A campaign has launched to tackle the lack of diversity in the environmental sector, urging green charities to be more transparent on their inclusion and equality.

The call has come after research found that the environmental sector is the least diverse profession, with just 4.8% identifying as black, Asian or from any other minority ethnic group, compared to 12.6% of the working population.

The RACE Report (Racial Action for the Climate Emergency) campaign wants green charities to replicate a project among 40 not for profit environmental organisations in the US that saw reporting on staff diversity each year.

The campaign s wants to set up a standardised data collection method for UK environmental charities and their funders to assess and report on the racial diversity of their workforce and trustees each year.

This “will bring more transparency to the sector, enable peer learning and boost efforts to make the charities more inclusive and diverse”, states the campaign.

“We urgently need transparency on the racial diversity of individual organisations’ trustee boards and staff teams, and we plan to deliver that through the RACE Report, said campaign representative Manu Maunganidze.

“Without comparative data and evidence, the improvements will continue to be incremental and the sector and its funders will continue to fall behind in their stated aims to fight for social and environmental justice.”

So far more than 30 charities and funders have pledged to take part, including Greenpeace, British Trust for Ornithology, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Wildlife Trusts, Woodland Trust and The Zoological Society of London.

It is hoped that at least 100 charitable organisations will submit data in the first year.

Race Report is led by a partnership that includes Nature Youth Connection and Education, Hindu Climate Action, South Asians for Sustainability and SOS-UK.

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