On Thursday, September 14, 2023 Green 2.0 launched the Environmental Experts of Color Database featuring over 150 people of color who are experts on a wide array of environmental topics. The Database is intended to address a lack of diversity in Congressional expert testimony.
A 2022 survey by the U.S. House Office of Diversity and Inclusion found that 62 percent of NGO witnesses at House hearings identified as White. Only 38 percent of NGO witnesses at House hearings were non-White, with many hearings representing no speakers of color, even though climate change stressors and environmental justice disproportionately impact communities of color, according to the EPA’s Climate Change and Social Vulnerability in the United States: A Focus on Six Impact Sectors.
“Communities of color all over the country are disproportionately struggling with the compounding impacts of industry pollution and climate change, yet their experiences are too rarely heard in Congress,” said Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), House Committee on Natural Resources. “I thank Green 2.0 for their innovation and ongoing efforts to move us toward more representation in hearings about the environment, public lands, and climate change.”
Green 2.0’s Environmental Experts of Color Database extends the organization’s mission to increase diversity at environmental foundations and nonprofits, giving voice to the underrepresented in spaces where policy decisions are made that affect their lives.
“It is simply unacceptable that there are so few speakers of color in Congressional hearings when there are so many outstanding, exceptionally qualified experts of color in the environmental sector,” said Andres Jimenez, Executive Director of Green 2.0. “With this database, we’re making it as easy as possible to invite these experts to testify before Congress. Now, more than ever, there’s no excuse to exclude these voices.”Green 2.0’s Environmental Experts of Color Database has garnered widespread accolades and support from Congress and environmental groups. For more, please find the full press release here.
