Environmental Defense Fund – Marinel Ubaldo – 2023

Goals

The Beyond Gas and Regulatory Solutions Team at Environmental Defense Fund is striving to diversify its consultant pool for impactful energy testimonies. Diversity and inclusion are vital for the legal and regulatory team, offering varied solutions to energy issues. 

Marinel Ubaldo was tasked to lead this effort, identifying barriers, exploring opportunities, and forming a comprehensive recommendation and pipeline development plan. A diverse consultant pool enhances effectiveness, prioritizing all voices and fostering progress through varied perspectives.

Solutions

Marinel approached this research through in-depth interview process and comprehensive literature review to identify these three main aspects:

• Key barriers to diversity in EDF’s clean energy consultant pool include underrepresentation, limited access to opportunities, and recruitment bias. It identifies challenges in consultant selection and networking.
• Revealing avenues for improvement (opportunities): enhanced outreach, diversity policies, education, and mentorship.
• The recommendations propose a comprehensive strategy, encompassing targeted outreach, inclusive recruitment, mentorship programs, partnerships, transparent reporting, education initiatives, evaluation, industry advocacy, and collaboration. The research recommends expanding EDF’s consultant network for higher-quality insights, strategies, and solutions, fostering innovation and broader perspectives in addressing clean energy challenges. EDF seeks to cultivate inclusivity, amplify representation, and contribute to a diverse clean energy workforce through these actions.

Potential Impact

Using a mixed approach of enhancing outreach and recruitment endeavors, implementing diversity and inclusion policies, fortifying education and training programs, and fostering mentorship, professional development, and connections with communities, EDF will be able to enhance its initiative to diversify its clean energy consultant pool, identifying barriers, collaboration prospects, and recommending network expansion for innovative solutions, enhancing EDF’s advocacy for equitable energy practices.

At the end, EDF will be able to shape the industry’s dynamics, cultivate inclusivity, and harness untapped talent, culminating in a cleaner, more equitable energy sector.