Diversity and the BES

It is our policy to ensure that no member, volunteer, potential author, award or grant applicant or recipient, job applicant or employee, visitor or event participant is disadvantaged or receives less favourable treatment because of factors including but not limited to: age; physical and mental disability; physical appearance; gender identity; marriage or civil partnership; pregnancy, maternity or paternity; race, nationality, religion and belief; gender; sexual orientation or socio-economic background.

Our commitment to address inequalities, published by our Equality & Diversity Working Group in June 2020, echoed the voices around the world saying Black Lives Matter. This statement expressed our support for the Black community, acknowledged that there is systemic under-representation of Black people in the ecological sciences and set out a series of questions we need to ask ourselves as a Society.

Everyone at the BES has a role to play in ensuring that individuals are valued, treated with dignity and respect and that discrimination does not occur. Every member of staff and the Board of Trustees are responsible for implementing relevant policies, objectives and working practices linked to equality and diversity to ensure equal opportunity at all stages of engagement with the BES.

We will identify, and invest in tackling, barriers to participation and create a culture in which equal opportunities and equal treatment are a priority for all members, staff, volunteers and others who engage with us.  We will proactively promote a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion within our discipline by:

• Using our Equality and Diversity Working Group (EDWG) to develop and oversee the delivery of the Society’s equality and diversity work.  Equality and diversity is something that should be embedded into every operation of the BES and the EDWG is responsible for ensuring that happens
• Planning and implementing a SMART programme of work to embed the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion into our current organisational policies, practices and behaviours, and enhance the equality of opportunity in our activities as an employer and as a learned society
• Assessing and reflecting on our progress annually and developing new programmes of activity to promote equality and diversity

Our reports on the work of the EDWG can be found below, under ‘Useful Documentation’.

If you have any queries or points you wish to raise about diversity and the BES, please contact Hazel Norman, our Chief Executive Officer or Karen Devine, our Director of External Affairs