The Case for Intersectional Sustainability

As the increasing effects of climate change continue to pummel our planet, causing all kinds of havoc and destruction around the globe, more and more of us are waking up to just how dire our future could become. Here in the US we’re starting to see a significant shift taking place as companies recognize the need for immediate changes in the way they do business on a national and global scale. While the urgency driving these changes has become undeniable, and it’s crucial that we act quickly, it’s also important to recognize that without a clear intention to be genuinely inclusive in our efforts, we run the risk of perpetuating many of the same systems that led us to this point in the first place.?

As a minority, female and veteran entrepreneur, I feel hopeful that we can shift toward a positive approach to lasting sustainability. My perspective is informed by the intersection of my identity, and the ways that it plays out in my life and my business. What I’ve experienced is common to people all over the world who are working just as hard as I am, with just as much determination to rise to the challenge of global climate change. That’s how I know that for a truly sustainable shift to happen, we need an intersectional approach.

The concept of intersectionality is becoming more widely understood in our cultural and political dialogue around issues of race, class, gender and sexual orientation (among other forms of discrimination). Being intersectional in our approach to these issues means that we take into account the overlapping effects that each of them has on an individual, and on groups of all kinds, as we work to create a more equitable society and culture. For example, it’s impossible to conceive of “solving poverty” without also looking at the concurring effects of sexism, racism and all other forms of oppression. Attempting to solve a particular problem in an isolated way has never been a sound method of change. Anything less than a full picture of how these systems intertwine and overlap in the lives of economically disadvantaged folks would render any potential solutions incomplete at best, and completely ineffective at worst.?

To engage with intersectionality, we need to get clear on what true diversity actually looks like. Someone recently asked me if I wouldn’t be happy until female entrepreneurs represented 50% of the businesses around the world. I didn’t know how to respond. Women-owned businesses currently make up about 40% of the small business sector in the US. Yet only about 2% ever cross the million dollar threshold. Minority-owned businesses make up only 18% of the entrepreneurial population. Learning these stats was daunting when I took the risk to become an entrepreneur. I quickly found out that this career path doesn’t come with a societal safety net for women or other diverse populations. Statistically we receive much less funding for our businesses than our white counterparts, and often have to work twice as hard to be taken half as seriously. Yet we’re still mostly left out of the rooms where crucial climate solutions are being designed and implemented.?

Because the global impact of large companies and global corporations is so great that even small changes can have a massive impact, they must prioritize intersectionality in their approach to becoming sustainable. Many well-known global companies have already made huge, public statements about their intentions to do things like becoming carbon-neutral by a certain date, or switching to fully sustainable materials in their packaging. While these efforts are certainly a good start, we’re starting to see some big missteps in the ways that these entities are putting their plans into action.?

Aside from the fact that by not actively working to include women and people of color as solution-makers to these problems they’re just perpetuating the same inequality that will disenfranchise a lot of people who could otherwise benefit greatly from their impactful climate solutions, there’s another issue at stake. Leaving any particular population out of sustainable solutions also ties that population to “leftover” options that contribute further to the original problem. Right now in America, many of the everyday sustainable lifestyle solutions available to consumers, such as organic food and electric cars, are beyond the reach of most of our population simply because they are unaffordable, especially to people of color who are more likely to be economically disadvantaged. This leaves only? industrial farming and fossil-fueled vehicles as options, both of which are categorically unsustainable. If global companies and corporations truly want to create more viable solutions they must be willing to implement them in ways that are within reach of every single one of us.?

A truly sustainable system includes and involves all stakeholders, at every level of power. This is the nature of healthy circularity, the balanced action that all effective sustainable systems require. If large companies and global entities can recognize this reality and put it into action they could help transform our future into something much brighter, with equality and sustainability for all.