their protected characteristics.
Equality of opportunity: we must also ensure that those who may be disadvantaged can get the tools they need to access the same, fair opportunities as their peers.
A survey into the environment sector has shown that out of 44 environment charities:

84% considered or were taking action over lack of inclusion
But only 4% had implemented an action plan to address this.

Earlier this month, Ketan Dattani (our CEO and founding owner of Buckingham Futures) participated in an ‘Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Webinar’ with the Chartered institute of Waste Management (CIWM) to address the lack of diverse ethnicities, ages, genders and religions in many organisations.
Ketan addresses the current situation in the environmental health sector.

What is Diversity, Inclusion and Equality to you?

“Growing up in a city like London meant that from an early age I was exposed to many different beliefs and ethnicity. Growing up in a diverse community has allowed me to see people for who they are without focusing on what religion they practice or what country they come from or what colour their skin is, something I am incredibly grateful for.
Sadly, a lot of people are not as fortunate. They live within socio-economic enclaves. This means that the majority of people they interact with are of the same ethnic background and share their same views.
As a result, some groups may not have been fully conscious of discrimination issues that have existed for a long time within minority communities and because these issues have not been dealt with in an open and honest way, they have inevitably reached a boiling point founded by years of inactivity, frustration and outright anger.”

Has the Environmental Profession become accepting of Diverse Backgrounds?

“The answer is clearly no, but recent research shows that only 4.8% of environmental professionals are from minority backgrounds making it one of the least ethnically diverse sectors in the UK.”

What is Buckingham Futures doing to action this?

“At Buckingham Futures, we celebrate the unique and diverse backgrounds that each individual brings to the workplace and we strive to create an inclusive work space where employees are appreciated for their individuality and therefore comfortable being their authentic self.
To attract a more diverse pool of candidates, I have consciously created a company that reflects this. An employer that shows inclusiveness and welcomes people from all walks of life will, by its very nature, attract people from all walks of life.
We have a completely unbiased, inclusive and equal interview process. All of my team are from different ethnicities and backgrounds. Having a diverse team (in age, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender) as a panel of interviewers helps establish that Buckingham Futures is inclusive and welcoming.
Potential candidates see how diverse we are and how important that aspect of my business is.”

Why is it so Important for a Business or Organisation to have a diverse executive team?

“For me it is a simple reason — we are more successful, we have more fun, and we make better decisions when we surround ourselves with people of diverse backgrounds and views.
Making Diversity and Inclusion a part of company culture has put Buckingham Futures ahead of the curve, and focusing specifically on my executive team has helped facilitate a top-down approach, so that it trickles through the entire business.
It communicates to staff that there is a pathway to leadership and shows them a concrete example of what it looks like.”

Are you optimistic that the Lack of Diversity and Inclusion can be resolved?

“It’s a difficult time, but yes, I am optimistic about getting to a place where the terms “inclusion” and “diversity” become functionally archaic because the process of equality is simply a part of every-day life.
For that to happen it’s important to recognize that we are all capable and responsible for being stewards of change.
We all have to work together. We have to be attentive. If we see something we believe is not right, we need to talk about it and not wait for things to get to where they’ve gotten.
Moving forward, we cannot build a new all-encompassing world with only a small fraction of humanity making all of the decisions. Progression needs to be inclusive.”

Could you share your 5 Steps We Must Take To Truly Create An Inclusive, Representative, and Equitable Society

“From a business owners’ perspective, I would say the five steps we must take are:

1. Walk the talk and spearhead meaningful changes at the workplace that allow minority talent to thrive and prosper.

2. Inspire others to support your vision. Nobody can make a significant change on their own.

3. Create opportunities for underrepresented people and identify ways to reach out to talent within underrepresented populations.

4. Create unbiased hiring and promotion criteria to ensure accountability in retention and promotion of a diverse workforce by putting measures in place that ensure you’re recruiting from a varied hiring pool and championing diversity in your hiring process.

5. Ensure to listen, learn and understand without judgement and to build stronger systems that are composed of the diversity and collaboration of people.”

What is your opinion on this topic? Are you doing more to be more inclusive of diversity?

Next Issue

Next week our Ricky Sharpe and Carl Steptowe are back to discuss the importance of hygiene ratings.

Ketan Dattani ~ CEO and Founding Owner of Buckingham Futures

Buckingham Futures HQ

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Give us a call on 020 8125 4321 or email your CV to info@buckinghamfutures.com and let’s have a chat!