Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion: CEE reports on 2023 efforts and progress
Today we share new reporting on CEE's progress toward greater diversity, equity, and inclusion, both internally and externally. In partnership with CEE's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council and others, CEE has produced this annual progress report for our own staff for four years now. This spring, we decided to post it publicly as well.
By design, this collaborative annual reporting pulls data from all our operations and program teams, essentially mirroring CEE's implementation of DEI-supportive policies and practices. As our Leadership Team and DEI Council drive, support, and track the work, our collective efforts are spread throughout CEE, with individual staff or teams held responsible for key strategies.
This year's report emphasizes CEE's community connections and external impact up front, followed by organizational culture and engagement, ongoing operational efforts, and our DEI Council's goals for 2024.
Together with our employees, our partners, and our community, CEE staff and board have long stood for justice and equity for all and opposed discrimination and racial injustice in any form. For decades, we've strengthened our work by partnering with people of diverse backgrounds and lived experiences in pursuit of our mission to discover and deploy energy solutions that strengthen our shared economy and improve our shared environment.
We rely on multiple perspectives and local wisdom to develop lasting, people-centered solutions that serve everyone. Our mission-driven efforts to save energy and cut carbon align behind healthy communities and an energy economy with cost-effective, practical pathways to prosperity for all. Since 2020, our DEI Council has helped inform and guide our work toward equity and inclusion, both internally among our colleagues and externally across the fields and regions in which we live and work.
For companywide engagement and accountability, we embrace the philosophy that our efforts are strongest when they live everywhere. And as a science-based nonprofit that actively embraces experimentation, experience-informed learning, and constant improvement, we also know that commitment matters, but it is our actions that drive real change.
As individuals and teams, we still have a lot to learn and much more to do. We're not yet where we want to be in terms of external relationships and internal culture-building, but we're developing a clearer shared sense of what those targets look like and how to get there.
With DEI initiatives under attack in higher education and elsewhere around the U.S., we're posting this report because we want CEE's efforts toward an equitable energy system to be visible and hold us accountable for action. We share our commitment with peers and partners to enhance transparency and to underscore our promise to keep making progress.