Voices from the Inaugural CC-P Summit: On Equity and Inclusion

In December 2021, the Association of Climate Change Officers (ACCO) hosted the 2-day inaugural Certified Climate Change Professional (CC-P®) Summit.  The event was a first-of-its-kind virtual, interactive event for CC-Ps and aspiring CC-P Candidates to collaborate on advancing our profession; advocate as a community of practice; and act together to advance equity and inclusion in our communities, workplaces, and in the CC-P program. The four program themes identified by the CC-P community of practice were:

• Advocating to Policy-makers and Business Leaders on Behalf of Our Field

• Developing Practice Standards and Elevating Our Capabilities to New Levels

• Increasing Awareness of the CC-P® Credential and its Value to Employers

• Incorporating Equity into the CC-P® Program and Driving Impact

Plenaries, panels and breakout discussions were organized to explore these themes over the two days with the purpose of identifying actions to advance the field in these focus areas. 

While equity had its own dedicated track, it was an important thread woven through all discussions at the Summit. A CC-P® Summit Planning Council, composed of a mix of representative voices, devoted substantial time on the agenda to address this very relevant topic. The Planning Council’s efforts were informed by ACCO’s Equity & Inclusion Charter, developed and adopted by the ACCO Leadership Council in December 2020.  According to the Charter, ACCO sees equity and inclusion in practice as: 

• Our field should be inclusive and representative of the world we serve.

• As professionals, we need to be aware of bias and exclusion and contribute to positive transformation.

• As a field, we need to recognize where climate change related issues intersect with equity and take action with specific interventions that contribute constructively to reduce climate change risks AND social inequities.

• We are change agents who should serve as catalysts for transforming inequitable systems.  

To share the insights discussed during the Summit on this focus area, ACCO invited CC-Ps who played a vital role in planning, speaking, or moderating at the Summit to share key takeaways in their own words.

Dorothy Morrison, CC-P, former Director of the Office of Environment in the Maryland Department of Transportation, served on the CC-P® Summit Planning Council and participated in the Equity and Inclusion Track.  She summarizes the overarching drive of these discussions on equity and inclusion and the challenge we share as climate change professionals, citizens of Maryland, and inhabitants of this planet: 

“All too often, when equity and inclusion matters are addressed in organizations, it comes down to conducting audits of the status quo and implementing fixes or corrective actions reactively and then moving on, as opposed to proactively taking a deeper dive and engaging in the sometimes-uncomfortable conversations to get to systemic root causes and co-curate lasting solutions with those whose input may have historically been absent. As climate change professionals, dealing with the all-encompassing nature of climate change impacts, which can be threat multipliers for some, we have the opportunity and responsibility to seek out diverse voices and weave equity considerations into our actions and decision-making processes to ensure that equity is treated not as a sidebar to our activities, but as an intentional and transformative necessity.”

Also serving on the CC-P® Summit Planning Council and participating as a moderator/speaker for the equity track was Wendy Howard, CC-P, the Executive Director of One Montgomery Green. Wendy offered her takeaways from discussions on incorporating equity into the climate change profession:

“When looking at what CCPs are doing now to include diversity in the practice we look to the tenets expressed in ACCO’s Equity & Inclusion Charter. We asked ourselves what we are doing to create leadership opportunities, diversify the field of practice, and drive greater inclusion. Much of the conversation during the equity panels focused on recruitment to diversify the pool of practitioners and leaders. Understanding and combating climate change is a job for everyone and CC-Ps should ensure that it should include representation from populations at risk. 

The work of diversifying the pool of practitioners, particularly in leadership roles, remains an important goal for CC-Ps and should be incorporated at the start of any project or initiative. The real question is how we do it. The work of sustainability and climate change professionals has received traction from where it started 10 – 20 years ago. There is greater awareness and increasing corporate social responsibility actions being made. It becomes crucial that the connections and networks include diverse leaders that bring companies and organizations together into meaningful partnerships to elevate and empower voices not often heard. This means looking at alternative channels to attract communities of color to the CC-P profession, working with leaders already engaged in equity practices, and making access to leadership positions effortless.  More needs to be done yet, and, as a community of practice, we should band together to elevate the profession by diversifying the pool of practitioners and leadership to be representative of the diversity of the population globally.”

Discussions at the Summit also addressed ways to more fully incorporate equity and inclusion into the CC-P program.  Rachelle Sanderson, CC-P, the Regional Watershed Coordinator for the Capital Region Planning Commission (LA), also served on the CC-P® Summit Planning Council and participated as a moderator/speaker in the Equity and Inclusion Track. She summarizes the key takeaways from these important conversations below: 

“During the inaugural Summit, CC-Ps discussed ways to incorporate equity into the program. Through a facilitated discussion, members thought that they could do this by: 

• Providing equity and bias training through ACCO that would focus on understanding community-level impacts as a result of climate change and include on-the-ground examples and impactful storytelling; 

• Incorporating equity into the continuing education credits (CE) by allowing CC-Ps to volunteer with justice-based frontline communities that experience the first and worst impacts of climate change and/or efforts in ways that provide capacity-building opportunities for that organization. Volunteering may look like: (1) supporting advocacy efforts; (2) assisting with assessments; (3) connecting organizations to direct resources (people, money, etc.); and (4) supporting grant writing. Ideally, this would replace the expectation for other categories of CEs that currently exist; 

• To best support frontline communities, we need to build authentic relationships that are built on mutual support rather than a one-off project or extraction of knowledge, resources, etc. Members would like to utilize and support good work where it is already occurring. Rather than coming into a community or organization with a project idea, understand the work of the entity and then understand how your skill sets and resources can support what is needed. One example of how this might be done is through coordination with Historically Black Universities and Colleges (HBCUs) working in frontline communities. 

• Prioritize diverse representation across all working groups, not just the equity working group.” 

A comprehensive list of the ideas shared and discussed in this session of the Summit can be viewed on this Jamboard.

As this is a publication for the Maryland Climate Leadership Academy, we also asked our contributors to highlight efforts in Maryland (in progress or planned) that exemplify a positive, proactive response to ensuring equity and environmental justice for all Marylanders. Informed by their part in CC-P Summit discussions and their own professional work, all of them referenced the establishment of a Climate Justice (CJ) Team for Maryland Climate Change Commission (MCCC) as a positive step forward with promising progress already made. 

“Climate change poses a significant threat to vulnerable communities with little adaptive capacity. Climate Justice (CJ) is an ethical imperative to protect the least abled from environmental and public health hazards resulting from the impacts of climate change,” offered Dorothy Morrison.

In 2021, MCCC Co-chair Charmaine Brown was chosen to lead a team of appointees that would serve as a steering committee for prioritizing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) into the MCCC’s working group membership, establishing Commission organizational processes to advance DEIJ, and incorporating DEIJ into climate recommendations to the state. Over the course of the last year, the CJ team addressed some of the most daunting climate issues facing Maryland. Highlights include:  

• Creating a compelling mission statement that would bring clarity to the CJ Team’s role and illuminate their obligation to stay true to its core purpose.

• Reaching out to trusted advisors in marginalized and underrepresented communities to establish positive relationships.

• Developing a database of organizations, including faith-based groups, that serve the communities that are the most vulnerable to  climate change impacts. 

• Recognizing the higher stakes and greater sense of urgency faced by some communities and making the commitment to provide continual effort to involve, engage, and include historically marginalized people in decision making and programming.

• Collaborating with HBCUs and community connectors who could be a source of information for Marylanders, like appearing on Howard University’s radio station to discuss resources available to Marylanders, such as financial resources for utility and energy efficiency needs.

• Hosting an Environmental, Social, and Governance webinar in partnership with Fannie Mae and the CJ Team.

• Participating in a Cultural Competency and Climate Justice Education Lab to better understand the fundamentals of inter-cultural competencies and identify ways to adapt our approach accordingly to fit the needs of a diverse state such as Maryland.

• Working to diversify Commission committees and working groups by attracting talent from higher education, the private and nonprofit sectors, and state government. 

According to its recent Annual Report, in 2022 the Commission will continue to ensure that an environmental and climate justice lens is used in all initiatives. The MCCC will embed principles of climate justice into reviews and recommendations and engage additional professional experts as needed.  They are committed to a continued collaboration with the Maryland Commission on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Communities (CEJSC) to advise and ensure underserved communities are given the assistance needed to prepare for and adapt to the impacts of climate change. And the Commission and its partners commit to explore and identify an intervention to address the intersection of urban heat, climate change, vulnerabilities, and environmental justice.

Other efforts in Maryland identified by Summit contributors include:

• Montgomery County Climate Action Plan: Racial Equity and Social Justice Workshop: The Climate Action Plan is Montgomery County’s strategic plan to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 80% by 2027 and 100% by 2035. The Climate Action Plan details the effects of a changing climate on Montgomery County and includes strategies to reduce GHG emissions and climate-related risks to the County’s residents, businesses, and the built and natural environment. The County held a two-part Racial Equity and Social Justice Workshop via Zoom on September 8, 2020 and September 15, 2020 with more than twenty community organizations spanning public health, economic development, environmental justice, civil rights, and religious areas. Workshop participants represented organizations that work with and serve vulnerable communities in the County, and participants were asked the questions outlined below, which the County CAP team developed.  This broadened engagement enabled the County to begin to identify existing blind spots and barriers to implementation, incorporate diverse voices and perspectives into the development of the CAP as well as start conversations with underrepresented communities that will continue through action development and implementation. Here is a link to a summary of workshop participant responses by question.  

• Engaging Faith Communities for Coastal Resilience (EFCCR) Project: This project is an effort led by Maryland Department of Emergency Management to work with faith-based communities as a means to reach and educate the public. The Engaging Faith Communities for Coastal Resilience (EFCCR) project builds upon previous work carried out by the Deal Island Peninsula Project (DIPP) to develop collaborative networks between rural coastal communities and government to address ongoing and future environmental impacts anticipated with sea level rise. Many rural coastal communities on the Maryland Eastern Shore are organized around the church and guided by a strong sense of faith, which plays an important role in leading community members through challenges and uncertainties. Yet, churches remain largely disconnected from government resources and assistance that could help support these communities when flooding, erosion, and storms interrupt or threaten community health and well-being. To address these gaps, this project draws upon the DIPP's collaborative learning approach -- in which all participants teach and learn from each other -- to engage church members and government decision-makers in developing adaptation projects that fit local needs and priorities in the face of ongoing and future environmental change. This project is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and led by researchers from the University of Maryland.

• Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI): Maryland is a member State of the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI), a regional collaboration of 13 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic jurisdictions that seeks to develop the clean energy economy, improve transportation, and reduce carbon emissions in the transportation sector. TCI jurisdictions received extensive input from a wide range of interested people and organizations on ways states could design and implement a regional low-carbon transportation program that advances equity and environmental justice. Informed by that input, TCI state officials proposed strategies to ensure that overburdened and underserved communities benefit from investments and reduced air pollution and have opportunities for meaningful engagement in shaping TCI commitments and implementation in the months and years ahead.

This is far from a complete list as there are many more examples and success stories in Maryland to highlight.  In the coming months, the Maryland Climate Leadership Academy will continue to share the good work Maryland is doing, and to engage our state’s climate professionals through this newsletter, a new Climate Academy ListServ, webinars, virtual town halls, workgroup meetings, and more.   

Despite our society’s current challenges conducting business in the midst of a global pandemic, the CC-P Summit offered a broad and interactive space to continue the conversations that shaped our community’s Equity & Inclusion Charter and work to identify how we can meet those commitments, collectively and individually. More specifically, and in the words of Dorothy Morrison, “the Summit provided a platform to hear from diverse participants with unique perspectives about next steps for advancing the call for equity and inclusion in meeting the challenges of climate change impacts. It enabled peer connections and ignited continued discussions post summit. It is always a good thing when you can forge partnerships to help amplify purpose-driven actions.”