Diversity, Equity, Belonging and Respect (DEBR) at Beyond Benign

Our Organization: Beyond Benign is fully committed to continuing and expanding our actions to support diversity, equity, belonging and respect in all that we do. Our organization advocates for green chemistry education, which is a key part of achieving a healthy and sustainable global future. However, we recognize that advocating for everyone to practice green chemistry, is not possible without consideration of the current discrimination and systemic barriers that affect members of the global chemistry community. We believe that making green chemistry accessible to all means practicing our work through a lens of diversity, equity, belonging, and respect. This means respect and engagement for everyone in our organization, along with ensuring equity in areas such as compensation, benefits and career growth and opportunities. Diversity, equity and belonging together result in a better and stronger organization.

Our Community: We are committed to integrating diversity, equity, belonging and respect throughout our internal and external programs – including our K-12, Higher Education, and Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community programs; our external-facing events, activities, presentations, and workshops; our open-access resources; and our online platform and presence. We acknowledge this means a commitment to continually and steadily changing aspects of our programming, such as ensuring better accessibility of our resources, and actively engaging with and uplifting underrepresented communities within our programs and events.

Our Commitments: We are committed to improving equity and justice throughout our organization. Part of how we intend to achieve our goals and objectives is by:

• Increasing representation of underrepresented groups within our organizational leadership and staff, and additional leadership positions, including intentionally reaching out to a diverse set of partners as leadership opportunities become available
• Uplifting our community through recognition and promotion of work from underrepresented community members and equitable compensation for all community members with whom we engage
• Seeking strategic partnerships with organizations and groups whose commitments to DEBR align with ours
• Continual progress to ensure equitable and responsible approaches to interweaving DEBR throughout our organization and programs through self-education and partnerships

We believe a more diverse community built on equity and respect, where members feel unconditionally accepted, will strengthen the community as a whole and improve the quality and impact of our collective work.